Almighty Link

Every link shared via Twitter will start with http://t.co by the end of this year. That was the gist of one part of an email from Twitter last night. The most important thing for businesses to note is that, with that change, Twitter will start tracking every time a tweeted link is clicked — no matter what shortener, web site, app or client is used to write or read the tweet. Twitter will finally have an accurate way to measure …

• CLICKS: Using a traditional web analytics program to count the number of times Twitter.com sends traffic to a site, is a gross underestimate of Twitter referrals, because so many people click on tweeted links from applications and web sites other than the official Twitter site. Twitter will process and wrap every link — even links that have already been shortened — within it’s t.co shortener, so they can count every time a link is clicked.
• IMPRESSIONS: All Twitter applications use the Twitter API, so Twitter knows every time a tweet (and the links within a tweet) is requested. They can’t verify that each request  ends up in the tweet being displayed, but this is the best estimation of impressions, the number of times a tweet is shown.
• CTR! Since Twitter will have a the number of impressions and the number clicks, they can dived and deliver a fairly accurate clickthrough rate. CTR is used to measure the success of many online ad campaigns.

That kind of information can help shape and measure the return on investment for companies using social media to drive traffic. This is unique information that, if used wisely, can boost an organization’s bottom line. That sounds like the kind of online content for which the Wall Street Journal is able to charge.

What do you think?

Will Twitter start providing these numbers for free, or are they creating the foundation for a new stream of revenue?

Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) has a great Twitter list of Top Journalism Linkers. I asked some of the people on that list to share their top sources for journalism news. Here are their replies.

1. 
   ksablan Question for @ckanal @jeffjarvis @mediatwit @mediagazer @cressman @mathewi: What’s your top source for journalism news? 08 Jul 2010 from UberTwitter
2. 
   Megan @ksablan @AlexMurashko Mediagazer publishes our source leaderboard: http://mediagazer.com/lb 08 Jul 2010 from TweetDeck
3. 
   ckanal @ksablan That’s a tough one. I have this list & check them all frequently @ckanal/media-analysis. Really like @rww & @mashable. 09 Jul 2010 from web in reply to ksablan
4. 
   mediatwit @ksablan No top source for j-news. Romenesko, MediaShift, Nieman Lab, Mediabistro, Poynter, ReadWriteWeb all good. 09 Jul 2010 from web
5. 
   mediatwit @ksablan Also: Howard Kurtz, IWantMedia, Mediagazer, BuzzMachine, On the Media, NewTeeVee and others. 09 Jul 2010 from web in reply to ksablan
6. 
   mathewi @ksablan: increasingly, I get my media news from @mediagazer — but also my list of media sources on Twitter 09 Jul 2010 from Twitter for iPhone in reply to ksablan
7. 
   cressman Weirdly,it’s becoming Twitter. RT @ksablan: What’s your top source for journalism news? 09 Jul 2010 from Echofon

— this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

Somehow, I made it into Rosen’s list, so here is where I get most of my information about journalism:

• My “J” Twitter List: I suggest following each person, not just the list. That way, tweets from each person on the list will show up in your main Twitter stream.
• Google Reader: Feel free to download  my list of subscriptions. Google has instructions to import that list into Google Reader. Watch out, it’s gigantic. Focus on the Journalism folder/tag.
• My Delicious network: In particular, I pay attention to pages that members of my network have tagged as ‘journalism’.
• My Meehive: I get a daily email of top stories from here.

Share your sources

Where do you get news about news and journalism? Please share in the comments below and help other readers and me to stay current with the changing world of journalism.

Like is definitely not the new link. A few months after Facebook rolled out its now-ubiquitous Like Button and the idea that “social links” might replace links, I have an answer to the question “Did Like Just Replace The Link?”

A recent New York Times blog post about Twitter’s @earlybird account includes a few links. The words around those links (context) tell readers and search engines what they can expect:

• More about Twitter
• A post about Twitter considering e-commerce last year
• The Twitter page/account for @earlybird Exclusive Offers
• More about Amazon.com
• A post about Dell attributing millions of dollars of revenue to Twitter
• A post from Twitter about offering deals
• A post about the Twitter annotations feature rolling out soon
• A ReadWriteWeb post that reported the @earlybird news

Contrast that to the information you can gather ff a reader “likes” that same blog post:

• The reader likes the blog post or
• The reader likes Twitter or
• The reader likes e-commerce or
• The reader likes Twitter’s new @earlybird account or
• The reader likes Twitter’s advertising or
• The reader likes blogger Claire Cain Miller or
• You get the picture

The big question/challenge with Facebook’s current like button is that you have to ask “what does ‘like’ mean, anyway?”

Image courtesy of James Allenspach via Flickr

Last week, The Orange County Register hosted the fourth biggest Social Media Day gathering in the world. I work for the Register, but this is my personal blog. As such, the “we” in the title of this post does not to refer to the Register. Instead, this is a roundup of how “we” the people covered last week’s event.

SMDayOC

We asked people to use the #smdayoc hashtag whenever posting anything related to the Orange County Social Media Day event. According to What the Hashtag, 281 people have included #smdayoc in a tweet within the last seven days. According to my calculations, during one hour of the event, a tweet containing #smdayoc was published every 14 seconds.

Pictures

• Attendees used various photo tweeting services to share many images from the event.
• Caroline (@thevixy) used the new iPhone 4 and Sony DSC-W55 to snap 47 pictures and 3 videos in an #smdayoc Flickr gallery.
• Avante Gardens (@AvanteGardens) provide flowers for the event and then posted pictures of those arrangements on floristblogs.com.

Blogs

• Meredith Simonds (@MeredithSimonds) wrote a wonderful blog post that touched on the Register’s social media efforts and a tour of the pressroom.
• Longboards Ice Cream (@longboards) posted a blog entry full of pictures.
• At the bottom of her blog post, Daniela Bolzmann (@DanielaBolzmann) did a great job listing and linking to many other #smdayoc blog posts and other coverage of the event.

Audio

• The L.A.-based Tech by Southwest (@techsxw) podcast interviewed me for their story of how the Register created the fourth largest #smday event in the world.
• In an interview with speaker Ted Nguyen (@TedNguyen), local historian Stan Oftelie explained the name of the auditorium where #smdayoc speakers spoke.
• Nguyen also recorded an audio preview of the event.

Video

• Ted Nguyen also shot a video preview that he posted to CNN’s iReport.
• Robert Watson (@TopBrokerOC), another speaker at Wednesday’s event, shared video of Register Publisher Terry Horne opening up #smdayoc.
• @BodyByB used YouTube to share her reflections from Social Media Day.
• When Zpizza in Tustin (@zpizza_tustin) provided free food for #smdayoc events, they recorded and shared video testimonials.
• Eric Bryant (@TheRECoach) shot tons of video before, during and after the event and created a #smdayoc YouTube playlist with more than 30 clips. If you don’t get a chance to visit that list, please watch Bryant’s interview (below) with 91-year-old attendee John Vrba.

Share more

Were you at the event? Did you post anything related to the event? Have you come across other coverage. Share in the comments below, and don’t forget to save those #smdayoc pages on Delicious.