Reading Time: 2 minutes read
Twitter account tracking is not done very well. The twitter ads analytics service and other twitter follower analysis tools dont let you understand your follower churn. Most users wouldnt care about this, but I do.
Other services currently give you a high level overview of your overall follower count, for the day. There is just a number that represents that day’s tracked number.
In PublicArtfound’s case, I get a lot of followers and equally get a lot of unfollowers. Most of the people who follow my account unfollow it very quickly. I dont currently know what the average lifespan of a follower is. I do know that the people who do stay followers are often not real people. They are often other bots that look for high tweet producing accounts.
Tech business track their user churn rate to identify the average lifetime value of a customer. Cohort analysis is done based on marketing campaigns and time. Based on understanding this metric, companies target their marketing spend in the areas that drive the greatest lifetime value customers.
I want to understand the types of users that I am attracting but quickly losing. If I knew the average lifespan of a follower, then I could intelligently target messaging before they unfollow. For example, I could use one twitter account to dominate the Search Results page of a certain hashtag. Using that account, I could drive traffic to another account that posted less frequently.
Businesses that have social media accounts would benefit from having tools that allow follower account churn. I often follow company accounts and then later unfollow them. I initially follow out of loyalty to a brand, but later unfollow based on the lack/quality of content. Analyzing the user-by-user behavior, rather than the high level quantitative change would allow for great user engagement strategies.