Don’t Waste Your Time
One of the reasons many people hesitate to implement a social media marketing plan is that most of the time, it is difficult to measure results and efforts can go unmeasured (which makes it a hard sale for a lot of people).
When we use Twitter, we share links and due to the nature of the limitation to 140 characters, we employ URL shorteners (such at TinyURL, bit.ly, is.gd, hex.io, etc) where you enter your long URL and it spits out a shorter, more Twitter-friendly or SMS/Text friendly URL.
But How Do I Measure?
Instead of just making a shortened URL, try out BudURL which has a built-in metrics system that refreshes every ten seconds to show you the traffic from the URL:
More detailed information is given, including IP addresses (similarly to when you comment on a blog) of people who click through which is how you measure where your traffic is coming from, namely geographically:
A Step in the Right Direction
I think BudURL is making a big step in the right direction and I hope other services become easier to track so people know what efforts they make are working and which are not. Some people swear by Twitter, others disavow it and either way, there’s finally some trackability (yeah, I can use made up words) to social media, starting with a simple URL shortener.
Rocky
October 4, 2008 at 9:51 am
Lani, that is a good tool to use for metric’s, however I have found Tweetburner.com to be just as good. It also alows you to shorten and tweet right from there site and also includes a friend feed feature.
Great post.
Mike Mueller
October 4, 2008 at 9:58 am
I’m a fan, especially when I’m linking to something important. Often times it’s a silly link and just tinyurl from Twhirl.
I’ve used TweetBurner as well.
If you are new to Twitter (Hi ActiveRain) and wondering if your tweets are worth it, here is your answer.
Good Stuff!
The Harriman Team
October 4, 2008 at 10:01 am
Good stuff, Lani! I’ve seen you and a few others using this service and wondered if there was an value added to it, now I know. I’m a number geek, so anything to help track results is a plus in my book. I’ll be signing up soon!
Lani Anglin-Rosales
October 4, 2008 at 10:05 am
Plus like everything good in this world, the BudURL team is in Austin. 🙂 Just thought I’d throw that in there for good measure…
Ken Brand
October 4, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks for sharing. We all need a scout/point woman, sharing the goodies, tips and gee-whiz cool stuff. Thank you.
Andy Meadows
October 6, 2008 at 9:43 am
Lani,
Thanks for the great feedback and review! Yes, there are other shorteners out there with a few stats, but we’ll actually be rolling out a LOT MORE stats in the next few weeks. We’re tracking a lot of data that we aren’t displaying yet and we’ll be able to retro-actively display this to you as soon as we have it ready.
Please keep the feedback coming and let us know how we can make BudURL better!
All the Best,
Andy
budurl.com
Robert D. Ashby
October 6, 2008 at 10:26 am
I justed Tweeted my first budurl link. Thanks for the insight to this one as the little toolbar feature makes it easy.
Pam Buda
October 6, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Hi Lani–thanks for the tip–I created a slideshow on Flickr today from some vineyard photos taken today by a friend. Tweeted the link –11 click-throughs almost instantly. Blog-posted a slideshow excerpt and link (with a unique budurl)–7 immediate clickthroughs, and embedded a 3rd budurl in a group email. It will be interesting to follow.
Cheers!