If you click an outbound link on Twitter.com and immediately hit stop, your browser’s address bar will display something something similar to:

http://twitter.com/link_click_count?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsu.pr%2F1VF3eU&linkType=web&tweetId=3822962256&userId=17594917&authenticity_token=fa92ae1a3b002f6051a9f8d304cef09e0095ee09

If you allow this link to continue loading, you will be redirected to the URL on which you clicked via a 0.1 second meta refresh.

Let’s take a look at what information Twitter is collecting.

http://twitter.com/link_click_count

It appears fairly obvious that Twitter’s aim is to count clicks on outbound links.

url=http%3A%2F%2Fsu.pr%2F1VF3eU

If you’re not familiar with URL encoding, don’t let the messy-looking characters scare you. This is the equivalent of http://su.pr/1VF3eU

linkType=web

Refers to where the link was clicked. At this time, it appears that Twitter is only tracking links on Twitter.com. The existence of this parameter seems to be evidence that they are considering expanding beyond that.

tweetId=3822962256

A unique number assigned to every Tweet. Combining this number with the username of its Tweeter will display the status update: http://twitter.com/seanwf/status/3822962256

userId=17594917

This number is used to uniquely identify each Twitter user; roughly equivalent to their username.

authenticity_token=fa92ae1a3b002f6051a9f8d304cef09e0095ee09

A unique random string value. This security measure was unfortunately exploited by the hacker behind the StalkDaily Worm fiasco.

What Does Twitter Know?

We can glean from this that Twitter now has access to a smorgasbord of information about links on Twitter.com. As it turns out, the “authenticity_token” mentioned above is actually a cookie-based string. What this means to us is that Twitter can track a user’s click-behavior over multiple accounts.

Twitter can correlate your click-behavior with all of the information related to your account including:

• Name
• Location
• Bio
• Homepage
• Following
• Followers
• Date Joined
• Time Zone
• Tweets

The same data is available about the user who shared the link with you and any users mentioned in the tweet. All data related to the Tweet containing the link is also tied to your click such as:

• Date Created
• Users Mentioned
• Application Used

Good for Twitter, Bad for Users

Personally, I have noticed that this redirection adds a noticeable lag when loading external pages. It appears that I am not the only one experiencing this unfortunate side-effect. Another negative consequence to users is that when Twitter experiences server issues, the outbound links on Twitter.com may stop working.

Twitter has yet to announce any plans to make this data available to developers. Could this be part of a larger strategy to make Twitter.com relevant despite less than 10% of the platform’s traffic passing through the website? One thing is certain. This new feature gives Twitter access to an enormous quantity of valuable information that can be used to generate revenue through their new commercial accounts.

Delving Deeper into the Data – Twitter Demographics

In my next post, we will be exploring the demographics of Twitter users through a meta-analysis of about a dozen data sets. What we learn may surprise you and challenge some assumptions about the types of people using the micro-blogging platform.

Notes

Photo curteosy of Flickr and:

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Twitter’s “Link Click Count” Provides Analytics, Revenue, & 503 Errors

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Fortunately, engaging your stakeholders through social media doesn’t have to be an all-out corporate initiative. In fact, diving full-throttle into the social web can easily come off as “trying too hard,” making you look more desperate than interesting. The principles underlying social media are not novel. Conceptually, non-social medium are more audaciously contrary to natural communication fundamentals.

What Who is Yoono?

In their own words:

Yoono is an easy to use sidebar for your browser that allows you to connect to all your social networks and instant messaging services – in one place. Get all your friend updates, update your own status, and easily share stuff with your friends.

I’ve been a Yoono user for over a year and have always been happy with their service. However, it wasn’t until quite recently that I recognized their excellence in social media best practices. As is often the case, it all began with a simple tweet to a friend:

• @caitlinrain Yoono is an amazing Firefox addon. They just released a new version: http://bit.ly/oUFts

To my surprise, @Yoono retweeted me. While a nice gesture (albeit somewhat self-promotional), I didn’t think much of it at the time. When I recommended Yoono to my followers several months later, I received a personal thanks from their support team.

• IMHO, @Yoono is the best Firefox plugin for keeping afloat in the often turbulent social media sea. http://su.pr/2X6RdM

• @SeanWF well now. that’s an excellent reply. thank you very much for the support!

Not only was I given a very personable response but it was within five minutes of my tweet. I decided to take the opportunity to see what else Yoono was doing on Twitter. My experience was no outlier. @Yoono takes the time to retweet or thank everyone who mentions them. They address every question and concern with concision and care. They consistently link out to posts that review their extension. Far from robotic autoresponse, their tweets are obviously personally crafted.

A Narrow Focus, A Broad Reach

My interest piqued, I began to look further into Yoono’s use of social media. The foundation of Yoono’s efforts is their Community Support Forum powered by Get Satisfaction. Yoono team members are active (and quick!) in addressing every question, idea, and problem brought to their attention; often going above and beyond expectations.

Yoono is almost meticulously consistent as a quick glace at their Facebook page shows. The Yoono team often goes out of their way in responding to those who reach out to them. When I began writing this article, I requsted permission to use Yoono’s logo for this post. In less than 10 minutes, they replied.

• @Yoono I’m writing a blog post about you. Would you be ok with my using your logo or favicon (properly attributed)?

• @SeanWF Great, yes, you can use our logo/favicon, not a problem. Let us know if you need any additional info from us.

Lessons Learned

What can we learn from Yoono’s example that we can apply to our own business models? I think Yoono teaches us that in order to effectively engage social media we must:

Act Quickly

The internet moves faster than you can imagine. The cost of being left behind is high.

Always Respond

Never ignore someone who takes time to talk about you. That person could end up writing a blog post about you.

Be Personal

Social media is about being social (ie. human) even if the medium is technology-driven.

Stay Consistent

It takes just a few clicks to find out everything there is to know about you. Make them count.

Driving the Bottom Line

The Yoono Firefox Sidebar has been downloaded nearly 3 million times and reviewed 160 161 times with an average rating of 5/5 stars. The extension has been reviewed on numerous blogs and notably featured on TechCrunch. Yoono’s Twitter and Facebook profiles each have over 1,000 followers/fans.

*Images curteousy of Yoono.com

Related Posts:

• Twitter’s “Link Click Count” Provides Analytics, Revenue, & 503 Errors
• 10 Reasons You MUST Attend IZEAfest 2009
• Sell Yourself Short – Your Resume in 140 Characters

Social Media for Small Business – Yoono Models Best Practices

was brought to you by WellonTop Internet Research