How to conduct a Twitter audit to improve your brand’s presence

Is it time for a Twitter (rebranded as “X”) audit?

Recent social media demographics highlight that the platform is as active as ever.

That’s because Twitter remains a prime place to promote content, make announcements and communicate with your audience.

But without as much buzz as platforms like Instagram or TikTok, many company Twitter accounts are gathering cobwebs.

So if you haven’t touched your bio or changed your pinned Tweet in a few years, now’s the perfect time to put your Twitter presence under the microscope.

Below we break down how to conduct a Twitter audit to improve your profile’s presentation and performance.

What is a Twitter audit?

Think of a Twitter audit as a wellness check of your company’s account, focused on high-level details like:

• How well your Twitter content and promotions align with your social media goals
• Whether your account is actually earning followers and engagement from your target audience
• Benchmarks for content performance and key KPIs (think: interactions, response time, Twitter traffic)

The purpose of a Twitter audit? Like other social media audits, a Twitter audit is done to uncover any potential issues with your account while assessing what’s working and what’s not.  If you’re trying to get more followers on Twitter, an audit can quickly clue you in on low-hanging opportunities to reach your audience.

And if nothing else, an audit is an easy way to ensure that your brand’s Twitter messaging and branding are all up-to-date.

How to conduct a Twitter audit

The good news? Conducting an audit doesn’t have to take long.

Sure, you can speed up the process and go deeper into your data with social media management tools like Sprout Social.

But a thorough DIY Twitter audit is possible with the platform’s built-in analytics as well.

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of your audit, you need to answer a simple question on behalf of your company: “Why are we on Twitter, anyway?”

There is no “right” answer here.  Your company’s priorities might be:

• Brand awareness
• Audience engagement
• Customer service (and customer care)
• Leads and sales
• Content marketing

Your goals will ultimately guide your audit and frame what “success” looks like for you on Twitter. Once you’ve found your answer, it’s time to start digging into your Twitter presence.

Audit your Twitter profile and branding

First impressions matter on Twitter. At a glance, your profile should communicate:

• What your company does (products, services and industry)
• What your brand’s mission and voice is
• Why people should follow you (valuable insights, one-on-one engagement, support and so on)

So much of sending that message comes down to optimizing your profile’s presentation. Below are the initial steps of your Twitter audit to do exactly that.

Make sure that all of your brand imagery is up-to-date

To figure out whether your brand “looks the part” professionally, ask yourself:

• Are we using our most recent brand logo and creatives (think: cover photo, hashtags)?
• Do we follow Twitter’s most recent image sizes?
• Does our Twitter presence reflect the same username, imagery and messaging as our social profiles elsewhere?

For reference, check out the changes in Grammarly’s Twitter profile between 2020 and 2022. The 2020 version is minimal and straightforward but effective.

The 2022 version is similar at a glance (same logo and bio link) but removes the hashtag usage and boasts a much more colorful, eye-popping cover photo.

Making these adjustments might seem subtle but they’re significant to letting followers know you’re active.

Double-check that your messaging makes sense

Marketing messaging is arguably more important than ever.

Twitter’s limited character count can make it tough to fully convey what you’re all about. That said, 160 characters is enough room in your Twitter bio to:

• Explain what your company does
• Showcase your brand voice (whether it’s professional, conversational, humorous or somewhere in-between)
• Highlight what makes you different from your competitors

Companies like Frase even manage to do all of the above within a single sentence:

Pay attention to your pinned tweet

Pinned tweets are prime real estate for companies on Twitter.

For folks visiting your profile for the first time, this tweet is your introduction as a brand. You obviously want to make your pinned tweet count, which is why many brands use it as a space to:

• Point to a lead magnet or call-to-action (review a product, for example)
• Hype up a new product launch
• Make a major announcement (funding, acquisitions and so on)

 

Again, tie your Twitter presentation back to your company goals. If you’re using Twitter to promote products, reflect that in your pinned tweet.

Audit your Twitter followers for engagement and authenticity

Ideally, your followers on Twitter should reflect your target audience and actual customers. Those followers should be stoked about what you’re posting and your engagement rate should reflect that.

The reality, though? This might not be the case if you’ve been freestyling your Twitter presence.

Next, let’s break down the steps of a Twitter audit to help you better understand your account’s level of engagement.

Examine your follower growth and growth rate

Whether through native Twitter analytics or a tool like Sprout, take a look at how your account is growing month-to-month.

Because follower count isn’t everything. Impressions aren’t, either. You should be mindful of your profile visits and mentions to understand whether or not you’re scoring interactions that indicate interest.

From there, peek at your follower count. How fast is your Twitter growing? How does that growth compare to other networks like Facebook or Instagram?

If you’re seeing healthy, consistent growth then perhaps it’s time to make Twitter a bigger priority

Determine whether you’re attracting a relevant audience

This will require some manual digging.

In short, does your Twitter audience resemble your target audience? Scrolling manually and looking at bios or hashtags in your followers’ profiles is a cursory starting point.

More importantly, are you followed by companies in your industry? Do you earn shout-outs from actual customers? Are you followed by verified accounts (hint: look at your “Top Followers” in Twitter analytics)?

If your Twitter following seems like a free-for-all, it might be a sign to rein in your content strategy (but more on that later).

Using Sprout, you can get much more granular with your audience analysis. Here’s an example of how to audit Twitter followers using our integration, breaking down crucial demographic data and crucial conversations that indicate if your audience s relevant.

Complete a Twitter follower audit report to weed out fake profiles

The phenomenon of fake followers is a problem across social media and Twitter is no exception.

Fake followers are inevitable, but too many can hurt your reputation and make your profile look spammy by association.

Tools like SparkToro provide a free fake follower report you can use to quickly assess the authenticity of your audience.

If you’re attracting excessive fake followers, it’s time to consider reigning in your content strategy and likewise prioritizing meaningful interactions with actual accounts.

And hey, that leads to the next piece of our Twitter audit!

Audit your Twitter content and publishing frequency

Perhaps the trickiest but most important detail to analyze is whether or not your content is performing.

Twitter rewards accounts of all shapes and sizes with reach.

But without analysis, content performance feels truly “random” (even if it’s not). Below are steps to help you hone in on what’s working, what isn’t and where you can improve.

Assess how often you’re posting (and whether that frequency is effective)

We have plenty of firsthand data on the best times to post on Twitter.

And Twitter is unique versus other networks because posting multiple times per day throughout the day is totally fair game.

That said, actual publishing frequency in practice isn’t one-size-fits-all. We recommend looking at your own numbers to see if there’s a correlation between engagement and publishing frequency. This is yet again where your native analytics can help.

If you see spikes during certain days or times, make note of it. On the flip side, consider pausing content during days or times where there are consistent lulls.

Analyze the variety of content that you’re posting

Another key variable that impacts performance, it’s important to understand how different pieces of content drive engagement.

The beauty of Twitter is that you have no shortage of options to make your content strategy diverse.

This is yet again where treating your content strategy as a free-for-all can work against you. You might be throwing ideas against the wall to see what sticks, but what then?

We recommend dividing your content into categories and seeing which typically earns the most interactions. For example, you might be posting:

• Images
• Videos
• Threads
• Infographics
• How-tos and tips
• Articles and blogs (external links)
• Memes and humorous content

Analyzing your content calendar can uncover top performers and outliers which helps you should prioritize by content type.

Assess which types of content perform the best

Piggybacking on the point above, analyze the correlation between types of content and engagement rate.

Twitter’s native analytics allow you to quickly assess top tweets for any given month. You can do the same if you export them into a spreadsheet within the platform

However, tools like Sprout can give you a more comprehensive and holistic view of all of the above without nearly as much digging.

Oh, and our platform also makes it easy to figure out which Twitter hashtags perform the best to give your top-performing content a much-needed boost.

Audit your Twitter engagement to uncover new opportunities

Regardless of your company’s goals, the end result of a Twitter audit should be to grow your followers through meaningful content and engagement.

To wrap things up, we’ll explain how your analysis goes hand in hand with doing exactly that.

Assess how many interactions you earn on any given post

Based on your typical engagement, you can establish a baseline and set your expectations accordingly.

But again, there’s no “right” or magic number here. Don’t let your outliers influence what your average engagement rate should be.

Likewise, consider that the value of Twitter for business goes far beyond vanity metrics. Context matters when it comes to engagement.

Assess your company’s response time

Anything you can do to speed up your social media response time is a plus. Doing so is key to delighting followers and likewise signaling that you’re paying attention to your audience.

If you’re lagging behind or taking more than 24 hours to respond personally to tweets, consider how centralizing notifications or working within a collaboration tool (like Sprout!) can speed things up;

Understand the sentiment behind your company’s @mentions, #Tags and branded keywords

Pop quiz: how do your followers and customers on Twitter feel about you?

And are you satisfied with the conversations around your brand on Twitter?

Combing through mentions, hashtags and branded keywords (think: non-tagged mentions of your product or brand) will let you know. Doing so manually can be a time-consuming process, though.

Either way, you should always have a pulse on customer sentiment and engagement. This yet again speaks to the importance of social listening and the ability to see crucial conversations around your business.

From shout-outs to call-outs, tools like Sprout give you a bird’s eye view of your Twitter presence and those ever-so-important interactions as they happen.

Could a Twitter audit take your company’s presence to the next level?

Conducting an audit is a smart move if you want to make sure your brand is sending the right message to prospects and customers on Twitter

And walking through the tips above can fine-tune your presence. Doing so should be a top priority.

Because optimizing your profile now will ultimately encourage more engagement and meaningful customer interactions long-term. Because Twitter audits are so quick and easy, we recommend you conduct an audit sooner rather than later.

And if you haven’t already, make sure to check out our social media audit template to boost your presence on Twitter and beyond.

Use of Twitter nomenclature across Sprout refers to newly rebranded X platform and related terminology.