My wife is a teacher, so at the start of her summer break, she went on a vacation with our boys and her parents. I did not feel that I could leave for a week, since I was only a month into running my RIA. But after their departure, my work schedule flip-flopped: I worked in the morning, took a break in the afternoon and then worked again after dinner until late at night.
Perhaps thats why I was conversing on Twitter late one night with some fellow advisors, and heard about Twitter analytics -- which you need to access through the Twitter Ads page. As an avid Google Analytics user, and having previously explored
I set up six previous tweets to be promoted, each linking to my Finance for Teachers blog. I then watched to see what happened. Using the real-time view in Google Analytics, I was able to see who was hitting what page, whether they were then dropping off or viewing another page, and for how long they were staying. In 30 minutes, 17 new viewers came to my website, with 11 on at one time. Many of them viewed only the page linked from the tweet, but a few toured the website and looked around.
I dont expect much to result from this; it was really a $100 experiment. It was interesting, however, to see how Twitter users engaged with one of my tweets more than the rest combined. I will be using that insight to change some of my blog content and titling going forward.
Dave Grant, CFP, a Financial Planning columnist, is the founder of Cary, Ill.-based planning firm Finance for Teachers. Hes also the founder of Fee Only Consulting, which focuses on developing the skills of Gen Y planners. In addition, hes the founder of NAPFA Genesis, a networking group for young, fee-only planners.
