How do I know if we’re successful on Twitter? This is one of the most common questions business owners ask me when I first look at their social media activity.

With Facebook, every business owner has an Insights panel within their Facebook page which provides miles of data on the impact of each and every action on the page. However, Twitter provides no data on tweets, clicks and follower growth unless you happen to have invested in Twitter advertising. As a result, many people are still in the dark as to how to measure the performance of their Twitter activity on regular basis. To help bridge this gap, hundreds of online analytics companies have stepped into the fray and now provide free , low and premium cost tools that enable you measure practically any aspect of your Twitter output.

But from within this ocean of analytics possibilities, what are the most important stats that you need to keep a handle on?

After follower numbers, the key stats I suggest you keep an eye on are:

Follower Growth

How fast is your Twitter audience growing? If you’ve flatlined then the signs are that your Twitter activity is not very compelling. To keep tabs on your growth from month to month you can use a free tool such as TwitterCounter to chart your growth in any period over the last 6 months. It even provides a tool which estimates how fast you will continue to grow in the next 30 days.

ReTweets per 100 Tweets or ReTweets %

I find this number particularly useful as it indicates how valuable or interesting your tweets are to others. The more people want to share your tweets, the more successful you’ll be at reaching a wider audience. Research by Moz.com indicates that most people don’t RT often, so this action is seen as the holy grail of engagement. For free ReTweet % stats you can generate a Twitter account comparison report at www.followerwonk.com

@Mentions per 100 tweets or @Mentions %

Businesses who are highly successful on Twitter know how important it is to drive conversations with people directly on the network. An ‘@mention’ occurs when you talk to or mention another Twitter user in one of your Tweets. Engaging in conversations like this shows your business is responsive and interactive. Followerwonk is also a great tool for measuring @Mentions by percentage in comparison to your other competitors.

Average Reach per Tweet

How many people actually see each tweet? Again the bigger your ‘reach per tweet’ number the more likely you are to generate brand awareness through each and every post. Pro versions of tools such as Twtrland.com enable you track this number for both your account and your competitors.

Tweet Click Through (TCT)

If you are keen to drive traffic from your Twitter activity to your website or blog then this is another crucial number to keep tabs on. The main way to measure this activity is by using a service such as Bit.ly or the social media management tool Hootsuite to turn your web link into a shortened link. Once this link is created you can then use the Bit.ly or Hootsuite tracking panels to see how many people have clicked on each individual tweet that includes one of these shortened links.

Ideally, I suggest you track these performance measurements on a month-to-month basis so in time, you get a better birds eye view of your ongoing performance on the channel.

Have you any crucial Twitter statistics you’d like to add to this list? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments box below.

How successful are you on Twitter?