Archive for the ‘Twitter’ Category

Twitter recently rolled out its new iPad mobile application.  Go to the App Store to get the latest version.  Here’s a review of 5 cool features.

1. The application is made for the iPad. The previous application was just the iPhone version.

2. See multiple “views” on one screen. The new app allows you to see snippets of more than one view at a time.  This is basically a visual “breadcrumb.”  Unfortunately, there are a couple of instances when things get “stuck” and it is difficult to close the active panel.

3. Article/image previews on tweets. Click on an item in your timeline and see the tweet with the article preview below.  This saves a click and gives you a good idea if you want to continue and read the  article.

With the release of Flipboard, there has been a movement towards visual browsing of  tweets.  This is a great next step for Twitter.

4. “Faux” attachments on tweets. Twitter still doesn’t allow for attachments but this “Attachments” screen simulates that action.  On a new tweet, click on the paper clip and you get access to your iPad photo album.  The Twitter app ties in third-party image hosting companies to accomplish the faux attachments.

5. Integration with services.  The app also allows users to connect to third-party services like Posterous for image and video posting.  Video posting?  Apparently the Twitter app is ahead of the iPad development curve and is already listing different video services.

I was surprised by the way the app “knew” how to select my Posterous account since  I never use Posterous on the iPad.

Review

The new Twitter for iPad app is a great step in the right direction – it uses the iPad’s space intelligently and it incorporates preview features like rich desktop apps.  I tested some of the “gestures” mentioned in the Twitter blog post but they weren’t intuitive so they’ve got some work to do there.  All in all, it’s a must download.

Did you see any other great features?  Overall, do you like what Twitter has done?

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.

   <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

7. Configure your Tweet Button HTML code as in this example (for WordPress.org blogs):

   <!--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-->

   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.

I was pleased to finally receive the “Suggestions For You” feature since I’ve been hearing about it all week. My initial impressions were:

1. Dang, I thought I was following some of those people already
2. Um, I recently unfollowed some of those folks
3. I don’t engage much with some of the referral sources
4. There are a lot of celebrities on this list
5. These are real people, not feeds

Let’s look at these impressions individually and I’ll share some suggestions that will help Twitter’s suggestion algorithm.

1) Already following these people

No really, I thought I was already following some of the people that showed up. Is it possible people have been getting “disconnected” of the past few days? I saw the same reaction from others in my Twitter timeline. If Twitter “caught” the oversight then they did something right.

2) I recently unfollowed some of the suggested users

It happens. We unfollow people for one reason or another. Maybe they don’t engage with you, they say something that irks you, or you’re tired of following a particular celebrity. Many of the people who I had already followed and unfollowed were celebrities. I’ve already been to the show, I don’t need to go back.

Algorithm Improvement: De-prioritize accounts that one has already followed and unfollowed and especially those that have been blocked.

3) Don’t engage much with “Followed By” followers

Each Suggested User has several bits of information associated with her account – Name, Twitter handle, location, bio, and Followed By. All suggested users have two or more accounts in the “Followed By” field and I assume these are my main “connections” to the suggested user. But many of the people that appeared in the “Followed By” field where people who I don’t engage with on a consistent basis.

Algorithm Improvement: Follow Klout’s lead and make suggestions based on key connectors. Klout analyzes a user’s statistical influence and also lists users that are influential. These influencers should be the top “connectors” used in the Suggested User formula.

4) Lots of celebrities

This is where the asymmetrical nature of Twitter is a drawback to making equitable connections on the social graph. By asymmetrical, I mean that one can follow an account but the account doesn’t need to follow back. In contrast, Facebook requires people to follow each other to be “Friends” so that relationship is symmetrical. Extremely asymmetrical “nodes” in a network cause a warping in the fabric of the graph. If a celebrity (that doesn’t follow me or only a few others) suggests another celebrity that they follow then that’s a low probability match.

Algorithm Improvement:Turn down the volume on celebrity suggestions. These accounts will be easy to spot by the ratio of followers to people being followed.

5) These are real people

Every person on the Who to Follow list appear to be engaged Twitter users, not just piped in “feeds” from other social networking tools. Twitter got this right.

I follow 7,740 people on Twitter and am followed by 8,157 accounts and have new followers every day. I don’t use auto-followback tools so I have to manually go through my email messages and “vet” followers. Unless the account is extremely relevant to my interests, I don’t follow feed accounts. (This also means I’m way behind in reviewing new followers.) By filtering out feed-only accounts, this tremendously increases the chances of my following them. Good job Twitter.

Review

Twitter still has some work to do on making the Suggestions more relevant. I made suggestions but also gave Twitter kudos on some things it is doing right. This is much better than the old Suggested Users celebfest hyper-monetization list is had before.

What do you think? Did you see any other obvious algorithm improvements? What was your overall impression of the Suggestions For You feature?

Related Post:
TechCrunch – Twitter’s Social Graph Is About To Get Pumped Up. “Who To Follow” Is Social Steroids

Mom and pop coffee shops are being crushed by behemoth companies like Starbucks. Add on the worst recession since the Great Depression and you have a recipe for disaster. It takes extreme measures to compete in this business landscape.

Newhall Coffee Roasting Company is using social media marketing Jujitsu to take on the challenge. It’s staying nimble, competing where it can win, and still staying true to its mission.

Background

Newhall Coffee Roasting Company started off as a couple of coffeehouses in the Santa Clarita Valley of California. The owners weren’t satisfied with the coffee they were buying from other roasters so they started roasting their own. Newhall Coffee is now one of the premier roasting companies in California.

The company sets aside a portion of its profits for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America in memory of the passing of the founder’s brother, Corey. Newhall has also recently launched a new program called Newhall Coffee For A Cause that helps qualified non-profits with fund raising efforts.

Social media is such an important part of the company marketing formula that, Ryan Barton, Newhall Coffee’s marketing manager, suggested we conduct the interview “social media style” via Twitter using a hashtagged (#CoffeeCause) conversation.

You can see the actual Twittter conversation by searching over the “#CoffeeCause hashtag.”

Interview with Newhall Coffee Roasting Company

Jesse (@jesseluna): Hi, I’m Jesse Luna. Thanks for agreeing to the interview. Can you tell us your name & role at NC please?

Newhall Coffee (@NewhallCoffee): Hey Jesse, I’m Ryan Barton, and I manage the integrated marketing campaigns here at Newhall Coffee.

J: Hi Ryan. There are 2 areas that I’d like to cover – NC’s use of social media & @CoffeeForACause. Q1: How did Newhall Coffee first jump into social media?

NC: It arose from the desire to make our online marketplace our online “big box retailer.” We started as a local coffee house. and we wanted to regain that sense of community — throughout the nation.

J: Interesting. Has NC used social media instead of pursuing some traditional distribution & branding methods?

NC: We allocate our resources to a variety of social media platforms rather than broad stroke marketing. We’d rather pursue targeted marketing efforts with higher yields than an imaginary market of “everyone.” You won’t find us buying ad space, but you will find us enjoying hand-to-hand grassroots efforts. We enjoy the interaction with customers at Costco and Sam’s Club road shows. Same goes for online conversations.

J: Q2: When first introduced to your brand, one thing that really stood out was the packaging. The packaging prominently displays social network logos. How did that decision come about?

NC: Adding social network logos and a URL (newhallcoffee.com/connect) was our way of inviting current customers to our online communities. We want to hear from you. You’re buying our coffee, now what else can we give you? On SM platforms, we’re offering loyalty discounts, we’re having events, etc. And we want to engage. Simply, it’s taking existing advocates, and hosting a community to find friends who share the same enthusiasm.

J: Thx. Topic #2: Tell me about @CoffeeForACause and what inspired it.

NC: Sure! @CoffeeForACause reflects a cause very close to our hearts. Our founder, @mitchmcmullen’s, brother passed due to leukemia. Due to his advocacy, Mitch was named Man of the Year by LLS twice. Corey’s blend was probably NCFaC in infancy – where blend sales were donated to LLS. Similarly, our Patriot Blend is a way for us to give back to our troops overseas. For every bag sold, we donate a cup of ‘american morale’ overseas.

So NCFaC was our way of helping charitable organizations raise funds through something more than magazines. We’re finding it’s easier to do when it’s a win/win — people want to support an org, and they love coffee. We know our community gave us our start (not big $ from Wall St.) so we’re dedicated to give back to our roots.

J: If people are interested in @CoffeeForACause, what’s the best way to get more information?

NC: They can visit www.NewhallCoffeeForACause.com for an overview and a 3-step sign-up form. It’s completely free to the organization and they get 40% back from every bag sold, so they can sign-up today, and start tomorrow. Or, they’re welcome to DM me at @NewhallCoffee and we can speak there freely.

J: Ryan, thanks for the interview. This will be written up as a blog post. Happy Roasting!

NC: My pleasure! And please feel free to share discount code “CoffeeCause” for 20% off at NewhallCoffee.com.

[End of Interview]
–
Let’s keep the conversation going. Was there anything in the interview that stood out in your mind? Have you seen other successful social media efforts by coffee shops?

Feel free to share via the Comments or “@” or DM me on Twitter.

The new Tweetdeck experimental version uses the “User Streams API” from Twitter and it is turbo charged. It’s so fast that my All Friends stream of 7,724 people is almost a blur.

This version is in limited release but you can request access by going to the Tweetdeck site, logging into your Tweetdeck account, and submitting the request. I received an email back from Tweetdeck a few hours later.

If the video demo below scares you, don’t request the new version yet.

This tweet from @Gorillamonk made me want to download the new version and see just how fast it was.

Here’s a view of my Tweetdeck stream. It hauls booty.

Are you likely to download the new version after watching this video? Or does this look out of control fast?

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If you like these types of tech videos, you should follow this blog via the RSS feed and/or by signing up for FREE blog updates via email (see the form at the top right hand side of the page). I only send blog post in the updates.

Do you follow over 100 news sources? Are you the first to retweet earthquake tweets? Do you send late night DM’s to major new sources then see them show up on the news a few minutes later? If so, then you’re definitely a news hound.

Here are five tips to keep you at the top of the news food chain.

1) Follow a lot of news sources via Twitter.

News agencies are changing the way they present news information online. Before they used to only post full news stories. Now many are employing the “first to break” strategy. In that strategy, news agencies will start with a tweet on Twitter then move on to a very brief post on their site. If you follow a lot of news sites then you can use some of the other techniques below to stay ahead of the story.

Actress and activist Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) is great at posting hot news. If you look at who she’s following on Twitter, you’ll see a ton of news sources. By finding then retweeting news items, Alyssa is able to provide a valuable resource to her followers. Hot news also makes for great retweet material.

2) Follow a lot of people on Twitter.

If you are really on the hunt for news, you need to follow a lot of people. Breaking news happens all the time, in all parts of the world. Reading tweets from many followers helps build a picture of what’s going on without having to cobble information based on Trending Topics.

Rich Sanchez from CNN (@ricksanchezcnn) follows over 47,000 people and feeds on Twitter. This helps him track stories and connect with potential news sources.

If following many people puts a crimp in your social media plan, then rely on method number one and follow top breaking news sources.

3) Use Twitter’s advanced search.

With Twitter’s advanced search you can track down stories based on 18 different filters. One of the most powerful measures is searching by Place. For example, if you know there is a strong earthquake in a particular location, you can enter that location in the “near this location” textbox then set the distance from that location. This will show tweets from people that are actually in the area.

Also, if you enter “Twitpic” in the Words section, you can retrieve tweets with links to pictures.

4) User Twitter lists.

My process for tracking natural disaster news is to spot the news items from my timeline then do an advanced Twitter search and identify people who are in the region. The next step is to add those Twitterers to a new Twitter List. I used that news tracking process during the Fort Hood shootings.

Tracking people near the news site during an emergency or natural disaster helps give a three-dimensional view of what’s happening. The tweets are also likely to be less “filtered” then that coming from official news sources.

5) Search emergency live feeds.

When you are on the news hunt for information on an emergency or natural disaster, do a Web search over [cityname] + “fire department live feeds.” Fire trucks are often the first on the scene of an emergency and you can usually find a live feed online. I used fire department scanners to track the plane crash in Denver in 2008.

6) BONUS: Search Web Cams.

You’ve been very patient up to now so I’m throwing in a 6th Hot Tip. If you do a Web search over [cityname] + “live cam” or “web cam” you will usually be able to get video of the area. I used this technique during the last tsunami watch in Hawaii and off the California coast.

Assignment

The next time emergency news breaks, use techniques 3-6 above and get a rich 3D view of the news story.

Do you have any other resources or techniques that you use for tracking breaking news? I’d love to hear about them.