Description and Instructions

Description

Tweetreach is a tool for social media marketers who wish to analyse their branding initiatives on Twitter (Smith, 2011). It is a simple and powerful tool that shows how many Twitter accounts have viewed your tweets, how far your message has travelled, and who is influencing the conversation about your brand or product. Essentially, you post a tweet on Twitter. People talk about it and retweet it. Tweetreach tells you who’s talking about it, how many people saw it, and who these people are (Socdir, 2011).

Hayes Davis and Jenn Deering Davis developed the software in 2009 so that they could see how many users had seen their tweets. Now, thousands of users everyday have the ability to enter a URL, Twitter name, phrase or hashtag into Tweetreach’s search box.  They then receive a well-structured, easy to read report that provides detailed metrics on the impact of your Twitter conversations. For 21^st century media professionals and agencies operating in the field of social marketing or event producing, having a machine that analyses the reach of a brand, a marketing campaign, or even an event on Twitter is invaluable. These media professionals could all harness the power of Tweetreach to measure the response, engagement and effectiveness of their campaigns.

Recently, Tweetreach has been successfully used by a number of high profile companies and events to analyse their campaigns by measuring participation, sponsors and audience. One of these success stories was the case study of the 2012 Golden Globes when Tweetreach tracked and analysed all of the tweets during the broadcast of the 69^th annual awards show(Union Metrics, 2012). At the end of the broadcast, close to 1 million tweets were sent out from nearly 300,000 contributors resulting in over 2.2 billion impressions worldwide (Cruse, 2012). Other notable events that incorporated Tweetreach into their data analysis include the 2012 Winter X-Games, NASCAR, the Ikea ‘Capture the Catalogue’ competition, and the Super Bowl advertisements. It’s also worth noting that 15 of the top 25 public relations firms now harness the power of  Tweetreach and its services.

Instructions

1. Type in the URL: http://tweetreach.com/

2. Enter a search word/phrase/hashtag/name/URL in the search box (e.g. Nike)

3. Tweetreach will then analyse this and a report will be created in just a few seconds. Its that quick and easy!

In completing its analysis, Tweetreach will measure four things:

1. REACH – How many people actually saw what was tweeted?
2. ENGAGEMENT – How are people talking about your campaign (positive/negative)?
3. CONTENT – What are people talking about (what made the most buzz?)?
4. CONTRIBUTORS – Who are the people talking about your campaign?

Analysis 1: The Tool in Principle

Professional Task

A professional task that can be accomplished by using the capabilities of Tweetreach would be marketing. With Tweetreach, marketers have the ability to assess the exposure of advertising campaigns and see how many people are talking about their brand. In a Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication article titled ‘Information, Community, and Action: How Nonprofit Organisations Use Social Media’, authors Kristen Lovejoy and Gregory Saxton write about how non-profit organisations harness the power of Twitter to raise money and awareness. The study found that these organisations are rapidly getting better at using social media outlets to strategically engage their stakeholders via dialogic and community-building practices, which just wasn’t possible with traditional websites. By using Twitter, the non-profit sector has a more effective medium to boost friend building, fundraising, and marketing (Fritz, 2010). Having a tool like Tweetreach helps these institutions to gauge a relatively accurate figure of how many people are being influenced by their messages.

Kyria Abrahams and J.D. Lasica, authors of a recent journalistic article posted on Socialbrite, share this chain of thought. Abrahams and Lasica state that Twitter is especially suited to nonprofits because it allows an organization the freedom to spotlight a broad range of issues and newsworthy items that relate to a particular cause (Abrahams & Lasica, 2011). The article recommends that the non-profit organisations ‘Tweet about things people care about’, ‘Be strategic’, and ‘Optimize your key words’. Tweetreach can assist in this process by showing whether or not the key words being used are reaching enough people in order to have some sort of marketing impact.

Affordances

An affordance, as defined by Brunel University’s Ian Hutchby, is simply a property that enables action. In terms of Tweetreach, an affordance essentially refers to the functions and potential uses of the tool. Affordances are then categorised into two groups: Technical or Purposive. A technical affordance refers to what the service actually allows you to do, while a purposive affordance refers to what the service encourages in terms of social and cultural practices (Rintel, 2012).

The main affordance with regard to Tweetreach is its ability to quickly and efficiently analyse recent tweets and determine how many users have viewed that information. The number of users to have viewed the information is referred to as the ‘reach’ while the number of times the tweets were delivered to Twitter users is referred to as the ‘exposure’. The receipts from the tweets are then referred to as ‘impressions’ and is detailed in the picture below.

A high reach is evidence that a large number of different accounts found the information posted interesting and decided to share it with their followers. In contrast, a low reach indicates that the information posted is only being spread between a smaller group of people. Reach and exposure often go hand-in-hand as a high reach will often be accompanied by high exposure. This is a definite pro as it is really what Tweetreach is all about: allowing users to quickly calculate how many people have seen their message on Twitter.

Another affordance that Tweetreach offers is the ability to allow the user to discover who the top tweeters and contributors are in terms of the information being searched. From there, the program lets you see key information regarding each of these contributors such as the number of followers they have, how many Twitter lists they are on, as well as their Klout score. With this sort of data being generated, the user can then rapidly discover the top influencers and learn who’s spreading the message  (Jenn, 2010).

A final affordance that Tweetreach has to offer is its monitor, analyse and archive tweets feature. It essentially shows all public tweets that would normally show up in an ordinary Twitter search. This component of the tool also allows you to see all sorts of details about each tweet, such as how many impressions it generated, the number of times it was retweeted and also by whom it was retweeted.This pro would be extremely beneficial for a 21st century media professional who, for example, may be seeking sources to quote for a journalistic article.

Constraints

Constraints, as defined by Brunel University’s Ian Hutchby, are simply properties that limit action. In terms of Tweetreach, a constraint essentially refers to the things that Tweetreach doesn’t allow you to do, which could be a deliberate pro or con. Like affordances, constraints are also categorised into Technical or Purposive. A technical constraint refers to what the service limits you from doing from a technical perspective. A purposive constraint is what the service discourages in terms of social and cultural practices (Rintel, 2012).

The main technical constraint with regard to Tweetreach is its lack of functionality in being able to tweet and retweet from directly within the program. This puts a significant hinderance on the users ability to fully interact with the Twitterverse, especially with those who are deemed by Tweetreach as being the most influential people. Tweetreach users must instead log into Twitter and search for the tweet manually in order to reply or retweet.

Another technical constraint and con that deters media professionals from a tool like Tweetreach is the fact that you cannot select certain locations to analyse Twitter activity. It is likely that Australian marketers would not be as interested in what is being said on an international scale as to what is being said domestically. For instance, if ‘CocaCola’ had recently released a new marketing campaign in Australia and wanted to analyse the public opinion by searching ‘CocaCola’ on Tweetreach, an inaccurate report would be shown as every mention of CocaCola worldwide would be shown.

The final constraint, which is more a nuisance than a con, is the way users have to keep refreshing their report in order to get up-to-date information about the search. In other words, there’s no live stream and if an event is being analysed as it is happening live, this could pose as problematic for media professionals.

Analysis 2: The Tool in Use

The Tool and Other Articles

In a recent article posted on the Tweetreach blog, author of the post, Jenn D, successfully incorporated the use of a Tweetreach analysis report into her article about Ikea’s ‘Capture the Catalogue’ tournament. Through the use of Tweetreach, Jenn D discovered and wrote that in the 90 minutes of competition time, the 11 teams competing generated more than 8 million impressions on Twitter, resulting in over 700,000 unique Twitter accounts being reached. Publishing these figures gave the article greater depth of knowledge and allowed the reader to better comprehend how important Tweetreach is in determining the reach of Twitter marketing campaigns.

An article that could have benefited from Tweetreach would be The Australian’s article titled ‘Felix Baumgartner breaks sound barrier as he jumps from edge of space’. This article is about Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner and his record breaking jump, which was heavily sponsored by Red Bull. The author mentions that ‘nearly 7.3 million people were watching as Baumgartner made the jump’. What this doesn’t tell you is millions of others who were exposed to the event through Twitter. By entering the name ‘Felix Baumgartner’ into Tweetreach, the report showed that the maximum number of Tweets (50) was reached in less than a one minute. In that one-minute alone, 30,921 unique Twitter accounts were reached, which essentially means that a large number of people were talking about him. Like in the first article, this information would have given the story greater depth. Furthermore, if a marketing professional working for Red Bull were to enter ‘Red Bull’ into Tweetreach, they would discover that in just one minute, 96,580 unique Twitter accounts were reached.

The Tool and My Article

I incorporated Tweetreach into my article about the US election by showing comparative screenshots of Obama and Romney on Twitter. This analysis proved that the name Barack Obama was being exposed to 10,000 Twitter accounts per minute more than Mitt Romney. What this essentially means is that a lot more people are interacting with one another on the topic of Obama which is good for campaign exposure and popularity.

Evaluation

Recommendations

During my brief interactions with Tweetreach over the past weeks, I have found the tool to be extremely useful and would recommend it to all media professionals. It is especially helpful for those working in the field of marketing as it provides invaluable information about what is being said on Twitter, who has seen what was said, and whom it is being said by.

Summary Matrix

Research Tasks
Selecting a Topic	Pros	Cons	N/A
Media Research	Tweetreach allows marketers to see what is happening in the Twitterverse which is useful
Newsworthiness	The newsworthiness of a story may be analysed using Tweetreach based on how many impressions it receives
Angle			N/A
Defining Topic		Inability to check background info makes defining a topic difficult
Choosing Sources	Users of this tool can pick and choose sources at their own discretion as usernames from Twitter profiles are provided.
Gathering Topics	Pros	Cons	N/A
Facts and Figures	Tweetreach allows users to access facts and figures regarding whatever words they input into the search bar
Interviews			N/A
Anecdotes	Tweetreach allows users to see tweets up to 160 characters which may be used as anecdotes
Documents, Photographs, Video, Audio			N/A
Analysis	Pros	Cons	N/A
Checking Credibility		The Twitter usernames of people are shown but it is near impossible to prove their identity and credentials within Tweetreach
Selecting most important data	Tweetreach analyses all mentions of the searched word(s) so selecting the most important data is not an issue as no data is more important than the other data
Writing	Pros	Cons	N/A
Pyramid Structure			N/A
Flow/Clarity			N/A
Presentation	Pros	Cons	N/A
Designing Layout			N/A
Publishing	Pros	Cons	N/A
Audience Reach	Tweetreach engages with Twitter users as it is their views and opinions that are being analysed and published
Accessibility	Tweetreach’s data is easily accessible to anyone with a computer and knowledge of how to interpret the information

References

Abrahams, K., & Lasica, J. D. (2011, October 3). 24 best practices for nonprofits using Twitter. Retrieved October 16, 2012, from Socialbrite: http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/10/03/24-best-practices-for-nonprofits-using-twitter/

Cruse, D. (2012, January 16). Golden Globes tweets reach 94 million Twitter users. Retrieved October 12, 2012, from Tweetreach Blog: http://blog.tweetreach.com/2012/01/tweeting-the-golden-globes/

Davis, J. D. (2012, July 11). Union Metrics Announces Record Growth for TweetReach . Retrieved October 12, 2012, from Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/union-metrics-announces-record-growth-tweetreach-120411750.html

Fritz, J. (2010). Twitter Tips for Nonprofit Tweeple … People. Retrieved October 16, 2012, from about.com: http://nonprofit.about.com/od/socialmedia/a/twittertips.htm

Jenn. (2010, April 2). Understanding the TweetReach snapshot report. Retrieved October 18, 2012, from Tweetreach: http://help.tweetreach.com/entries/139336

Ricketson, M. (2004). Writing Feature Stories: How to Research and Write Newspaper and Magazine Articles. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.

Rintel, S. (2012). Framework for Describing the Affordances and Constraints of Online Social Media Tools. Retrieved October 15, 2012, from Tools for 21C media: http://jour2722.jacdigital.com.au/framework-for-describing-the-affordances-and-constraints-of-online-social-media-tools/

Smith, I. (2011, July 1). Branding Intelligence With TweetReach. Retrieved October 8, 2012, from Intelegia: http://www.intelegia.com/en/2011/07/01/branding-intelligence-with-tweetreach/

Spencer, L. M. (2006). News Writing: The Gathering, Handling and Writing of News Stories. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co.

Socdir. (2011). Dead simple Twitter campaign metrics. How far did your tweet travel? Retrieved October 8, 2012, from Socdir: http://socdir.com/tool/tweetreach

Union Metrics. (2012). Overview. Retrieved October 12, 2012, from Tweetreach: http://tweetreach.com/#overview

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Part 2 – Article

How Twitter will shape the #USelection2012

October 23 2012 | 42877305

Gone are the days where scathing political blogs and in-depth newspaper articles shape the way a nation votes. In 2012, it is clear that Twitter now holds this power and is proving to be a game-changer in this years US election.

Social media and political reporter, Hamish McKenzie, says political blogs started off being the “first and fast reactors” to now being made “almost obsolete by websites like Twitter”.

For evidence of this, look no further than Twitter’s key role in shaping the coverage and the winners and losers of this month’s presidential debates.

But Alan Rosenblatt, experienced political consultant and head of social media for the Centre for American Progress, believes there is still room for the conventional customs of an election.

“Shaking hands and all the traditional campaign stuff has not gone away. You still must do it to win, but if you don’t have a complementary online strategy you can’t win either,” Rosenblatt said.

Social media, and in particular Twitter, became a major player in voting process in 2008 when Barack Obama pioneered the use of the digital world for organising, fundraising and communicating in his election campaign.

Obama is now building on his digital success of 2008 by investing heavily into online advertising for his 2012 election campaign.

FACT: President Obama refocused on the terrorists who attacked us—devastating al-Qaeda’s leadership and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 22, 2012

By being so virtually active and tech savvy, Obama (@barackobama) now boasts over 20.8-million followers on his Twitter feed, some 19-million more followers than his election opponent Mitt Romney (@mittromney).

By using Tweetreach, an online tool that analyses tweets and provides information about what is being said on Twitter, who has seen what was said, and whom it is being said by, it is clear that Barack Obama is the talking point right now.

In the last minute alone, the words ‘Barack Obama’ have been exposed to 18,897 unique Twitter accounts (impressions) worldwide. That is a substantial amount of online chatter and can only be a positive for his bid to remain in the White House.

On the other hand, it appears that Mitt Romney is not as popular in the ‘Twitterverse’ as his opposition, but has still managed to generate a significant amount of online discussion resulting in 8,168 impressions in the last minute.

It’s hard to determine accurately how tweets and followers will convert into votes come election day, but social media seems to be encouraging greater involvement in the political dialogue.

Jeanette Castillo, professor of digital media at Florida State University, said the increased participation in political Twitter conversation is healthy and helps reinforce the democratic process.

“We don’t know how much it is affecting the election but it certainly seems to be out of the politicians control,” Castillo said.

The 2012 US election will be held on November 6.