A good starting point is “engagement”, however, with the proliferation of robots and auto-engagement programs available, some engagement may not indicate “happiness”, but rather represent your content meeting certain algorithmic criteria. Retweets and likes in particular can be the result of mechanical interactions that have nothing to do with a human response to your content. I read recently that as many as 60% of twitter accounts may not even belong to an actual person, but are instead made up of bots and other programs.

Engagement in terms of responses and comments is a good source of data for determining your audience’s feelings about your content. Are people commenting on your posts? Are they responding to your return comments? Is the tone of the comments and responses positive? Additionally, the effectiveness of your content in successfully fulfilling its mission is a good indicator. For example, if your posts are designed to drive traffic to a particular page on your website, or toward a specific sales funnel and your metrics indicate that they are meeting your expectations for success, it is likely that your audience’s has had a positive emotional response to it. As an additional method for assessing your audiences feelings remember that social media is, well, social . Ask your audience what feelings they have about your content. The question can be asked casually in a specific tweet conversation or formally through a poll or survey. It is a good idea to be constantly testing all of your marketing efforts and your twitter activity is no exception. Plan, implement, test, test and test to optimize your effectiveness and maximize your success.