The way I use Twitter has been constantly evolving since I joined the site in early 2007. Currently, I have two main ways that I use Twitter:1 - For conversation
2 - Sharing links
As far as sharing links, as I read through my feeds in Bloglines, when I come across a post/article that seems interesting, I will drop it in Twitter and share it with my friends and followers there. But I have always wondered if there was a way to track which links are more popular than others, so I would have a way to gauge which topics are more relevant to my followers.
Well now I've found a way, sorta. Tweetburner let's you track the links that you share on Twitter, and tells you how many times they are clicked. It also lets you see which links are the most popular within the last hour.
Now here's the kicker; Tweetburner only tracks links shared with the URL-shortening service Twurl. You can use this from the frontpage of Tweetburner, or it's a built in option for Twhirl and Tweetdeck, if you use those Twitter clients. For months I've been trying to use Tweetburner to track my shared links, but it took till yesterday to figure out that you had to create the links with Twurl! Whoops!
So play with Tweetburner and see what you think. I share links on Twitter because I want my followers to find value in them, so anything that helps me track how much value they place in these links, is a good thing!
What about you? Have you used Tweetburner to track the links you are sharing on Twitter? Or do you use another site?
6 comments:
A URL shortener that provides stats is essential to give you a feel for the impact of your tweets. I like tweetburner the best of all of the url shorteners because it is integrated with Twhirl and I can see how my links are performing compared to historical posts.
I'd *known of* tweetburner but never used it; I'll take another look at it. Thanks!
Thanks for pointing out this site. It's unfortunate that you have to use one URL shortener to track the links. From a marketing perspective, though, if you can determine the clicks from the links then it's useful to use what you can for tracking purposes
Thanks for pointing this one out. There are a few others that will allow you to track clicks, but unfortunately all are tied to particular URL shortening services. Here's the best list I can find (working on one of my own): http://mashable.com/2008/01/08/url-shortening-services/
I think tracking links is so important. To shrink and track all my links I use BudUrl. http://budurl.com/
Really helps me see what people who pay attention to me like to know more about.
On Tweetburner, how do you post any information with the link you want to share? I shortened the link and that's the only thing that went up. I was thinking I would have an option to describe what I was sharing. What am I missing or not doing?
Thanks.
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