With so many Twitter analysis tools out there, it’s hard to know which ones to trust with your Twitter account.
Some may wish to track the Tweets about their brand or competition, some will want to engage with leads or clients, and others may wish to track the success of their campaigns, among tons of other options.
If you’re looking for a free Twitter analysis tool, this list will come in handy.
However, bear in mind that these free tools are not an alternative to enterprise tools aimed at helping advanced businesses discover, analyze and make sophisticated use of all their social data (not just Twitter).
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best free Twitter analysis tools currently available.
1) Twitter Analytics – Boost your impact on Twitter
You don’t have to venture far to find a great analysis tool for your Twitter profile.
Recently, Twitter rolled out their analytics platform for anyone with a Twitter account, not just for business accounts. With Twitter Analytics, you can learn all about your Tweets and how they resonate with your audience.
The site is divided accordingly into 3 different categories: Tweets, followers and Twitter Cards. It allows you to take your data to a more detailed level. Click on any Tweet to get a detailed view of the number of retweets, replies, favorites, follows, impressions or clicks it receives.
With Twitter Cards, you can attach photos, videos and other media to your posts to drive more traffic to your website.
Diving into the Followers category, you can quickly see how people engage with your Tweets over time and explore the interests, locations and demographics of your followers.
2) Hootsuite – Collaborate, schedule & report
Hootsuite is one of our personal favorites as far as Twitter management and reporting is concerned.
It’s a freemium tool, meaning that you can use the free plan if you have fewer than five social profiles to manage. It enables teams to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social channels from one secure, web-based dashboard.
With a Hootsuite account, you can launch marketing campaigns, schedule posts in advance, identify and grow audiences on Twitter, create custom Twitter reports, track hashtags, mentions, Twitter lists and much more.
3) Buffer – Distribute your Tweets
For those who wish to simply schedule and spread Tweets out over the best possible times during the day, try Buffer’s free plan.
Balancing posts throughout the day tend to convert better, especially when your stakeholders are based across the world in different timezones.
Users who tend to Tweet in short bursts no longer have to miss out on valuable followers with this browser-based app. If you have found something online you would like to Tweet, press the little browser button (easy to install) and share away, without having to leave what you’re reading.
Buffer is deemed the smarter way to do your Twitter analysis, helping you determine what your audience loves out of the content you share and optimize the time of your publishing to maximize engagement.
4) Topsy – Find what’s trending
Want to know what’s trending on Twitter?
Topsy is a must have for every Twitter user who believes in the value of market research. Use Topsy to track keyword or domain popularity on Twitter over time.
Topsy offers Twitter analysis for just about any term. You can also compare mentions and replies for up to 3 accounts in relation to the volume of posts sent over a specific period of time.
5) Tweetstats – Optimize your timing
You guessed it, TweetStats provides statistics for your Twitter usage.
This tool helps you keeping track of your Tweets by the hour, day or month and tells you how far your messages travel.
If you would like to find out what time your competitors are posting, the days of the week, the average number of Tweets etc., then Tweetstats is probably your best bet.
6) Twtrland – Identify top influencers
If numbers don’t mean much to you, Twtrland is the way to go.
Whether you want to research top influencers in your niche or your just your audience demographics, Twtrland provides you with a visual blend of information about those who are connected to your Twitter account.
It will display your best performing Tweets and the people you’ve held conversations with over Twitter with so you can revisit the types of content that resonated with your followers.
Invite your top followers and fans in a new list, identify influencers in your industry and identify top domains that are shared on your Twitter profile. You can do this for any other Twitter profile out there, including your competitors’.
7) Twitonomy – Discover your key Twitter stats
Twitonomy is a very robust tool that offers different methods of Twitter analysis for your account and those of your competitors.
All you have to do is sign in with your Twitter account and provide your competitors’ Twitter handles.
Twitony will then show you details on Twitter lists you’re both part of, your most popular Tweets, engagement statistics and much more.
Tracking conversations on Twitter based on keywords, users, or lists is a breeze with Twitonomy. It will break down any Twitter account into graphs and digestible stats.
As a bonus, you can visualize where in the world people have mentioned your Tweets, allowing you to better understand the geographical impact of your Twitter activity.
8) Mentionmapp – Map and grow your followers
Then there’s Mentionmapp. With this web service, you can map your network and the network of others.
Mentionmapp builds a visual map of hashtags and username mentions based on the people you’ve been engaging with in your most recent Tweets.
It will also show you with whom those people have been having conversations on Twitter, meaning you can quickly discover new relevant people in your niche.
9) Twitter Counter – Analyze follower growth
If you’re interested in a tool that analyzes your follower growth and is easy to digest, it’s worth looking into Twitter Counter.
This tool lets you monitor your Tweet volume and follower growth against two of your key competitors on a daily basis. It will require you to tie your Twitter account to their site, but it’s safe to do so.
The data that it collects is by all means basic but the browser plugin offers a variety of features such as performance, recommendations, overviews and average interactions.
Twitter Counter’s API allows anyone to retrieve each and every piece of information it has about a certain username. It will also estimate the number of followers you’ll gain based on how this number has increased over the past week.
10) Tweetreach – Measure the reach of your Tweets
Curious to know how far your Tweets have traveled? If so, TweetReach is the tool for you. All you have to do is insert the URL of the page or article you’d like to analyze and you’ll find a detailed breakdown of the last 50 Tweets you’ve sent.
Tweetreach will provide you with a density graph to show when your posts are hitting the largest amount of your followers.
Another great use of their free version is to run Twitter reports of how far your Twitter handle, keyword or hashtag has reached. It will show you the number of accounts reached, number of impressions, number of retweets, top contributors, most retweeted Tweets, list of contributors and a timeline of your Tweets.
Each of the free tools above provide great functionality, all designed to deliver a simple user interface, but there are also plenty of alternatives available. The best thing to do is to demo, trial and experiment as much as you can until you find the right tool for your needs.
For brands and agencies seeking tools that allow greater flexibility and offer more sophisticated features for your Twitter analysis, there are also alternatives that ask for a subscription fee but provide far more advanced functionality.
How do you analyze your Tweets? Are there any tools we’re missing? Let us know in the comments below.
Read More: