"It can be difficult to measure success of efforts that rely on emerging media," says Evan Gerber in an article at MarketingProfs. "[D]espite the fact that they are online channels, it's tough to decide what to track and what the numbers mean."

So how do you get a firm analytical grip on a slippery channel like Twitter?

According to Gerber, you must first determine your objectives, and how you will measure success. "Each day there is yet another way to slice and dice the data," he notes, "but not all of them are helpful."

So he makes some suggestions:

• If you want to drive sales, you can use special discount codes or specific phone numbers to track the effectiveness of your efforts.
• Those who wish to engage their audience might look at the number of questions asked by their Twitter followers.
• Or perhaps you want to establish yourself as a thought leader—in that case, the number of retweets will help you to gauge your influence.

"It used to be tough to gather rich metrics on a Twitter campaign," continues Gerber. "But as the medium has grown, so has the number of ways to track success."

To get you started, he offers a helpful primer on analytical tools like Twinfluence, TwitterFriends and TweetEffect.

The Po!nt: While still imperfect, tools that measure the success of Twitter campaigns are getting better, and they can deliver significant insights.

Source: MarketingProfs. Click here for the full article.

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