While X might not be quite the hotbed of cultural back-and-forth it once was, it remains a remarkably popular social network and a useful barometer of the zeitgeist. Given how much time we collectively spend posting, scrolling, and reacting, it is only natural to want a clearer sense of which topics, themes, and ideas are actually rising to the surface. Unfortunately, that kind of visibility used to be easy to find and then gradually became harder to locate.
With the release of its redesigned “Creator Studio,” X addresses that problem in a surprisingly elegant way. The “inspiration” area lets you see what is most liked, most replied to, most bookmarked, and more, and it allows this analysis to be filtered by geographic region or by language. The result is not only a practical snapshot of what matters inside your own online community, but also a window into what is resonating elsewhere in the world. Let’s take a closer look…
FINDING INSPIRATION ON X
I’ll show how this works in a Web browser, but the same information is available through the mobile app, just in a slightly different format. On X for Mobile tap on your profile pic on the top left, then choose “Creator Studio” from the subsequent menu. To start with the Desktop version, the main menu is on the left side of the home page, including the new “Creator Studio“:
While there are no published restrictions on availability of Creator Studio, if you don’t have it, check the status of your X account in terms of age, follower count, etc. You should have access to it, whether on mobile or desktop.
The resultant set of options varies by account type, but here are the basic options:
Analytics is a great place to learn how your posts are performing in the X universe, and if your account is eligible for revenue sharing, you can explore that option too. The account that I’m using for this demo – @Filmbuzz – is not eligible, as you can see above.
To proceed, I’m going to click on “Inspiration“…
Even though X is characterized in popular media as being a haven for conservatives, the most liked post being from former liberal President Barack Obama is a good counterpoint. But let’s explore this particular image a bit more closely to understand how Inspiration organizes content.
HOW INSPIRATION ORGANIZES CONTENT
Starting with the very top of the screenshot, notice it lists “USA”. This is my default region. Below that are three timescales: Last 24h, Last 7d, and Last 30d. By stepping through these, you can see which posts have longevity versus those that are one-day-wonders, spiking in popularity for a few hours, then forgotten, not having quite “gone viral”.
I will note that during my testing period, the “Last 7d” never showed any results, suggesting that the person programming the options isn’t working very well with the team that are doing the data analysis yet. 🤓
The third row is where it gets interesting, allowing you to view Most Likes, Most Replies, Most Quotes, Most Bookmarked, and so on. For example, over the last 24H, the most replies of any tweet on X is one from @TheCinesthetic:
Or is it? Notice that immediately below it, the post by popular author Stephen King – @StephenKing – got over 3x the number of responses. Why isn’t it #1? The third post, by X owner and controversial social commentator Elon Musk – @ElonMusk – runs a close third with most replies to a post…
Most quoted? You can view that too:
In case you’re not familiar with all the new iconography of X, here’s a breakdown:
You can see that the top post has 4,500 replies, 7,900 retweets, 15,000 likes, and 1.1 million views. In sixteen hours! Impressive.
How about which post got the most shares in the USA region in the last 24 hours? You can view that too:
A post with a rather hyperbolic first line, but it certainly is working for this X user in terms of shares and visibility!
EXPLORING REGIONS AND LANGUAGES
A click on “🇺🇸 USA” in the top right – or whatever your current region is set to – reveals that you can view these analytics by language and region, not just in your own region. This is a great way to learn more about what people in other areas are finding most engaging and interesting…
This is another dimension of the work X has done to make it easy to ascertain the origin of its users, allowing you to different between, say, an Eastern European ‘bot posting misinformation and someone local to you posting something of import. You can learn more in my tutorial: What’s Up with “About This Account” in X?
Curious about what post has garnered the most responses in the United Kingdom in the last 30 days? Two clicks and you’ll find out:
Keir Starmer – @Keir_Starmer – is the current Prime Minister of England, and 15,000+ people responded to his post about acting in the best interests of the nation. What did they say? Click on the post’s date or time (in this instance, “Jan 19”) to find out.
You can also explore other languages or regions that speak languages you don’t understand. For example, the most liked post in the last 30 days in the Ukraine:
I don’t read Ukrainian, but X has Grok, powered by xAI, tightly integrated, so it requires but a single click on the circle with the diagonal line on the top right of the post itself (next to the “•••”) to bring up Grok… I then simply asked for a translation:
Very interesting, and this is information from the proverbial trenches, not something chosen for us by our local media outlets. Well, except that we’ve seen that its analytics aren’t 100% reliable, but even with that glitch, I find “Inspiration”, well, inspirational.
Pro Tip: I’ve been on Twitter, now X, since the early days and have written lots of useful tutorials. Please check out my X / Twitter Help Area for more useful guides. Oh, and why not follow me, @DaveTaylor, on X? Thanks!
