In great social media fashion, we all use Twitter in our own unique way. Use of Twitter often includes the use of many Twitter-related web applications. This means applications that are Web-based, and that we use to manage functions of our Twitter use. There are many great tools for finding people with common interests, finding people based on geography, scoring users’ perceived usefulness, arranging tweetups, viewing and sending tweets, and more. In many cases, we are blessed by brilliant visionaries who saw a need and got to work to provide a new tool to help us.
Help Create a List of Twitter Applications
I want to hear what you think. As many of my readers already know, I will soon launch my new book, “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“ to help people to gain a greater understanding and value from their use of Twitter. In order to make it as useful and up-to-date as possible, I am calling on you to share your experience with the many Web-based applications available today. I hope to review and use your suggestions in my book.
Please add your comment to this blog post and include the name of the service, the Web address, and your Twitter username. Please include your Twitter account in the form of http://twitter.com/username, and not just @username.
PLEASE NOTE: What I am seeking here is strictly Web-based applications and not desktop applications. Click here for my survey of other Twitter applications.
I have seen many reports of application usage with Twitter, but since I will be releasing a new book on the topic of Twitter very soon (“Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“), I am seeking some data of my own. Many reports show massive use of the Twitter Website, with TweetDeck coming in second. I have a suspicion that my figures may vary simply for the fact that many users I tweet with tend to be very active and engaged users of Twitter. So let’s find out. Please take this very simple poll to answer what you use the most for sending and receiving your Twitter updates. If you use the Twitter Website, please answer “Other”, but what I am really after here is the popularity of each Twitter application produced outside of Twitter. I welcome your comments here on the blog.
What best describes your use of Twitter?
While I have you here, I am also interested to know which of the answers below best describes your use of Twitter. This is not intended to be a comprensive list of reasons for using Twitter. I simply want to know which best describes your usage.
Nearly anybody with a blog or other Website that is worth reading has heard of Twitter by now. The bloggers who use Twitter efficiently may already have realized some of what I will share here, but from what I have found, many bloggers have not. To say the least, I am shocked just what a small percentage of blog owners and authors are actually using Twitter, and even more shocked by those who are not embracing the synergy the two can produce when used properly. Note that while I say “blog”, this is completely interchangeable with “Website”, so don’t be confused.
Twitter-Improved Traffic: A Simple Example
As a simple example of how Twitter can improve your blog readership, I will use the blog you are presently reading. While looking at my statistics to find how many people arrived at this fledgling blog via Twitter, I found that an estimate of nearly 15,000 unique readers arrived by way of Twitter over the past 30 days. I say estimated because it is challenging to provide an exact number due to the many readers arriving by way of Twitter clients not providing an accurate source (although my numbers will be much clearer in May). This is more than the number of subscribers to my Twitter feed, which is presently just over 11,000 but was far fewer last month (ref TwitterCounter). So how did that happen? In short, people read it, talked about it, and retweeted it.
Blog Traffic Numbers: The Real Scoop
I will write more on this later, but I find that too many people find it convenient to try and lie about the real traffic of their blog. Let’s face it, this stuff is trackable. Some people may say that traffic estimates generated as a result of Twitter is bloated or that it is not so great, but just a simple look at Compete.com or Alexa.com will reveal a lot of what I am telling you. Of course, these are usually a bit behind and do not reflect an exact accounting, but they are usually reasonably close. I share this with you because I want to provide a real example for the purpose of this article.
When considering these numbers, let’s weigh in the facts that this blog was launched in December 2008, and my Twitter account only had 78 followers on February 7th of 2009, and it is a targeted blog about social media marketing and search engine optimization. I am not seeking everybody to read my blog, but rather the right people to read my blog. Be sure to also look at your own blog / Website and review the numbers and percentage of increase. It is pretty eye-opening what Twitter can do when used properly.
The traffic and level of engagement prompted me to question how Twitter has changed blogging. Here are just a few things that i found.
Twitter-Improved Reader Engagement
I will show examples of blog reader engagement separated into three parts, but this remains only one of the three areas of benefit derived from Twitter discussed in this article. There are many ways to determine reader engagement with a Website. Some ways blog authors have traditionally found valuable to measure the reader’s engagement are as follows:
Time on Page: The average time the user spends on a page is a good measure of whether they are actually reading what you have to say. This is clearly subject to the type and length of content you provide, but in any case, readers who are not interested will not stick around very long. A minute is a very long time for many internet readers. What I have found in the measure of time on page is that readers initially engaged by Twitter will spend more time reading my blog, totaling about three minutes per page view. This is a significant increase over users arriving from other sources, and is longer than any other source.
Page Views Per Reader: The number of pages each user visits is a strong reflection of the user’s interest in your industry, beyond the single topic of the initial page they viewed. I have noticed an improved page views per reader coming from Twitter, up .5 page views per reader compared to other sources, which is a significant sign of reaching the right audience.
Blog Comment Volume and Quality: An important measure for the blog author is in how many comments, and the quality of comments the blog post receives. When writing something relating to Twitter, I have witnessed great results for blog comments, on this blog and others. One of my recent blog posts relating to Twitter usernames has received upward of 140 approved comments. I attribute much of this to the fact that many readers already have some knowledge of the author, and are already a part of a conversation. A blog is one way that they find out more information and continue the conversation. I think many bloggers would agree with this finding.
Assessing the reader engagement of Twitter users, both on a blog and on your Twitter feed, can also be measured by the comments received in reply to the posting of the blog link to Twitter. I find that some people will respond to the title of the tweet. It seems that every day I see somebody respond to the text of a tweet in a way that I know without question they have not read the blog post linked to the tweet. A great example of this was when I tweeted a blog post titled “Will Oprah (@oprah) Ruin Twitter?” and I received a lot of comments in defense of Oprah Winfrey’s use of Twitter. That was kind of silly, because the blog discussed the changes that may come from the inevitable increase in traffic and how a large influx of new users may change how we use Twitter. This absurdity should always be considered a measurement of engagement of your Twitter following and not of your blog. What it also points out is that Twitter users who do read your blog are likely truly interested in what you have written. If your Twitter account is managed properly and you spend time to get to know your followers and let them know you, blind comments should largely only happen with your newest followers.
Twitter-Improved Search Engine Optimization
Many search engine optimizers (SEO) will overlook the value of Twitter for improving search engine penetration. If they miss this part, they are making a big mistake. A reason many SEO will dismiss this value is that Twitter uses the “nofollow” attribute in outbound links, thus, no increased Google PageRank. Make no mistake; Twitter can greatly enhance your visibility in search engine results. This can come from many outside factors related to Twitter, as well as Twitter itself. I will just name a couple, but here are some ways SEO is enhanced by using Twitter. First, I should point out that Twitter’s Search is a Search Engine! As more people use Twitter search to find information, using Twitter will help many people to find your information. Aside from just Twitter searches, the likelihood of particular tweets being listed in other search engines referencing a Twitter tweet or one of the many Twitter-related applications along with your link are improved. Be sure to realize that each person who reads your blog also comes with a voice to further spread your blog in many other ways. Thus, each reader who finds your blog in any Twitter-related way has the potential to further propagate your message in search engines as well. It all adds up to make a significant end-result.
Twitter-Improved Call to Action
Along with the added benefits of brand recognition and brand loyalty, comes the greatest benefit of all … an improved call to action. This means that the message you distributed has gone beyond just readership, and the reader has heard and responded to your call to action. In my case, that literally means that they have made a call to reach me and discuss improving their market reach. For you, it may be that they enter their order for your product, apply for a job, donate to a cause, or many other possibilities.
How I measure a greater call to action from Twitter: It has become standard that I speak on the telephone (direct line 866-293-2489) or on Skype (username murnahan) to a minimum of five different inbound callers per day as a result of Twitter users who also read my blog. In addition to inbound callers, I also call at least five people I meet on Twitter to simply make an introduction and to get to know them better, so this certainly works both ways.
I make it my practice to reach people beyond the singular communication tool of Twitter, and expand my communications to other tools. This means that not only has Twitter greatly impacted my blog readership, it also goes far beyond blogging to reach people I would likely have never met otherwise.
How Does This Apply to You?
Surely some people reading this do not have a blog or Website, and may not have a great importance of reaching out to other people, but I think those numbers are fairly small. Most people who read this have a reason to reach others. If this is the case, you should not neglect the value of Twitter for reaching a very important audience.
Reaching a larger and more valuable audience is what I do for my clients, and what I am paid for. I have found Twitter to be an extremely useful tool. If you are getting frustrated and you want to see better results for your blog or other Website, please reach me to explain how I may help you.
Don’t Just Comment on Twitter!
If you made it this far, I hope that you will give me the honor of reading and responding to your comments right here on the blog. Yes, of course, your comments are also always welcome by way of Twitter, too. Please tell me what you think!
Swine flu proves a perfect case for widespread use of Twitter. Never before has there been a method by which important breaking news can spread with the velocity it is spread on Twitter. When I saw the stories of swine flu in the news, I tweeted about it, just as thousands of others did.
There has been a lot of misinformation on the topic of Swine Flu (H1N1), but the fact that Twitter has provided for such fast spread makes me wonder if Twitter can outspread the flu.
Swine Flu Outbreak on Twitter
Here is a compilation of just a few news stories that I found interesting and that I tweeted:
There are a lot of recent tweets about Swine Flu on Twitter. Twitter will surely be the best place to keep an eye on this news. Here is a link to a Twitter search for Swine Flu. Additionally, a presumably credible authority on Swine Flu on Twitter is @CDCemergency (Website). Keep an eye on this, and if you have seen an interesting story on the subject, please tweet it and also add it to the comments of this blog post.
Twitter News: What are your thoughts?
Tell me what you think of this powerful use of Twitter as a means to spread an important news topic. Give your comments, please.
I want to start by saying that from most I have seen and heard of Oprah (@oprah), she is an absolute doll. I love the heartfelt message that she represents to the world, and I hold her in very high regard. She has clearly surrounded herself with an aura of absolute attraction. I believe that she truly is the beautiful person she presents herself to be.
The Burning Question: Will Oprah Ruin Twitter?
Obviously, Oprah would not, and could not ruin Twitter. However, the power of her influence could have damaging effects on the fledgling community. I recently questioned the responsiveness of Twitter to the recent Mikeyy worm, and received many confirmations that the Twitter community was very unhappy with the company’s lack of communication regarding what to do about the worm. Some will recall that I was the first on the scene with the second outbreak and set the top trend on Twitter that late night and early morning. It left me with concerns about Twitter. So, let’s say Twitter is actually up to the task from a technology standpoint, as big a stretch as that may be. For this point, we will assume that Twitter made some miracle fix to the Fail Whale and speed problems of the service in the past couple days.
The concern about the Oprah Winfrey show is not about Oprah, but rather what happens with the sudden boom of any product or service. With sudden growth comes sudden growing pains. There will likely be a substantial enough fluctuation in new users that as an existing community, we may find difficulties in accommodating.
Be Ready for Twitter Newbies!
Along with the growth will likely come a huge number of people here for the wrong reasons or with bad methods. After all, how many people have you seen start twittering with a me, me, me message to advertise their goods or services only to become a really fine twitizen a short time later. We must allow patience and understanding, and show that Twitter is a great place to settle in, relax, and build great relationships. However, in the beginning, this may be a challenge. An additional challenge is that it may be much harder to discern true spammers with great people just trying to get started. Most users eventually develop their own system of deciding which users to follow, and which to block. This comfortable system could be thrown into a complete upset with a massive mainstream influx in users.
I certainly welcome the many newbies. I really hope that they will find me for some early tips on how to play nice. I am not saying that I am a Twitter teddy bear or anything like that, but I do have a few tips to offer, and I certainly understand the great value of developing friendships using Twitter.
I want to hear your thoughts. Please give your comments here on this blog, and feel free to give other readers your Twitter username in the form of http://twitter.com/murnahan (substiture the murnahan part).
When you need more Web traffic and a better customer focus with stronger relationships, you need my services. Call me to sell more online and develop happier customers who will talk about you to all of their friends.
