Good data is what lets you understand your audience (what they care about, what they respond to) and turn that understanding into growth. If your business is active on X (formerly Twitter), the platform's built-in analytics show you exactly how your posts perform and who you're reaching. Here's how to use them.
How to Access Your X Analytics
There are two levels of analytics on X, and it's worth knowing what's free and what isn't:
- Per-post analytics (free). Under any of your posts, tap or click "View analytics" to see how that individual post did, impressions, engagements, profile visits, link clicks, and more. This is available to everyone, and it's especially handy in the mobile app.
- The full account dashboard (X Premium). Over the past couple of years, X has moved its account-level analytics dashboard behind a paid X Premium subscription. If you subscribe, you can open it at x.com/i/account_analytics or through the Premium menu, where you'll find account-wide trends, top posts, audience data, and performance over time.
So even on a free account you can analyze individual posts; the deeper, account-level reporting is now a Premium feature.
The Metrics That Matter
Whichever level you're using, focus on the metrics that actually tell you something:
- Impressions: how many times your post was seen. This shows your reach, and whether it's spreading beyond your existing followers. (If you have 500 followers but a post gets 2,000 impressions, it reached well beyond your audience.)
- Engagements: the total interactions with your post, likes, replies, reposts, clicks, and more.
- Engagement rate: engagements relative to impressions (or followers). This is the truest measure of whether your content resonates. A post with modest reach but a high engagement rate is connecting.
- Profile visits and follows: how many people your post sent to your profile, and how many new followers you gained, a sign your content is attracting the right people.
- Link clicks: if your goal is traffic or sales, this is the one to watch. It shows how many people clicked through to your website.
- Video views: video performs strongly on X (and the platform now supports much longer videos than it used to), so track views and completion to see what's working.
How to Use the Data to Grow
Analytics are only valuable if you act on them. A few ways to put them to work:
- Find your top posts and do more of that. Look at which posts earned the most engagement and reach, then study what they had in common (format, topic, tone, time of day), and create more like them.
- Track your engagement rate over time. Watch the trend, not just one post. Rising engagement means your content strategy is improving.
- Learn what your audience responds to. Note which topics, formats (text, image, video), and posting times perform best, and lean into them.
- Connect with the people who matter. Pay attention to who's engaging, especially loyal customers and influential accounts in your space, and nurture those relationships.
Is X Right for Your Business?
One honest note: X has changed a great deal, and its audience and tools have shifted with it. Analytics can help you measure your results, but the bigger question is whether your customers are actually on X in the first place. The golden rule of social media still applies: be where your audience is. If X is one of those places, its analytics will help you make the most of it. If it isn't, your time may be better spent on the platforms where your customers actually spend theirs.
In Conclusion
Used well, X's analytics help you understand your audience, sharpen your content, and spend your time where it pays off. If you'd like help building a social media strategy and content that actually reaches your audience, get in touch with our team.
This is part of our guide to marketing your small business online.
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