THE PTS STUDY GROUP
the Free Hypnosis Social Network
If You Plan To 'Tweet' For Business... You Need To Track Results
Joshua has written a very informative post on Twitter.
I'm wanted to add to it, based on my experience as an Internet Marketer with a strong Direct Response Marketing influence.
First a little background... I've been using Twitter since early 2007. Less than a year after the Twitter launch date (March 1, 2006), so you can say I was one of the early adopters.
At first I played with it to get to know it. In the same way I played with Facebook, blogging on Wordpress, Google Adwords, etc. Before I invest serious time into what is claimed to be the latest 'hot' way to make money online or promote a business, I want to know all I can about the new shiny-thing.
Since then I've been testing it as to viability as a marketing tool with one of my clients who sells his products worldwide. Up until recently, it wasn't easy to discover if Twitter was doing much for you. At best you could look in your log files or web analytics program to determine traffic from Twitter.com... but that was about it.
Recently there have been a number of "twitter tracking" tools to hit the market. So far, the majority of these are free, which tells me the whole twitter business model has yet to solidify. It also means you need to realize the tool you choose may go out of business one day and cease to exist. This is important to consider when you use free services online.
Most tracker services for Twitter also offer URL shortening (example: bit.ly/085mY). This is important because Tweets are only 140 characters. Long URLs take up way too much real estate.
I have experimented with five tracking tools that have URL shorteners so far. Here are my findings:
1. BudURL (http://budurl.com) - Originally free, they now have a tiered paid service in addition to the free service. The free service doesn't tell you much of use anymore. I think these guys might have been the very first of the tracking services.
2. Twitclicks (http://twitclicks.com) - Has some nice features such as showing you locations where people live who click on your tweets, and if they clicked on Twitter or Facebook or somewhere else.
This is very useful since many people direct their tweets on to Facebook. We discovered 70% of our clicks came from Facebook and not Twitter itself.
Twitclicks also shows you other info like what browser they use (Firefox, Safari, IE, etc.) and what operating system (Mac, Linux, Windows) but this isn't useful info for marketing.
Their are 2 big problems with twitclicks, first they seem to have a lot of down time where it can't draw data from Twitter. The second is, you don't actually have an account. You sign in with your twitter ID.
There has been a lot of problems with people setting up sites that require your twitter ID and what happens is they hijack your account to spam with. Twitclicks doesn't do this, but it made me nervous to try them at first. I prefer to setup an account with these services.
3. Hootsuite (http://hootsuite.com - These guys have some pretty cool features. You can monitor multiple Twitter accounts (Yes people use more than one twitter account). You can even assign other users access to your account and what they can do in your account. This is something larger businesses would make good use of.
Hootsuite provides URL shortening and tracking, and a dashboard area where you can post from. You can see your full twitter stream, or just your posts. They also have a "most popular tweets" function, but it's buggy.
You can view stats by day, week, month, year, or date range. And it shows you regions and where your clicks came from. (see graphic)
I find the interface to be a big cluttered and slow because it's using heavy AJAX and Flash. But overall it was a solid performer, and a great choice if you plan to delegate your twitter functions to other people.
My guess is these guys will soon start charging for their full service offerings. They have some big clients but no revenue model. At some point their burn-rate on startup cash will catch up to them.
4. Bit.ly (http://bit.ly) - Bit.ly (pronounced bitt-lee) was one of the original URL shorteners, they have recently jumped into the Twitter tracking game. They are free, and pretty simple to use.
Bit.ly gives a lot of good information. It's probably the most detailed on an individual tweet basis. (see graphic)
But, what they don't do well is tell you which of your tweets (twitter posts) are most popular over time. I find this to be extremely useful. It's a form of market research. It tells you what the people following you like most.
They also don't show you overall stats like total clicks per day or all time. Makes it hard to gauge trends.
Finally they use a color scheme which doesn't have much contrast. Very annoying when looking at a lot of data.
I think these guys have a lot of promise. All my dislikes are easily fixed. This is one I would recommend to start tracking your twitter marketing.
5. Su.pr by StumbleUpon.com (http://su.pr) - This is my current favorite. So far it's been awesome. But, it's by invite only and invites are hard to come by. It's still in Beta, which means it's only going to get better. it also means you'll likely have to wait a bit before it's open to the public at large.
What I love about su.pr (pronounced "super"), is their dashboard layout which shows me most of what I need to know at a glance. They also allow you to 'schedule' tweets for later posting (very useful for marketing purposes), and even show you best times of day to post based on historical data.
With a click I can look at Recent Posts, Most Popular, and Scheduled Posts.
As you can see in the image, when possible it shows you a thumbnail of the web page or a photo from the link posted. It shows clicks, stumbles, reviews on stumble upon, the text of your tweet, and the title of the web page in the link.
You also can post and shorten the URL in the dashboard (not shown), and you have the option to post to Twitter, Facebook, or both with a single click. Pretty cool.
On the right are quick views of all time clicks and time of day clicks. You can click on these to get larger detailed graphs. You can also get more detailed info on each twitter post (see below)
You can see who retweeted it, how many followers they have (are they an 'influencer'), where the traffic came from, and click traffic by day, week, month, or year.
It also shows 'stumbles'. I won't go into what Stumbleupon is all about now, but they are a good source of traffic yet many people don't know much about them.
I'm really liking su.pr and I know some other heavy hitters like Tim Ferris are also beta testing this service, so my bet it this will come out on top as the premier Twitter tracking service.
Another reason I like them is the integration with Stumble upon. This adds another potential source of traffic. Also StumbleUpon is cash flow positive so they won't disappear anytime soon.
--==>>> KEY TAKEAWAY POINT <==--
No matter what anyone says about social media, if you plan to use it as a business tool... you need to Track and Measure!!!
Up till recently this has been a HUGE frustration for those of us with a Direct Response Marketing background. If you can't determine if the time is worth while spending on social media, how can you know if you shouldn't be doing something else instead.
Especially as one-person businesses... boot-strap entrepreneurs, every minute of your working day is extremely valuable. Time is the one resource that once used... is gone FOREVER.
I point this out because it's very easy to get sucked into Facebook and Twitter and waste hours and hours of your time. Before you do this, you need to know if it has a positive impact on your business.
At a bare minimum this means at least measuring traffic to your website and clicks on the links your post.
My take on Twitter has trended toward looking at it as a trickle in the bucket of what makes businesses go. I'm still testing various strategies for lead generation, and the jury is still out. It doesn't work at all for direct selling of products or services, but that makes sense. You only have 140 characters to say anything.
It is useful if you are a large company to find out when people are saying things about your company. There are automated search tools that can monitor all twitter traffic for keywords related to your company. Zappos, Jet Blue and others have gotten great word-of-mouth using this strategy. They also have about a dozen people handling their twitter program.
So I'll leave you with this parting thought... Before you jump into any new technology or tool for your business, first ask "is this useful", then ask "will it take time away from something I know is working". If it still makes sense, then learn the tool and develop a strategy that fits in with your other marketing systems.
If you have any question on Internet Marketing or how to apply Direct Response Marketing principles to your practice, ask them in the Internet Marketing for Hypnotists Group here on Hypnothoughts.
Cheers,
Craig Eubanks
HypnosisMarketingTips.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Internet's #1 Marketing Resource**
exclusively for Hypnosis Professionals!
http://HypnosisMarketingTips.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Google search ranking Oct 2007 - May 2009
Yahoo search ranking Dec 2007 - Apr 2009
I'm wanted to add to it, based on my experience as an Internet Marketer with a strong Direct Response Marketing influence.
First a little background... I've been using Twitter since early 2007. Less than a year after the Twitter launch date (March 1, 2006), so you can say I was one of the early adopters.
At first I played with it to get to know it. In the same way I played with Facebook, blogging on Wordpress, Google Adwords, etc. Before I invest serious time into what is claimed to be the latest 'hot' way to make money online or promote a business, I want to know all I can about the new shiny-thing.
Since then I've been testing it as to viability as a marketing tool with one of my clients who sells his products worldwide. Up until recently, it wasn't easy to discover if Twitter was doing much for you. At best you could look in your log files or web analytics program to determine traffic from Twitter.com... but that was about it.
Recently there have been a number of "twitter tracking" tools to hit the market. So far, the majority of these are free, which tells me the whole twitter business model has yet to solidify. It also means you need to realize the tool you choose may go out of business one day and cease to exist. This is important to consider when you use free services online.
Most tracker services for Twitter also offer URL shortening (example: bit.ly/085mY). This is important because Tweets are only 140 characters. Long URLs take up way too much real estate.
I have experimented with five tracking tools that have URL shorteners so far. Here are my findings:
1. BudURL (http://budurl.com) - Originally free, they now have a tiered paid service in addition to the free service. The free service doesn't tell you much of use anymore. I think these guys might have been the very first of the tracking services.
2. Twitclicks (http://twitclicks.com) - Has some nice features such as showing you locations where people live who click on your tweets, and if they clicked on Twitter or Facebook or somewhere else.
This is very useful since many people direct their tweets on to Facebook. We discovered 70% of our clicks came from Facebook and not Twitter itself.
Twitclicks also shows you other info like what browser they use (Firefox, Safari, IE, etc.) and what operating system (Mac, Linux, Windows) but this isn't useful info for marketing.
Their are 2 big problems with twitclicks, first they seem to have a lot of down time where it can't draw data from Twitter. The second is, you don't actually have an account. You sign in with your twitter ID.
There has been a lot of problems with people setting up sites that require your twitter ID and what happens is they hijack your account to spam with. Twitclicks doesn't do this, but it made me nervous to try them at first. I prefer to setup an account with these services.
3. Hootsuite (http://hootsuite.com - These guys have some pretty cool features. You can monitor multiple Twitter accounts (Yes people use more than one twitter account). You can even assign other users access to your account and what they can do in your account. This is something larger businesses would make good use of.
Hootsuite provides URL shortening and tracking, and a dashboard area where you can post from. You can see your full twitter stream, or just your posts. They also have a "most popular tweets" function, but it's buggy.
You can view stats by day, week, month, year, or date range. And it shows you regions and where your clicks came from. (see graphic)
I find the interface to be a big cluttered and slow because it's using heavy AJAX and Flash. But overall it was a solid performer, and a great choice if you plan to delegate your twitter functions to other people.
My guess is these guys will soon start charging for their full service offerings. They have some big clients but no revenue model. At some point their burn-rate on startup cash will catch up to them.
4. Bit.ly (http://bit.ly) - Bit.ly (pronounced bitt-lee) was one of the original URL shorteners, they have recently jumped into the Twitter tracking game. They are free, and pretty simple to use.
Bit.ly gives a lot of good information. It's probably the most detailed on an individual tweet basis. (see graphic)
But, what they don't do well is tell you which of your tweets (twitter posts) are most popular over time. I find this to be extremely useful. It's a form of market research. It tells you what the people following you like most.
They also don't show you overall stats like total clicks per day or all time. Makes it hard to gauge trends.
Finally they use a color scheme which doesn't have much contrast. Very annoying when looking at a lot of data.
I think these guys have a lot of promise. All my dislikes are easily fixed. This is one I would recommend to start tracking your twitter marketing.
5. Su.pr by StumbleUpon.com (http://su.pr) - This is my current favorite. So far it's been awesome. But, it's by invite only and invites are hard to come by. It's still in Beta, which means it's only going to get better. it also means you'll likely have to wait a bit before it's open to the public at large.
What I love about su.pr (pronounced "super"), is their dashboard layout which shows me most of what I need to know at a glance. They also allow you to 'schedule' tweets for later posting (very useful for marketing purposes), and even show you best times of day to post based on historical data.
With a click I can look at Recent Posts, Most Popular, and Scheduled Posts.
As you can see in the image, when possible it shows you a thumbnail of the web page or a photo from the link posted. It shows clicks, stumbles, reviews on stumble upon, the text of your tweet, and the title of the web page in the link.
You also can post and shorten the URL in the dashboard (not shown), and you have the option to post to Twitter, Facebook, or both with a single click. Pretty cool.
On the right are quick views of all time clicks and time of day clicks. You can click on these to get larger detailed graphs. You can also get more detailed info on each twitter post (see below)
You can see who retweeted it, how many followers they have (are they an 'influencer'), where the traffic came from, and click traffic by day, week, month, or year.
It also shows 'stumbles'. I won't go into what Stumbleupon is all about now, but they are a good source of traffic yet many people don't know much about them.
I'm really liking su.pr and I know some other heavy hitters like Tim Ferris are also beta testing this service, so my bet it this will come out on top as the premier Twitter tracking service.
Another reason I like them is the integration with Stumble upon. This adds another potential source of traffic. Also StumbleUpon is cash flow positive so they won't disappear anytime soon.
--==>>> KEY TAKEAWAY POINT <==--
No matter what anyone says about social media, if you plan to use it as a business tool... you need to Track and Measure!!!
Up till recently this has been a HUGE frustration for those of us with a Direct Response Marketing background. If you can't determine if the time is worth while spending on social media, how can you know if you shouldn't be doing something else instead.
Especially as one-person businesses... boot-strap entrepreneurs, every minute of your working day is extremely valuable. Time is the one resource that once used... is gone FOREVER.
I point this out because it's very easy to get sucked into Facebook and Twitter and waste hours and hours of your time. Before you do this, you need to know if it has a positive impact on your business.
At a bare minimum this means at least measuring traffic to your website and clicks on the links your post.
My take on Twitter has trended toward looking at it as a trickle in the bucket of what makes businesses go. I'm still testing various strategies for lead generation, and the jury is still out. It doesn't work at all for direct selling of products or services, but that makes sense. You only have 140 characters to say anything.
It is useful if you are a large company to find out when people are saying things about your company. There are automated search tools that can monitor all twitter traffic for keywords related to your company. Zappos, Jet Blue and others have gotten great word-of-mouth using this strategy. They also have about a dozen people handling their twitter program.
So I'll leave you with this parting thought... Before you jump into any new technology or tool for your business, first ask "is this useful", then ask "will it take time away from something I know is working". If it still makes sense, then learn the tool and develop a strategy that fits in with your other marketing systems.
If you have any question on Internet Marketing or how to apply Direct Response Marketing principles to your practice, ask them in the Internet Marketing for Hypnotists Group here on Hypnothoughts.
Cheers,
Craig Eubanks
HypnosisMarketingTips.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Internet's #1 Marketing Resource**
exclusively for Hypnosis Professionals!
http://HypnosisMarketingTips.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Google search ranking Oct 2007 - May 2009
Yahoo search ranking Dec 2007 - Apr 2009
Tags: Internet Marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing, Social Media, Testing, Tracking, Twitter
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by David Snyder on -
HI Craig,
Great post. I always wondered if twitter was worth anything in terms of its ability to generate traffic that converts, or any traffic at all for that matter.
From where I sit, I don't know if it would be viable for me in any of my niches.
Thanks again.
David -
-
Permalink Reply by Hugh Cole on -
Thanks Craig .... It's really germane for what I am doing now. great article. I have been using stumbleupon for a while now. I didn't know about su.pr, Looking forward to testing it out when it is released to the masses.
Hugh -
-
Permalink Reply by Craig Eubanks on -
David Snyder said:HI Craig,
Great post. I always wondered if twitter was worth anything in terms of its ability to generate traffic that converts, or any traffic at all for that matter.
From where I sit, I don't know if it would be viable for me in any of my niches.
Thanks again.
David
Hi David,
I would not devote too much time to it unless you can find an intern to do it for you. We are noticing more traffic from Twitter, but it's still small compared to PPC, Affiliate links, and JV deals. Percentage wise it's less than 1%, and I've been hitting it hard recently with a constant stream of tweets. (To be fair, we are still building a list of followers, and compared the email newsletter list Twitter list is also less than 1%.)
Whereas we get almost 2/3 of traffic from Google & Yahoo PPC.
What I have noticed, is a very noticeable difference in number of pages viewed. Twitter folks look at an average of 7.66 pages/ visit. Normal average is about 3.5.
And it's too early to say if these people will become buyers. about 27% ask for the free CD and we have a good conversion with that offer, but it takes about 29 days for them to buy from time they order the CD.
So, as I say I'm still undecided if all the effort is worth it. Even with automation tools, it still takes time to set up each day. I'm guessing if we had 50,000 followers like some of the Internet Marketers I know, it would be worth the time for lead generation.
So it goes back to the fundamental of list building. And unlike building a direct mail list, or email list, you really have no idea who your followers are. Kind of like shooting darts blindfolded.
Right now I'm more interested in testing Direct Mail and print media because the bang for the buck is so much higher there right now. Everyone is trying to get free traffic, so the old reliable trusted marketing channels are mostly being ignored.
Cheers,
Craig Eubanks
http://twitter.com/CraigEubanks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Internet's #1 Marketing Resource**
exclusively for Hypnosis Professionals!
HypnosisMarketingTips.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Google search ranking Oct 2007 - May 2009
Yahoo search ranking Dec 2007 - Apr 2009 -
-
Permalink Reply by Craig Eubanks on
-
Hugh Cole said:Thanks Craig .... It's really germane for what I am doing now. great article. I have been using stumbleupon for a while now. I didn't know about su.pr, Looking forward to testing it out when it is released to the masses.
Hugh
Hi Hugh,
You can try following stumbleupon on twitter. A while back that was how they gave out invite codes. I haven't seen any for awhile, but still worth a try.
Cheers,
Craig
http://twitter.com/CraigEubanks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Internet's #1 Marketing Resource**
exclusively for Hypnosis Professionals!
http://HypnosisMarketingTips.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -
-
Permalink Reply by Pattie Freeman CH.t, MST on -
Thanks I do use twitter and wanted to get more info just like you provided here..thanks for sharing this....I am looking into the tracking...
-
-
Permalink Reply by Kathleen Hanover on
-
Hi Craig,
Thanks so much for posting all that info. I manage Twitter accounts for several clients, so I'm always on the lookout for new tools. I have clients in several different industries, and with several different levels of Internet sophistication, so SIMPLE is very important to me.
I've asked for a su.pr invite but haven't received it yet. So for me, Bit.ly is the big winner, at least on my two personal Twitter accounts.
I've also tried HootSuite and TweetLater, for myself and for clients. Hootsuite has excellent customer service (if you mention @hootsuite in a Tweet, you'll get an immediate @reply from a representative.) However, I'm not thrilled with being forced to use their ow.ly URL shortener. I like Bit.ly, dangit. TweetLater showed some promise, but now they're moving some of the formerly free features to the paid side of the ledger, so I don't use them for much anymore.
I also have 20 years of direct marketing experience, and I agree that tracking and measurement is key to determining ROI on campaigns. I don't necessarily agree that Twitter is a DM (direct marketing) channel, though. I would actually classify Twitter as a PR or customer relationship tool. It's great for positioning and list-building, and to create a following. I think it can be a great DM channel, but only after you've done the hard work of creating a community.
And I'm off to check Twitter one more time before bed...zzzzzz.
Kathleen
Seeing the world through marketing-colored glasses -
-
Permalink Reply by Marc Carlin on -
Hi Craig,
Great info by the way. I like all the stuff about tracking.
I see twitter, and facebook, as a playground. Something to use to make your presence known. Meet new people around the world and create a following, little by little, by what you say, and what you share.
I notice others on facebook, and twitter who are constantly posting promos for their stuff and links to sales or affiliate pages, and I think what a bunch of BS. And if I'm thinking that I'm sure others are seeing that as well, and viewing these posters as what they are.
I wouldn't hold off on setting up an account because it doesn't generate income at the moment. I think that is short sited. And it's not about the money from twitter, it's about having a presence and having fun and letting people get to know who you are and maybe whether they want to investigate further by checking out your other properties around the web.
And of course I always enjoy and look forward to your tweets. They are always informative and give me ideas of what I can do for my business. I think you use twitter the way it works best.
Marc -
Featured Advertising
Latest Activity
Spellbinde, Kevin Cole-NLPTrainingQuest.com and 2 other members joined Michael Ellner's group
Spellbinde, Suggestive Celine -"The Queen of and 3 other members joined Leshem Yosef's group
Roger Moore replied to Dan Kern's discussion 'HypnoBand Vs Bariatric operations' in the group ICBCH: Hypnosis, NLP & Coaching
Don commented on Don's blog post 'Spontaneous Orgasms and Hypnosis (Revised)'
Discussion posted by Brian Sanders, Maryland Hypnosis
Don replied to Lorrie Hale-Ozbey's discussion 'NLP and Human Performance Technology'
Seth-Deborah Roth replied to Steve G. Jones's discussion 'Hypnotherapy Regulation'
Roy Hunter replied to Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com's discussion 'Informed Consent'
© 2012 Created by Scott Sandland.
About Us
Contact Us
Subscribe To RSS