Followerwonk has a range of functions, many of which are free, that provide valuable insights quickly.
Audience hunting
The first of these is the ability to Search Bios – a simple tool that lets you search the bios or profiles of anyone on Twitter for key words and categorise them by criteria, such as follower number or social authority.
For example, working in the field of healthcare, I might be keen to approach media psychologists to tweet about an embarrassing ailment I’m trying to raise awareness of, say bad breath and its impact on confidence. I’d simply go to Followerwonk.com, click on the Search Bios tab and enter the words “psychologist” and “TV”.
I’d then choose either followers or social authority to place the findings in order.
The social authority score out of 100 is based on retweet rates and, although no measure is completely infallible, it does give a sense of which influencers could help achieve better engagement.
Search Bios is also handy for constructing blogger lists – an overwhelming task without a structured approach. For example, inputting the words “blogger” and “mummy” yields decent results and you can make things more specific by adding terms such as “huffpost”. You can then either build your own list or follow the best contacts straight from the site.
As with all free tools there are limitations. It’s difficult to sort your results by country so if you are trying to reach a UK market you have to sift out relevant targets. It can also miss some big influencers if the exact keyword doesn’t appear in the profile (not every parenting blogger describes themselves as a “mummy”!) so it’s worth playing around to find the right combination.
Knowledge really is power
Having identified your key targets, the next step is getting them interested and that’s where the Analyze tab comes in.
This provides a graphical breakdown of a given user’s Twitter habits and the habits of his or her followers. More in-depth information can be accessed via subscription but the free stuff is pretty useful, so it’s well worth giving this a try first.
Input the handle, select ‘analyze their followers’ from the drop down box and dive into the data! Just be aware that users with very large followings may require a subscription.
I’ve used a TV psychologist to demonstrate.
You can see when a blogger, journalist or key influencer is most active and time your approach accordingly. The active hours are helpfully broken down into retweets, @contact and non-@contact tweets so you can maximise your chances of getting a retweet for your campaign messages.
Not only that but in addition you are able to analyse the activity of their followers, with a range of charts allowing you to look at:
- Follower counts – the number of people following their followers
- Following counts – the number of people the followers follow (the more they follow the less they may engage with their streams)
- Account ages – how many of the followers were early-adopters (perceived to be more valuable)
- Frequency of tweets – how many of the followers accounts are dormant
This allows you to make judgements about which targets to prioritise based on the engagement levels and influence of their Twitter communities.
This info can be highly useful for your own Twitter account too Once you’ve engaged your key influencers, learning about their habits can aid their receptiveness. You can even use Followerwonk to schedule your tweets via Buffer to go out when your followers are most active.
Outwitting the competition
Keeping an eye on the competition may help you stay one step ahead but competitor intelligence is not always easily or cheaply gained. Followerwonk’s Compare Users tab allows you to measure yourself against up to two competitors at any one time, providing a useful snapshot of their Twitter activity.
Input your handle and those of two of your competitors and Followerwonk does the hard work for you.
A Venn diagram shows the overlap between the three users in terms of followers and followings. You can stick to one competitor if preferred as this does give less data to wade through. I’ve stuck with my embarrassing ailment example of bad breath here and used three brands of toothpaste.
Where there is overlap it’s useful to know, especially when your competitors are following or followed by the same media targets or influential bodies, such as charities.
You can then bear in mind that your target has also been privy to your competitors’ messaging and adapt yours accordingly. Where a user follows both you and your competitors, it’s also a fairly good indication that they have an interest in the field and are likely to be friendlier targets.
Sneakily, you can also spot new targets that are following both of your selected competitors and go after these.
A summary is given underneath the graphics, which gives a basic comparison of follower numbers and social authority, alongside, average number of tweets, number of retweets, @contacts and URL tweets. A useful tool for periodically tracking how well you are shaping up against the competition.
Embrace your inner-wonk
For the data-geeks among us, I’ve hardly scratched the surface here and there is plenty more analysis available, especially if you have the money. However, for those simply interested in putting together a savvy engagement strategy, what I’ve aimed to show is how straightforward that can be with this user-friendly tool. So, go on – embrace your inner-wonk.