Twitter has launched a new standalone application, Dashboard, aimed at small businesses. The app, available both on web and mobile, allows businesses to schedule tweets and access tips regarding what to tweet and when to reach audiences most effectively.

There are already services like Hootsuite or Sendible that allow businesses to schedule and analyze their posts. Twitter’s move toward creating analytics apps represents the company’s attempt to establish a sense of loyalty to its users by offering a basic social media managing tool for free.

Dashboard is useful because it allows users to set up a custom feed to monitor particular hashtags and keywords. With this feature, businesses can monitor exactly what people are saying about their product or their field of interest with more precision. This feature effectively makes it so small businesses can engage with followers more easily.

In addition to monitoring what people are saying, Dashboard also plays an active role on Twitter by suggesting retweets and potential tweets. If someone mentions the business in a positive way, Dashboard will suggest the tweet to the business for a retweet. Similarly, if an active follower mentions something positive on Twitter, (like a job promotion or an accomplished life goal) Dashboard will notify the business and suggest sending him congratulations.

Dashboard works as a partner to Twitter’s other tool for small businesses, Analytics, and together the two let businesses measure the impact of their tweets on audiences.