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Social analytics (or please keep wasting your time on Twitter)
I was just looking at some of the cool social analytics that exist in my life.
Diving into Google Analytics for ChrisKnudsen.biz I learned that I have a lot of unique visitors from Midvale, Utah. I have no idea who these people are or why they like my blog. Who are you people? I also learned that I get way more traffic from ConnectBlogs than I thought I did. Way to go!
I also enjoy looking at my dashboard on WordPress to see who is linking to me. Last year I wrote a post on how Speaking Roses is like Fidel Castro. Some Cuban liberation Web site linked to the post. That was funny.
I also like looking at the “who viewed your profile” function on Linkedin. The service indicates that my Linkedin profile was viewed 14 times in the last 14 days and showed up in 24 search results. It also links to the people who viewed your profile. Some of the people I know but most I don’t know.
On the reverse of this, I occasionally go out to Twitter and check up on certain people. 99% of the crap on Twitter is just that…crap. I am blown away by the time people take out of their life to tell their buddies and people they don’t know that a body part hurts or that they’re going to Home Depot (but what do I know? I don’t “get it”, right?). That’s ground breaking stuff. However, you can find some interesting information in the other 1%. So please keep wasting your time on Twitter. Its an interesting read…at least 1% of the time.
Anyway…what social analytics do you use?
Chris,
Disclaimer: Twitter is a value-add for some, and not for others. There’s nothing wrong with taking an anti-Twitter stance.
I totally agree that people definitely waste a *lot* of time saying menial things to perfect strangers, and that’s absolutely scary.
But for me, Twitter is a value add, and here’s why: connection to projects, people, organizations, and networks I would have no obvious or comparably fast access to otherwise.
In other words, using offline methods, what I could build my social/professional network into in 2 years, using Twitter effectively, I could do in 3 months.
Last week a Twitter friend mentioned training for a triathlon. One of my offline clients is the #1 triathlon podcaster and a new connection was formed for both of them.
My car got towed four days after I arrived in Seattle, and a friend from Twitter gave me a ride to the towing yard, which they knew about because they read my menial tweet about getting towed.
Exclusively through Twitter associations, I’ve been invited to sit on boards, sold books, been asked to give interviews, been offered jobs, written a book for a Twitter friend to assist a nationwide cancer effort, been asked out, eavesdropped on emerging startups such as Seesmic, Blist, Truemors, and more. And all of that was just in the past 6 weeks.
You can definitely find all of those situations using traditional off-line networking events and tools, and Twitter is by far no substitute for participating actively in a local business community/industry network.
However, when 1% of Twitter spew can provide this kind of quantitative value, something about the app is definitely working.
Left by Carolynn Duncan on 03/13/2008You inspired me so I posted my google reader stats on my blog.
Left by Josh Carr Superstar on 03/17/2008[…] so after reading this post on social analytics I decided to see what I have been recording on […]
Left by Social Analytics _inspired by Chris Knudsen | What's Hip Hapnin? on 03/17/2008[…] so after reading this post on social analytics I decided to see what I have been recording on […]
Left by gift2visa » Blog Archive » Josh Carr: Social Analytics _inspired by Chris Knudsen on 04/28/2008