Twitter is a wonderful and varied place, but remains fairly limited when it comes to analytics and measurement.

Happily there is a slew of tools out there to fill the gap. Here are three of our favourites for brands to get more out of micro-blogging.

1. TweetCharts

TweetCharts is a simple and effective way to measure your reach. The free service allows you to run queries on anything you can search for on Twitter: your business handle, hashtags, user names, mentions and so on.

Simply type your query and TweetCharts will compile a custom report based on its findings. 

2. Twileshare

Twitter's pretty good at sharing photos and videos, but what about the other files you want to share? Enter Twileshare, the service that lets you send pretty much anything via Twitter: PDFs, spreadsheets, documents, ebooks and more.

Once uploaded Twileshare's analytics show you how often your files have been shared.

3. Tweriod

Tweriod is a very clever piece of software that tells you the best time to tweet. By analysing your tweets and those of your followers, Tweriod calculates the best time of day and week to tweet.

Once Tweriod completes its analysis it sends you a Direct Message via Twitter with its suggestions. Start tweeting now and enjoy the enhanced engagement!

If you enjoyed this article then subscribe FREE to the twice weekly SMK Digital Bulletin, click here now or visit www.smk.net.au/subscribe.

Also, click here download a FREE Social Media Policy Research Paper – worth $495. This FREE in-depth 17 page paper features insights from both communications and legal experts at the likes of: National Australia Bank (NAB), Edelman, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Social@Ogilvy, SMK – Social Media Knowledge, The Victorian Electoral Commission. Or visit www.smk.net.au/downloads for details.