The thing about Twitter is that it is interesting for about a minute, then people lose interest quick.
They have a 40% retention rate after 1 month of use - that's a terrible number. Twitter is going to be a cool flash in the pan.
Vlad
· 7 months ago
How exactly do you substitute @tweetmeme with @andybeard?
Mich D. aka @MichDdot
· 7 months ago
@Vlad you have to ask/request from tweetmeme to get whitelisted by them.
@Andy great points man, the button and the way it functions is NOT good for true intentional marketing use out of the box. I really hope the read this and adjust to correct these points at least in part.
I will say for you average site or twitter users its still a fun & cool little tool. The bitly links are public view so anyone can watch the tracking, its rather fun with bitly as its live. You should see the variance between say @MattCutts and others, intense insight into quality vs quantity of connections.
Peace bra, Mich D.
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
It is actually built into the plugin now, or the javascript code.
Vlad
· 7 months ago
I can quit follow... So is it a part of the plugin or not? The ability tu substitute @tweetmeme ?
Andy, you desperately need the subscribe to comments option...
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
It is part of the plugin, I haven't ever requested whitelisting.
Subscribe to comments will only return when I can do it through a central blacklist management system, though I have an option I am also going to try out.
Vlad
· 7 months ago
Thanks Andy,
Sorry about the confusion... I just installed the plugin.
I tried it once before but it did not have that option at the time. Thanks for the heads up.
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
Oh and with Bitly, they would have to do some link bundling or sets - with this system you might end up with 100s of short URLs that actually belong to the same canonical permalink. They may already do that in some way, as there are lots of sites that use Google analytics lnk tracking.
Mich D. aka @MichDdot
· 7 months ago
Your right with bitly & it does aggregate all bitly links into one set of stats. Like this, http://bit.ly/info/oupyb is the one from tweet meme & http://bit.ly/info/W6y1P is the full aggregated on bitly You can pull either the specific link you used or a combined aggregate link bitly seems to assign to each url it shrinks. You can view who shrank each link if they have bitly accounts to. [yes i admit it i have a stats n data addiction]
I saw the @name change in the tweetmeme-wp setting but it had a notice you must first get whitelisted by tweetmeme, thats the only reason I knew or mention it :) I just guessed they used it as a tracking method or filter and assumed you had been pre-whitelisted when I saw your @name in the tweet.
AWESOME to see they found your post bra and thank you for bringing it to their attention :)
peace michd
Sarah
· 7 months ago
Hi There,
I've just seen your post and I'll raise the issues you mention with the team in the office and see what we can do. :) As you say the use case that we have created the button for is the general user but we will look into the things you mention above and see what is feasible.
Thank you for such a detailed analysis of our button and offerings. Do keep in touch and let us know what we are doing right and wrong it's all really helpful! We are constantly trying to improve the service and have a forum page for any suggestions etc. I do my best to keep on top of what people are saying and if you would like to chat with us further then do follow @talktweetmeme and I'll be happy to follow up with you directly.
This actually started off as a post on the forum, I even registered an account.
Then I decided it needed a wider audience to validate it in some way, plus it really was too long for the forum, and almost out of context. My audience are the serious marketers who would pay for this, a few 1000 people paying $30/month isn't small change, with the right integration.
Sarah
· 7 months ago
As I said I'll get the team to have a look into it. No promises at this stage but it's on my radar to follow up with you on. :)
And I do get what you are saying. We listened re the whitelist and opened that up so who knows it's something that makes a lot of sense. So I'll see what happens when I bring it up in Monday's morning meeting.
Have a great weekend!
Sarah
mignews (MIGNEWS)
· 7 months ago
Why Tweetmeme Sucks For Marketers: The emergence of Tweetmeme during the period I wasn't blogging was interestin.. http://tinyurl.com/ofurze
NFL Football
· 7 months ago
I have seen these tweet boxes popping up and was wondering how they were being implemented. A plugin makes it super easy.
Michael Tims
· 7 months ago
It might not be what you want it to be, but surely adding something to your site which can increase the exposure or readership base is a good thing? I am sure everything out there could be improved, some more than others. I just think that any kind of tool/software etc that can increase how many people know about your site has to be good.
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
Traffic without a way to measure it is like collecting water using a sieve when it is raining. The only way a business improves is measurable results so that they can see what they are doing right/wrong.
What I have described above, with some clever plugins on WordPress integrating with other services, would allow quite extensive measurement.
This tweetmeme stuff sounds interesting, I'll check it out. I am building my list with Twitter and I am thankful, there are tools like these that's viral and easy to use. I hope it stays free to all. :)
Sarah
· 7 months ago
Hi Andy,
Your suggestions have been added to our todo list here in the office so do look out for the new features you've requested. They will take us a while to do but they are coming.
We're using your post as our guidance, and if you are up for it when we have something to show, would you be up for looking over it and seeing if there's anything we're missing? We would like to get it right and have a really strong offering for marketing experts so feedback and working closely with experts like yourself is essential really.
Lets keep the conversations going between us and if you drop me an e-mail then I'll make sure you are on our early adopter program :)
Many thanks Sarah
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
Sarah that is great news, I will drop you an email so you can contact me with updates
Vlad
· 7 months ago
Andy,
What do you think about buttons accuracy? My latest post (which is actually a digest of my tweets last week) shows 10 retweets but I can only find one (my own retweet) via Twitter search. Not sure if you see the same on your blog.
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
To be honest, if it counts too many, I am not worried, but frequently people will use different text and different links and they are still licked up. I am sure they have a lot going on in the background, just as I am sure there is a lot going on in the background of Fa.vor.it the parent service.
You will also get lots of tweets, but maybe not as many visitors as you might expect, because lots of tweets are from various syndication bots.
frasi
· 7 months ago
Tweetmeme gives you the chance to rank the most interesting posts until they are important enough to be tweeted by the site’s Twitter account.
Wayne Smallman
· 7 months ago
All worthwhile suggestions, there's no doubt about that. But in reality, these are the self same problems with most other services, Twitter and FriendFeed being chief among them; there's almost no sensible way to see what the hell is going on across your network.
This is something I've written about quite a few times. However, in the meantime, I've resorted to services like tr.im and HootSuite to give me the metrics I need to keep track of my content through what I call the Social Loop — content production » content promotion » socnets, websites, email, RSS etc » back to original content.
This still isn't _anything like_ as comprehensive as I'd like (and as you've outlined), so let's hope Twetememe aren't the only ones reading...
Alex
· 7 months ago
Hum, this Tweetmeme thing sounds intersting. Congratulations to get heard by Tweetmeme development team ;]
Loan Modification
· 7 months ago
I will definitely be adding a tweet me button to my blog. Its like combining the best of Digg and Twitter; I love it!
Chuggin McCoffee
· 7 months ago
I so far have found twitter to be a really awesome marketing tool and have been using Tweetmeme for quite some time
Vlad
· 7 months ago
Andy,
Just because one installs the plugin does not necessarily mean his or her posts will be featured on tweetmeme.com?
Also I am a little confused as to how the posts are being tagged at tweetmeme.com? Do they match the tags on your blog?
Would appreciate your insight.
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
Tags seem to be based upon most popular extracted terms
They seem to index all that are using the button as they actually get pinged when you post, but that doesn't mean you get featured. No idea about threshold to appear in hot lists.
Vlad
· 7 months ago
There are categories like "food and drink" that seemed to be featured with 2 retweets, so the amount of tweets evidently does not matter.
I normally use tweetter for tweetting my friends. I have never experience using it for marketing or optimizing my site. So, i don't have the problem regarding whether tweeting is good for marketing or not. Lucky me... :)
jason
· 7 months ago
Twitter is very dizzying to me. I'm sure there are millions of people who like the onslaught of information - don't get me wrong, I like twitter for what it can be, but getting there can become a total timesuck. I really need to try out a few twitter app sites to manage the timeline better. I retweeted - thanks!
Joel McLaughlin
· 7 months ago
Those are some valid points and arguments. They should simplify and limit some tracking factors. I think they could really benefit from reading this review, which they should. TweetMeme is based around a good idea, and I have checked it out before.
Unfortunately, my tweeting ability has been very limited lately because I don't have the time and my wife doesn't like me working past 5. lol
The Agra Indian
· 7 months ago
'Tweetmeme toolbar is really good I am planning to add it to my blog. It is little bit annoying to sit on Twitter web interface to whole the day for marketing purpose. Now I just need to write quality content on my site and that will be my area of focus.
Thanks Andy for the great post about the benefits of this tool bar. Your efforts for its improvement are appreciated.
Samantha
· 7 months ago
I think tweetmeme has the speed of twitter, and the link quality of digg. fantastic idea, just needing some fine tuning!
honestly, twitter is too fast for me. like information overload. tweetmeme set a nice pace, and shows me stuff that matter more than others.
Neostead
· 7 months ago
Think it's a great thing on balance. I'd like to see the ability to not show how often a post has been tweeted because even 9 tweets can look pathetic. It's like an automatic judgment or review of the post, which may be way more interesting than the number of tweets actually signifies.
Adam Pieniazek
· 7 months ago
The title part is killer right now. Like many other bloggers, my header title is more geared to SEO while my post title is meant to hook the reader in. There should be an option but seems most bloggers would prefer it use their post title, as it's likely the more enticing of the two and thus more likely to get clicked on twitter.
Michael Goldstein
· 6 months ago
Hi Andy,
i like your antisocial plugin. i notice you only use the tweetmeme plugin now instead. a few questions:
1) do u recommend that we no longer offer social bookmarking buttons on our blogs? 2) have u customized the tweetmeme plugin with no follow for better seo?
thnx for sharing some much great information.
Michael
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
Antisocial is effectively in retirement, it was only a hack, and Joost took over development of Sociable, and fixed it with the same features.
Offering it depends on your niche.
I include buttons that relate to my primary audience and where my primary audience is welcome to participate without discrimination.
Twitter meets those requirements, and I believe so does Tweetmeme, at least unless people start gaming them with bots.
There isn't a need to nofollow the buttons
ZenGlen
· 6 months ago
Hey all, is there any way to force tweetmeme plugin to use tinyurl or some other link shortening service?
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
Not until you can define additional links
Paul Hancox (.com)
· 6 months ago
Andy, I prefer to create my own retweet links within the text of the post, so that they also appear within RSS feeds. (For some blogs, the majority of subscribers may not even see a plug-in button in their RSS feed!)
1. After publishing, get your blog post's URL and shorten it if necessary (using something like Bit.ly)
2. Go to RetweetLink.com, pop in the retweet message and get the retweet link.
3. Add a message to the bottom of your blog post, ie. "Twitter users, click here to retweet Andy's post."
It does take a few extra minutes, but if you've spent an hour or more writing a blog post, an extra 2 minutes is nothing to give it that extra viral reach - along with complete control over the message, and your RSS subscribers being able to use it, too!
Plus, an extra bonus tip: You can also use these text retweet links in email, on static web pages, in PDF documents... :)
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
I can see the benefits of a static link, plus it is quite easy to program a clickable link automatically and end up with something like [tweetlink] that pulls from the permalink, creates a short link using API, uses blog post title or custom field (or a custom field in Headspace 2), or even split test them.
However I can also see the benefit of a standard button that visitors are trained to click, and that provides social proof
I am a greedy marketer looking for the flexibility of one method, combined with the social proof of another
I am not looking to create a "fake" viral effect or social proof, but just one that can be nudged by incentives.
authorityseo
· 6 months ago
The wordpress plugin allowed me to brand the tweetme with my user account instead of tweetme it says authorityseo.
I can see how many people tweet me or retweet me for each post which it counts. I can see the traffic I get from Twitter and what the landing pages are from my analytics. This tells me what articles people like and what posts followers like that tweeted me.
I am not sure what other stats would be necessary especially if it would slow done the load time.
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
You can't see the real traffic in Google Analytics without including tracking links, and most Twitter traffic will be listed as direct.
Maybe you want to split test different calls to action, different twitter accounts etc.
Maybe you want to identify users who send the most traffic, even if they don't receive affiliate compensation
authorityseo
· 6 months ago
That makes sense. How are you tracking the Twitter traffic to know that it comes up as direct?
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
On this site I am not tracking specifically, because you can't using Tweetmeme - adding a lot of tracking parameters to a URL would mean it isn't the same canonical URL, what this post was about.
However when using a service such as Bit.ly or Cli.gs, and you see 2000 clicks, and in Google Analytics you see 600 visits from Twitter and 1300 direct (just a made up example), then you know it is from people using various applications/clients.
Or just look at your tweet stream and see how many are using web compared to various twitter apps
Ed Bisquera
· 6 months ago
I see the benefits of either retweet method, but what are the advantages over one?
I like the idea of a Wordpress plugin, branding with my user account, and having analytics, but does the plugin automatically create short links via bit.ly?
I'm still a newbie Twitter/blogger, so I'm investigating options to retweet.
Thanks,
Ed
AndyBeard
· 6 months ago
Most of the retweet plugins will use bit.ly or other shorteners, and it doesn't take much tinkering in the ocde to use a different shortener if you require. They can also use authorization keys so it is attributed to your account.
Most also include additional analytics tracking links for Google analytics
Tweetmeme however is my current favorite for social proof as they seem to be able to count lots of tweets from different sources.
dental implants Southampton
· 5 months ago
I have never tried this button before. The Fav.o.r.i.t team has good work to follow up this post.
All Comments
They have a 40% retention rate after 1 month of use - that's a terrible number. Twitter is going to be a cool flash in the pan.
@Andy great points man, the button and the way it functions is NOT good for true intentional marketing use out of the box. I really hope the read this and adjust to correct these points at least in part.
I will say for you average site or twitter users its still a fun & cool little tool. The bitly links are public view so anyone can watch the tracking, its rather fun with bitly as its live. You should see the variance between say @MattCutts and others, intense insight into quality vs quantity of connections.
Peace bra,
Mich D.
Andy, you desperately need the subscribe to comments option...
Subscribe to comments will only return when I can do it through a central blacklist management system, though I have an option I am also going to try out.
Sorry about the confusion... I just installed the plugin.
I tried it once before but it did not have that option at the time. Thanks for the heads up.
They may already do that in some way, as there are lots of sites that use Google analytics lnk tracking.
http://bit.ly/info/oupyb is the one from tweet meme
&
http://bit.ly/info/W6y1P is the full aggregated on bitly
You can pull either the specific link you used or a combined aggregate link bitly seems to assign to each url it shrinks. You can view who shrank each link if they have bitly accounts to. [yes i admit it i have a stats n data addiction]
I saw the @name change in the tweetmeme-wp setting but it had a notice you must first get whitelisted by tweetmeme, thats the only reason I knew or mention it :) I just guessed they used it as a tracking method or filter and assumed you had been pre-whitelisted when I saw your @name in the tweet.
AWESOME to see they found your post bra and thank you for bringing it to their attention :)
peace
michd
I've just seen your post and I'll raise the issues you mention with the team in the office and see what we can do. :) As you say the use case that we have created the button for is the general user but we will look into the things you mention above and see what is feasible.
Thank you for such a detailed analysis of our button and offerings. Do keep in touch and let us know what we are doing right and wrong it's all really helpful! We are constantly trying to improve the service and have a forum page for any suggestions etc. I do my best to keep on top of what people are saying and if you would like to chat with us further then do follow @talktweetmeme and I'll be happy to follow up with you directly.
Many Thanks
Sarah
Tweetmeme
http://blog.tweetmeme.com
Then I decided it needed a wider audience to validate it in some way, plus it really was too long for the forum, and almost out of context.
My audience are the serious marketers who would pay for this, a few 1000 people paying $30/month isn't small change, with the right integration.
And I do get what you are saying. We listened re the whitelist and opened that up so who knows it's something that makes a lot of sense. So I'll see what happens when I bring it up in Monday's morning meeting.
Have a great weekend!
Sarah
The only way a business improves is measurable results so that they can see what they are doing right/wrong.
What I have described above, with some clever plugins on WordPress integrating with other services, would allow quite extensive measurement.
Your suggestions have been added to our todo list here in the office so do look out for the new features you've requested. They will take us a while to do but they are coming.
We're using your post as our guidance, and if you are up for it when we have something to show, would you be up for looking over it and seeing if there's anything we're missing? We would like to get it right and have a really strong offering for marketing experts so feedback and working closely with experts like yourself is essential really.
Lets keep the conversations going between us and if you drop me an e-mail then I'll make sure you are on our early adopter program :)
Many thanks
Sarah
What do you think about buttons accuracy? My latest post (which is actually a digest of my tweets last week) shows 10 retweets but I can only find one (my own retweet) via Twitter search. Not sure if you see the same on your blog.
You will also get lots of tweets, but maybe not as many visitors as you might expect, because lots of tweets are from various syndication bots.
This is something I've written about quite a few times. However, in the meantime, I've resorted to services like tr.im and HootSuite to give me the metrics I need to keep track of my content through what I call the Social Loop — content production » content promotion » socnets, websites, email, RSS etc » back to original content.
This still isn't _anything like_ as comprehensive as I'd like (and as you've outlined), so let's hope Twetememe aren't the only ones reading...
Just because one installs the plugin does not necessarily mean his or her posts will be featured on tweetmeme.com?
Also I am a little confused as to how the posts are being tagged at tweetmeme.com? Do they match the tags on your blog?
Would appreciate your insight.
They seem to index all that are using the button as they actually get pinged when you post, but that doesn't mean you get featured. No idea about threshold to appear in hot lists.
Also as I was looking at this post http://tweetmeme.com/story.php?url=http%3A%2F%2... - and it appears to be credited to SEOSnack....
Shouldn't this entry be credited to you?
Unfortunately, my tweeting ability has been very limited lately because I don't have the time and my wife doesn't like me working past 5. lol
Thanks Andy for the great post about the benefits of this tool bar. Your efforts for its improvement are appreciated.
honestly, twitter is too fast for me. like information overload. tweetmeme set a nice pace, and shows me stuff that matter more than others.
i like your antisocial plugin. i notice you only use the tweetmeme plugin now instead. a few questions:
1) do u recommend that we no longer offer social bookmarking buttons on our blogs?
2) have u customized the tweetmeme plugin with no follow for better seo?
thnx for sharing some much great information.
Michael
Offering it depends on your niche.
I include buttons that relate to my primary audience and where my primary audience is welcome to participate without discrimination.
Twitter meets those requirements, and I believe so does Tweetmeme, at least unless people start gaming them with bots.
There isn't a need to nofollow the buttons
I wrote a blog post about how to create a text retweet link, but it boils down to 3 fairly quick steps...
1. After publishing, get your blog post's URL and shorten it if necessary (using something like Bit.ly)
2. Go to RetweetLink.com, pop in the retweet message and get the retweet link.
3. Add a message to the bottom of your blog post, ie. "Twitter users, click here to retweet Andy's post."
It does take a few extra minutes, but if you've spent an hour or more writing a blog post, an extra 2 minutes is nothing to give it that extra viral reach - along with complete control over the message, and your RSS subscribers being able to use it, too!
Plus, an extra bonus tip: You can also use these text retweet links in email, on static web pages, in PDF documents... :)
However I can also see the benefit of a standard button that visitors are trained to click, and that provides social proof
I am a greedy marketer looking for the flexibility of one method, combined with the social proof of another
I am not looking to create a "fake" viral effect or social proof, but just one that can be nudged by incentives.
I can see how many people tweet me or retweet me for each post which it counts. I can see the traffic I get from Twitter and what the landing pages are from my analytics. This tells me what articles people like and what posts followers like that tweeted me.
I am not sure what other stats would be necessary especially if it would slow done the load time.
Maybe you want to split test different calls to action, different twitter accounts etc.
Maybe you want to identify users who send the most traffic, even if they don't receive affiliate compensation
comes up as direct?
However when using a service such as Bit.ly or Cli.gs, and you see 2000 clicks, and in Google Analytics you see 600 visits from Twitter and 1300 direct (just a made up example), then you know it is from people using various applications/clients.
Or just look at your tweet stream and see how many are using web compared to various twitter apps
I like the idea of a Wordpress plugin, branding with my user account, and having analytics, but does the plugin automatically create short links via bit.ly?
I'm still a newbie Twitter/blogger, so I'm investigating options to retweet.
Thanks,
Ed
They can also use authorization keys so it is attributed to your account.
Most also include additional analytics tracking links for Google analytics
Tweetmeme however is my current favorite for social proof as they seem to be able to count lots of tweets from different sources.