I’m still kicking the tires on Google + but from what I’ve seen, it has the potential to be a real power building technology.

Power building for what you ask? How about for building brand awareness, building a voter base, changing the world, or shifting public perceptions.

Photo Credit: Pierofix on Flickr - License

Circles

I especially like the Circles concept. While advising clients on effective ways of using social media for their businesses, I often end up drawing concentric circle diagrams in response to the “who do I connect to” question.

I suggest clients start with the people they know and trust very well (such as employees, family, business partners) and put them in the center. Then in the next ring, they would put the people they trust and have done business with. The next ring would be people they have met locally during mixers, people in their same industry, potential customers, and possible referral sources. The last ring would be people they connect with online for the first time.

This last ring could end up with thousands of people. I wrote about how these networks can be activated in an earlier post.

Google + allows you to manage content per Circle without having to create separate accounts. On Twitter, the only way you can really separate content is by having different accounts. I have my main account (@jesseluna) then I have one that is blogging focused (@niceblog) and another that is focused on film (@cinemaluna). I could have used one account and tweet all the content from one place but I wanted to have more vertical presences with the latter two accounts. In other words, I wanted them to be super focused on the content areas.

The main idea with Circles is that we only want to share certain information with certain groups. We may want to do this for different reasons:

If you have a “Twitter followers” group and also a “Closest supporters” Circle, you probably have a lot more people in the former. Imagine how powerful your network would become if you moved over a lot of your Twitter Followers into your closer networks.

You don’t need thousands of people in your “Closest Supporters” group. Just as in the movie “300″, a strong army of 300 can change the world.

Power Building In Action

Chris Brogan is one of the top bloggers on the Web. He just put out a post entitled “The Google PLUS 50” with 50 things to think about in relation to Google +. Within a few hours of posting the article, it had already received 56 comments and 600 reactions.

Brogan could have written the standard “10 things” kind of post but 50 is a whopping number. With a post like this, he’s able to draw in his blog readers, Twitter followers, and his Facebook fans and get a strong foothold in the new social network.

–

Adriel Hampton is active in the Gov2.0 world and is also known for live tweeting his run for Congress. Adriel was one of the first people in my Twitter stream that was actively hooking people up with Google + invites. He directed his Twitter and Facebook followers to “@” him their email addresses and also to request invites using his blog.

Would you be more likely to support a candidate who knew how to work the Social Web and took an early foothold in a new network? Um, Yes.

–

As I was finishing up this post, I wanted it to be more gender balanced so I asked Twitter if there were any women out there taking an “early lead” on Google plus, especially community builders. One of my Twitter friends, Susie Wee (@susiewee) replied with a list of three people and one of the three provided a list of more women making an early impact on Google Plus.

Susie Wee – She didn’t list herself but she is a VP at Cisco. I met Susie a couple of years back at Shel Israel’s Twitterville book launch event in San Carlos.

Tatyana Kanzaveli – she is @glfceo on Twitter. She is an executive with Social CRM and an expert event planner. I also met her at the Twitterville event.

Susan Beebe – works in Global Social Media department at Dell. One look at her Google Plus posts and you know why Susie mentioned her. She engages and is helping to expand the platform. She is @susanbeebe on Twitter.

Trisha Liu – Trisha works for ArcSight, an HP company. The big brands are definitely finding their way to Google Plus!

Other women who were mentioned for expanding the platform with powerful and engaging content are Megan Murray, Robyn Miller, and Susan Scrupski.

Final thoughts on Google + power building
First of all, if you’re not on Google + yet and need an invite, feel free to tweet me (@jesseluna) your email address or post it below in the Comments.

Second, it’s not just about setting up the right circles, it’s about delivering content that engages your audience and resonates with them.

I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing about what you do with Google +.


Photo credit: Building – By DCMaster on Flickr – License

I avoided paying attention to QR codes. Some of my Twitter friends were obsessed with them and I hadn’t investigate them enough to see the full value. Now I do.

QR Codes are a great way to connect mobile devices to print, signage, clothing, and much much much more.

• > Jump to the “How to Add A QR Code To Your Blog Video

Best Uses

Some of the best uses of QR codes come from online companies that are part of the mobile application ecosystem.

The Appsgeyser mobile development site for Android apps uses QR Codes to prompt developers/users to download apps.

OpenAppMarket is a mini app store for HTML5 applications. You can get to the apps from the URL, by posting via phone, or by accessing the QR code.

Best Buy’s QR code labeled price tags. How many times do you go buy something then wish you had a computer so you could look things up? Happens to me all the time. I don’t carry my laptop around while shopping but I always have my smart phone.

Photo credit: Travelin’ Librarian on Flickrlicense

QR Code Scanners

I did a little Twitter crowdsourcing a couple of weeks ago and asked tweeps what their favorite QR Code readers were. I expected to hear crickets but QR Code lovers came out of the woodwork. These are some of the apps they mentioned.

1) Qrafter - Free: Not bad but the ads are pretty obvious and it has a couple of extra steps to actually get to the URL. The app had trouble recognizing some on screen codes that my favorite ones were able to read.

2) Microsoft Tag reader – Free: Had trouble recognizing tags. I stopped testing it after it missed a couple of tags.

3) AT&T Code Scanner – Winner! Free: This app is great and it’s the one I started using on a regular basis. I also used it to test out my Create Your Own Code application.

How To Add A QR Code To Your Blog

Related reading:

Who’s Really Scanning All Those QR Codes? [INFOGRAPHIC] on Mashable

The MyMic Facebook application lets you post audio updates to your Facebook profile or onto your friend’s Wall. You can post up to five seconds for free and there are paid options to post longer messages.

I ran into the application’s creator, LeaAnna Hernandez (@MyMicApp on Twitter), during a #LATISM Twitter chat. I had asked the Twittersphere if there were any Latino/Latina startup techies out there and LeaAnna “raised her hand.”

The application caught my eye because:

1. It is super easy to use. There’s a tutorial at the end of this post just in case you have questions.
   
2. Your friends don’t have to install anything to listen to your messages.
   
3. My Facebook friends started asking about it once I posted my first message. I love attention.
   

I also liked the recent press release where LeaAnna says,

“Sometimes we don’t want to be on camera. Maybe we’re having a bad hair day or the lighting isn’t the most flattering. With MyMic, none of that matters. Users, musicians, celebrities can easily record updates in their pajamas and no one would know the difference”.

I caught up with LeaAnna for an interview

JPL: Why did you select audio?

LH: I come from the radio industry…specializing in advertising. So i wanted to build an app that could marry radio with social. Businesses run commercials on radio stations. So I built the app for businesses to be able to run “social commercials” on Facebook.

JPL: I think I saw some stats that only one in a thousand YouTube users actually records and uploads a video. What do you think that ratio will look like for audio?

LH: I think that there are a lot of people that are camera shy and don’t want to be on camera. It literally is a production, having to get the right angle from the camera…nice lighting….good backdrop maybe.

With audio, it’s much easier and faster so I am inclined to think that it would be better but it’s still so new that only time will tell.

JPL: I tested the application and was able to post to my profile and to a friend’s Wall. Is there a way to post MyMic messages to the Facebook pages that I administer?

LH: In 2 weeks we are adding the feature to post recordings on Fan pages. I “like” your thinking.

JPL: Do you see businesses using MyMic the same way they use radio? Will they even start off using the same on air commercials?

LH: I think some brands will initially use their same radio ads. But others will get more creative.
For example, one advertiser I know is looking to create a promotion where they ask their friends to come up with a new slogan for the brand and record with MyMic. (This is another reason why the post on fan page functionality is important ). And they have an incentive attached to the promotion.

How does MyMic work?

MyMic is extremely easy to use. All you have to do is:

1) Go to the MyMic Application page on Facebook.

2) Click on the “Start Recording” button.

3) The little Adobe Flash Player Settings alert box will appear. Click on “Allow” to give the application permission to access your microphone.

4) Now you’re ready to record. To post a five second audio message for free, just click on the little red record button and leave your message.

5) Click on the “Publish” button and you’ll have the option to set a post Title and add a Message.

6) Decide if you want to post to your Facebook Profile by clicking on the “Save and Publish” button or post on a friend’s Wall by clicking on the “Send To A Friend” button.

Once you click on the “Save and Publish” button, you’ll get the “Post To Your Wall” dialog box.

From the “Post to Your Wall” dialog box you can decide who can see this post. You can choose to make it visible to Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or Customize things.

Your Facebook friends can now listen to your recording without having to install any kind of application.

If you’d like to send the audio message to specific friend, you can select the “Send to a Friend” option when you publish. When you do this, you’ll be able to search and click to select the message recipient. This will post the message to their Wall. (The application does not allow you to post private messages at this time.)

I like the way the application allows you to filter then select friends. As you type in letters, the little picture list below filters your friends. This is especially useful for people who have a ton of friends.

At this time, you’re only allowed to post to the Wall of one friend and there’s no option for tagging other people.

Final Thoughts

I like the simplicity of the MyMic app and already have a lot of ideas on how to use it for Facebook promotions. I think this will be a nice utility for companies, Facebook page admins, and heavy duty content creators. It will be interesting to see if removing the “bad hair day” factor, as it exists with video, will encourage “regular” Facebook users to take on a new medium. As LeaAnna says, “only time will tell.”

Ok, it’s time to test out MyMic Application then report back here to leave your feedback. Will MyMic catch on? Was it easy to use? Did your Facebook friends like it and ask about it? Come on back and share with the other readers!

I love sharing information, including technology trends, social media How To’s, breaking and local business news, and information on advocacy groups. On Twitter, I’ll share 5-10 items per day, sometimes in a rapid fire method. On Facebook I’ll “Like” or “Share” several posts a day. Multiply these activities by the number of Twitter and Facebook users and you have an unprecedented amount of sharing and re-sharing.

So why limit the scope of your message? Let it run wild!

Here are five tips to help you set your message free.

Give Your Email Legs

Ok, so you spent two weeks working with a team to create the perfect email message. Maybe you’re about to launch a new product, announce a new conference, drive donors to your non-profit site, or share your latest video creation.

There are three important items to add to your email deployment checklist:

1. Do you have an online version of your email with a link to that page on the email? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received a juicy email that I want to share with the world and struggled or have been unable to find the online version. If I don’t have a link, I can can’t share it with my online network. What a missed opportunity.
   
   If you do have an online version, please think clearly before deciding to host that content on the email management tool’s site. Do you want to drive content to Constant Contact’s site or to your site, for example?
2. Do you have a Twitter or Facebook share feature on your email? This makes sharing one step easier. With the click of a button, your message can flow to two of the most supercharged sharing sites in the world.
3. Is it easy to forward the email to a friend? Some email messages have nifty “Forward to a Friend” features that make it easy to share content. I rarely use this feature but there are some people who like it, especially if it is from an authority site like a news agency or major publication. If the email is breaking news or highly relevant to your personal or business contacts then this could help your message take off.

This Kodak email has an online version and ways for users to subscribe to Facebook and Twitter. The email could be enhanced with actual tweet buttons that automatically format the Twitter and Facebook messages, so posting is only one click away.

Let’s look at this from a numbers perspective. If you send out your email message to your permission-based list of 10,000 contacts and you don’t add any sharing features, then your message is limited to the number of recipients plus the number of times your email is forwarded to other contacts. Let’s be generous and say that 100 of the emails were forwarded to contacts. That’s a reach of 10,100.

If you add a link to your online content and have a Facebook and Twitter share then the numbers shift. Your initial contacts receive the message and can then re-post the message to their followers via Twitter or Friends on Facebook. If I tweet about an item, the message is instantly available to over 8,400 followers! That’s almost double the reach from ONE contact. Factor in retweets and other people sharing and the reach can get to 100,000 very quickly.

From your Website to the World

1. Add a Tweet button and Facebook Share and/or Like feature to your Web pages and blog posts. Yes, this is the same tip as for your email messaging but it’s important to give your site/blog readers a way to share content with their networks Clear a path.
2. Do you have a compelling image on your web page or blog post? A good photo or graphic will catch a persons attention and make it more share worthy. On Facebook, the image will show up as a thumbnail picture. Your Facebook friends will be much more likely to Like the post and to re-share it.
   
   Note: if you don’t select a photo to go with your page/post and someone “Facebooks it” then they will either get a selection of random image options (icons from your sidebar or unrelated content) or they won’t have any option.

(Link to The Spice Spoon blog.)

Review

We just reviewed how to clear a path for your important messages. If your message is clear, relevant, and timely then these tips can help your message spread like wildfire.

Do you have any other design tips to help your messages spread?

Photo Credit: Vestman on Flickr – License

I’ve been on the job hunt since June 1, 2010, almost five months. In that time I’ve been very fortunate to have received support from my family, friends, and social network buddies.

Job searching can be an energy-draining and demoralizing process. Dozens of resumes and cover letters are sent out, screening calls happen, interviews happen, and zippo. Despite coming up empty, I’ve managed to stay sane by following these five rules:

1. Say Yes!
2. Exercise
3. Eat well
4. Network like it’s going out of style
5. Be Grateful

Say Yes!

Life isn’t a movie but I love the film Yes Man with Jim Carrey. If you haven’t seen the film, the Jim Carrey character meets a personal development guru and he is bound to say “Yes” to everything that comes into his life – or really bad things happen.

I’ve taken the same Yes Man approach to opportunities and it has taken me on some interesting paths. For example, rocker Dave Navarro (@davenavarro6767 on Twitter) posted a tweet asking if anyone was interested in free tickets to see him perform at the Staples Center for an E3 event. It was 6:30am on a Sunday and I tweeted him back. A couple of days later, I was watching Dave and Jane’s Addiction, Eminem, Rihanna, Usher, Will.i.am, and N.E.R.D. perform a few feet away. It’s really difficult to feel down when you have amazing experiences like this.

There was also a certain amount of serendipity at play as I had a scheduled job interview the very next day at the LA Convention Center, only a hundred yards away.

Exercise

Rejection is physically draining so doing exercise is great way to counteract the negative juju and keep the engine going. I take my Lab, Ivory, for a 30-minute walk every morning. This gets me out of bed, starts off my morning routine, and serves as a solid victory that I can build upon. Walking and spending time with Ivory is also very grounding. I give myself permission to enjoy the time and be present.

I’ve considered taking up more intense sports but the closest I’ve gotten is doing more gardening. The tomato plants are doing nicely, thank you.

Eat Well

I’m a stress eater. When the negative boo birds start chirping my impulse is to go straight for the cookies. About a year ago, I decided to give my body a break from red meat, all soda, cookies, and greasy food. By replacing those foods with healthier ones, I dropped 30 pounds in three months and found that I had a lot more energy.

I really needed that extra energy boost after being laid off. It would have been super easy to have given up on the healthy eating but I’ve mostly stuck with it and kept off most of the weight.

Foods that have helped me release the weight and boost my energy:

• Oatmeal
• Trail Mix of unsalted mixed nuts and berries. I add these to my morning oatmeal with soy milk.
• Salmon fillets. Costco has great deals on them. I grill them with a chili powder, chili pepper flakes, paprika, and olive oil rub.
• Chicken salads. You can actually get pretty decent chicken salads at most major fast food places. I go for a balsamic vinegar dressing on the side.
• Turkey burgers. I love hamburgers but I’ve cut way back on red meat. A turkey burger with moderate dressing on a whole grain bun is still delicious.

Network like it’s going out of style

Job searching can drag you into a pit if despair, if you let it. The best way to do that is to isolate yourself.

I’ve been networking my ass off for the past five months. I’m a people person so I get energy being around other people. I’ve been attending networking events even if I have to drive two hours into LA. Networking surrounds me with creative, energetic, entrepreneurial, cool people, and new learning experiences. I’ve also received a lot of job leads, offers to review my job search strategy, and partnering opportunities.

In addition to saying “yes” to the purely fun stuff, I’ve also said yet to volunteer opportunities. This includes helping to plan a CAUSE fundraiser where we raised over $80K. It was great connecting with community resources and I made a lot of contacts that led to job interviews. Volunteering is a great way to tap into new networks.

Volunteering is also great because it puts you in the “work zone.” It was interesting seeing this season’s The Apprentice opener which includes laid off and underemployed participants. In the first episode, participants were totally rusty at working together and project management. Several of them commented on that. Volunteering will help you stay sharp. Right now I’m knocking on doors to help Get Out The Vote, co-producing a Latinos In Social Media (LATISM) conference, and managing online sites for two Stanford Alumni groups. Are these activities helping to keep me energized? Yes. Will they lead to a job, we’ll see.

Be Grateful

Being unemployed sucks. If that’s all that’s on your mind then it will drag you into its negative vortex. Focusing on the people and things in my life that matter has helped me stay hopeful and positive.

If you’ve read this far then I suspect you may be in a similar situation. Let me know if I can help in any way and best of luck to you.

Raul Porto is CEO of Porto’s Bakery, the largest retail bakery in the United States. Porto rarely does public speaking engagements so it was a treat to hear his presentation at the Latino Entrepreneur + Social Media Forum.

After listening to Porto, you definitely get the sense that he loves what he does. He talks about growing a business using instinct, observation, and some more “traditional” techniques.

I’ve heard people say this many times and have experienced it myself, job hunting is a full time job. This isn’t a pie in the sky tech blog post, this is coming from the trenches. I’ve been job searching for the past four months and I want to share my observations using LinkedIn to help you with your search.

Update Your Profile

The main tip for creating your LinkedIn profile is to create a focused account of your recent career experiences. Fill out the entire profile, including past positions, education, interests, and groups. Manage your profile information as closely as you manage your updated resume(s). Be professional, accurate, and put your best foot forward.


Key Sections

• Make sure to update your Contact Settings to match your job search strategyIf you can list that you’re interested in “Career Opportunities” then make sure to list it. If you’re currently in a job but looking for another opportunity, you may not want to add the “Career Opportunities” to the list to keep your search under the radar.
• Take some time to carefully craft the Summary section. I had a one sentence “mission statement” there for a long time but as I used LinkedIn more and more I found other people’s Summary statements useful. Plus, I received feedback from a career counselor that it needed to be beefed up.

  Think of the Summary as a condensed job description. If you’re currently working then write a one or two paragraph description of your key duties and also fold in some of your key accomplishments. If you’re unemployed then list some of your key experiences that match the jobs you’re looking for. You can do this by pulling out one of the job descriptions that you’ve applied to (because you think there’s a great fit) and reflect those qualifications in your Summary. Employers labor over writing those job descriptions and use very exact language to attract the right possible employees so make use of them.

Do Some Networking

1. Connect with current and former colleagues. Reach out to people you have good relationships with in your social network communities. The stronger the relationship, the more valuable they will be in your job search. You’ll be helping them out in the future. Connect with in real life and also online via LinkedIn. The photos above are from local networking events.
2. Use your contacts judiciously and only request connections to people you don’t know when they are super strategic to your search.
3. If you can connect with reputable recruiters, then do so. A Twitter friend recommended a recruiter and she’s been great at sharing job listings and keeping them updated with the current status. While I’ve been connected to her, she’s found jobs for dozens of people via LinkedIn. Contact me if you are in IT in the LA or Ventura County and I’ll pass you her information.

Use It For Research

LinkedIn is incredible for doing research on possible employers:

1. Many companies are listed on LinkedIn. During a typical day’s search, I’ll look up ten companies on LinkedIn and usually nine of them are listed.
2. You can “follow” companies. Then, you can see when new jobs are added, if people leave the company, or if someone gets a promotions.
3. Just as employers can research you online, you can research employees, especially hiring managers and people who will be interviewing you.
4. I also like looking at who’s being promoted and who’s recently left the company. This is a way to get a peek into the current company activities and may point out a new way for you to fit into the organization. “What, I won’t fit into that online marketing manger role? Well maybe I would fit in the Systems Analyst side of things.” This is all valuable intelligence.
5. Look at the Summary descriptions for existing company employees. This give you an idea of what people are really doing. You may be able to get a better picture of who you might be reporting to or who you might be managing.
6. Look at recommendations written for people in the company (you may need to be connected to them to see this). Recommendations from employee colleagues can tell you what employees value and some of their company lingo. For example, if several people recommend an employee and mention “excellent team player” then you have an idea that working in a team is important to that company culture.

Use The Job Search Tool

LinkedIn also has a good job search tool. You can actually apply for some jobs directly via LinkedIn.

I must say, I applied for several positions using this method but never heard back from the companies. This could indicate a hole in the application process or just a bad match. At the very least, this is a great way to discover job opportunities. If you have better luck applying to jobs via different channels (on Monster, Dice, Indeed, recruiter, etc.), you may want to use the LinkedIn search results then go check your favorite channel.

(click below to enlarge the image)

Review

LinkedIn provides an intelligent set of tools to help you with your search. Take the time to set up your LinkedIn account then use it wisely. I hope these tips help. Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by. Please share you LinkedIn job tips and comments below.

Photo Credits:
Atomicshark (cat picture) – License
Stefan (strormtrooper investigator) - License

When I heard Beth Kanter and Allison Fine had created a book for non-profits,The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change, I had to pick up a copy. I’ve been following Beth on Twitter (@kanter) for a year and a half and had the opportunity to chat with her at the Twitterville launch party a year ago.

The Networked Nonprofit does an excellent job explaining the “What?” behind social media for non-profits. What is social media? How does it apply to non-profits and what is the larger picture?

It’s easy to get caught up in the technology and tools aspect of social networking. The Networked Nonprofit lays out an easy to understand view of the Web 2.0 environment without forcing readers to jump over technological jargon barriers.

Social media is all about networking, something non-profits understand very well. The book builds off of that familiar concept and uses it as a scaffold to approach topics like online engagement, transparency, and crowdsourcing.

I strongly believe that The Networked Nonprofit belongs on the nightstand of every non-profit manager and anyone looking to support non-profits.

You can order a copy or a set of The Networked Nonprofits books via Amazon (affiliate link below).

Photo Credit: Noah Sussman – License

It’s easy to get caught up in technology for technology’s sake.

A programmer creates a cool tool in isolation and launches it to the bewilderment of users, a credit card machine requires unnecessary steps to process a transaction, an electronics security device is ten times more cumbersome than it’s worth in security.  These are all barriers that frustrate the heck out of customers.

I recently had a positive experience with a technology gizmo while shoe shopping.  The shoe store attendant offered to measure my feet using a digital foot analysis tool.  All I had to do was take off my shoes and step into the machine.

Once in the device, a wall-mounted screen displayed an outline of my foot, it’s arch area, and pressure points.  This allows the attendant to get the correct shoe size, suggest better fitting shoe options, and later try to sell me on custom inserts.

I ended up trying on several pairs of shoes but didn’t find the right fit.  But I loved how the store used a piece of technology to get me closer to a sale.

1. The first “step” was to get me to take off my shoes, which is always key in the shoe sales process.  This is getting me to “first base.”
2. The attendant used the analysis data to recommend well-fitting shoes.
3. Because the analysis screen was mounted on the wall, mall shoppers could see what was going on.  The bright and colorful screen could help bring in the curious.
4. The next time I go shoe shopping, I’ll visit that store because I know they’ll get me closer to finding well-fitting shoes.

So if you notice that customers suddenly started abandoning online shopping carts, sending few Web inquiries, or are buying few products from your stores, make sure you didn’t introduce a cool new technology feature that is getting in the way of a sale.  The best advice is to track the introduction of new technologies in your sales process and measure their effectiveness.

Do you know of a technology device or system that made a noticeable difference in your purchasing decision?  Please share.

I use Google Analytics to track activity to and from my blog. Unfortunately, there are a lot of holes in that process, especially related to Twitter clickthroughs.

• First, some users bookmark the page, then revisit the site. These visitors are great because they found value in the site and are coming back for more. However, there is no way to tell if someone actually bookmarked the page or if something else happened.
• Other visitors arrive here by clicking on a link from a mobile Twitter application. Several of these applications remove the “referrer” information which causes another question mark when I go to check stats.
• If a visitor is using Internet Explorer and clicks through on a link from a site that uses a JavaScript popup, then the referrer information is lost. This sounds like a minor case but if you’re doing hardcore tracking to drill down on a marketing campaign’s ROI, this factor can be maddening.
• Lastly, if a visitor clicks on the Tweet Button and posts a link to Twitter, the URL is “automagically” shortened via Twitter’s link service (http://t.co). If a user clicks on a tweeted out link, you’ll know that the visitor came from Twitter but you won’t know where the link originated. Did a user get there from clicking on a Tweet Button link? Did someone cut and paste the blog post’s URL from the Web browser into a tweet? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Benefits

Before I started using this Google Analytics tracking technique, 16.8% of my traffic was showing up as “Direct Traffic.” After I started tracking Tweet Button clicks and Feedburner subscription clicks, that number went down to 13.45% and a new “Other” figure emerged.

This is awesome because now I can examine the behavior of visitors who click on the Tweet Button. Do Tweet Button visitors stay longer, visit more pages, or take key actions? Now I can answer some of these questions when before it was a mystery.

Because a good chunk of my blog’s traffic comes from Twitter interactions, you can see that the TweetButton clicks are in the site’s top 10 Traffic Sources. I can also see individual stats related to these visitors such as Bounce Rates, Time On Site, Goal Conversions and more.

The Hack

We’re going to address the last case with this next hack. In order for this to work, you won’t be able to use the standard Tweet Button plugin. We’ll have to add the button by hand.

1. Go to the Google URL Builder Tool page.
2. Enter your site’s URL.
3. Enter the Campaign Source, Medium, and Campaign Name. I used “Twitter”, “TweetButton”, and “Blogpost” respectively.
4. Click on the “Generate URL” button. This will build a link just below the button.
5. Copy the link. We’re mostly concerned with the end of the link, starting with the “?” mark.
6. Paste this code into your theme’s Header or Footer template files. I placed the code just before the < /head > tag in the Header.
   [php]<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"></script>[/php]
7. Configure your Tweet Button HTML code as in this example (for WordPress.org blogs): [php]<!–Twitter tweet button–>
   <a href="http://twitter.com/share"
   data-url="<?php the_permalink(); ?>?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweetbutton&utm_campaign=blogpost"
   data-via="jesseluna"
   data-text="<?php the_title(); ?>"
   data-related="niceblog:My Blogging Lab"
   data-count="vertical">Tweet</a>

   <!–/Twitter tweet button–>[/php]

   The main “hack” comes from the data-url parameter value where we add the Google Analytics formatted tracking parameters, just after the Permalink. This way, when Twitter shortens the link into it’s t.co format, the link value will contain the tracking information.

   In the above example, “data-via” is the Twitter user name that will appear on the tweet as “via .” “Data-text” is the text I want to display with the link.  In this case I’m displaying the post’s title.  “Data-related” is an optional related account that can be displayed. In this case I’m showing my blogging Lab account, @niceblog. The “data-count” value indicates how you want the button to appear on the screen. I chose a vertical format. You can see all the options on the Twitter Tweet Button blog page.

8. For WordPress.org blogs, paste the edited code into the Page, Single Post, and Main Index template files. I added the button just before the blog post content, after the title and date/author section of the templates. This will vary based on your preference and on other tweaks you’ve made to your theme.

I tried hacking Posterous and Tumblr blogs but the built in URL template tags kept blowing away the parameters once the Tweet Button was called. If you figure out how to do this please drop a comment and I’ll update this post.

Review

We just learned how to tack on a Google Analytics parameter to Tweet Button clicks on a WordPress.org blog. This will help you connect the dots on your online marketing and analysis activities.


If you find this useful, I’d be interested in how and why you would use it. Are you a marketing manager, a small business owner, or a code hacker? I’d love to find out.