DISQUS

Online Media Cultist: Twitter as full-fledged publishing platform

  • Jens · 1 year ago
    Have been thinking along exactly these lines just this week. I guess this might be the tipping point for twitter.

    What I found is this: Twitter by itself is actually unusable. BUT, when you use it with all the 3rd part apps such as TweetBeep and Twitterific, then it suddenly becomes very very interesting.

    I see Twitter as a platform now. But the value arises out of the apps. In a sense, Twitter could be like an email standard. A standard that allows people to communicate in particular way. But if you want to have that really cool Email program: then you gotta pay...
  • Eric Berlin · 1 year ago
    Jens, I agree with part of what you said very strongly, and disagree on another point.

    You say that "Twitter by itself is actually unusable." I use the "basic" Twitter service -- through the web interface -- much of the time and personally get a great deal out of it. Totally agree that 3rd party apps enhance the base service greatly.

    You make an amazing point positing a future twitter freemium account. People such as Jason Calacanis have long called for a "professional" version of Twitter that charges subscription, and something like what you mention could end up being a part of that mix.
  • Mark Evans · 1 year ago
    Eric,

    I agree that analytics would add an interesting angle to how people use Twitter. One way that I "cheat" right now is using cli.gs when I want to publish shortened URLs on Twitter. Cli.gs gives you information on how many clicks your link attractions, and where the clicks are coming from geographically.

    Mark
  • Eric Berlin · 1 year ago
    Mark, I used TinyURL for a long time but recently switched over to adjix as I was enamored of the possibilities of monetizing link sharing. My take so far is that while I think the service has potential, the slow performance of the site can be annoying (whereas TinyURL is lightning quick) and the money side seems quite a ways off from being meaningful. All that's to say that a service like cli.gs can be a really nice bridge to provide microbloggers with a piece of the analytic puzzle as you mention.
  • Hutch Carpenter · 1 year ago
    Been using bit.ly for same reason. Love the stats you get with the more advanced URL shorteners.
  • Mark Evans · 1 year ago
    Eric,

    I agree that analytics would add an interesting angle to how people use Twitter. One way that I "cheat" right now is using cli.gs when I want to publish shortened URLs on Twitter. Cli.gs gives you information on how many clicks your link attractions, and where the clicks are coming from geographically.

    Mark
  • miketempleton · 1 year ago
    As Twitter continues to grow, finding a way to track analytics seems like a natural progression. Currently there are a number of different websites that allow you to track followers, friends, link-clicking, mentions, etc., but there isn't one solution (yet) that will do it all.

    That's the type of analytics application I look forward to seeing, as I think it will finally move most businesses over the edge into joining the microblogging world. Businesses can hear testimonials about its value, but getting down and dirty and pulling statistics will be easier to sell them on the concept.
  • Eric Berlin · 1 year ago
    That's a great point Mike and will help bring data into the ROI conversations that inevitably come up.
  • dacort · 1 year ago
    Hi Eric,

    Have you seen http://tweetstats.com ? I built it about a year ago now to track my own stats on my usage of Twitter. I'd love to jack it into the Twitter backend to get some more interesting data (who's coming to your profile and how), alas, that data lives with Twitter.
  • Eric Berlin · 1 year ago
    Yes, I first saw it some time ago, and think tweetstats is very cool !
  • samksethi · 1 year ago
    We have just launched twitblogs.com you might want to have a look as it is a fully fledged publishing platform. The analytics foillow shortly as do the revenue opportunities. Give it a go and let me know what you think .