“How to measure traffic to tweets & twitter profile? On regular web pages you can include some tracking codes to generate traffic reports, click-through%, etc. (Google Analytics, eXteme, etc.). How can I measure the traffic to individual tweets and my Twitter profile?”

It dawned on me that all of us who use twitter to increase our business (or personal) visibility have no tool that measures traffic going to our twitter profiles or individual tweets. For my readers who are not on twitter yet, the video below will explain, what twitter is, and should allow you to realize how important and effective it can be in promoting your business; and increasing your visibility to existing or potential clients:

Back to the question at hand, unfortunately until twitter allows its members access to such data, I don’t see a way that we could gather statistics that show the traffic to our twitter profiles or specific tweets. In my opinion, a great solution would entail twitter having an agreement with Google Analytics to that end. That would be a win-win-win scenario. We win by garnering access to such statistics, Google wins (as we need an analytics account to access our twitter profile and tweet statistics, thereby increasing their user base) and twitter wins by becoming even more valuable to the business community (and in turn increasing membership).

The only immediate advice I could offer (and offer to you) was:

“I’ve not seen twitter release access to that in their API. Currently the only method I see is in my own stats (looking at the referrer), which at least gives me an idea of who clicked on the link (in the twitter profile) to reach your page. I also, don’t think there’s a way to track traffic TO individual tweets (again, that would mean twitter would need to allow access to that data).

Since you mentioned Google Analytics, this link (following) should at least give you something: Twitter and Google Analytics: What to Track

Also helpful: Simple Way to Track Your Twitter Tweets Using Google Analytics

Please remember that  methods such as this are only of value to track actual click throughs to your designated pages.”

I’m hoping the powers-that-be at Google and Twitter pick up the idea on this post and try to make it work.

What tools do you use to track or analyze traffic from twitter? Do any of you have a tool, code, idea or an existing web based service that can provide statistics to your tweets and twitter profile? Thoughts, comments? Feel free to ad them below.

Oh… and one shameless plug, please follow me on twitter to keep an eye on what’s going on in BloggerSavvy and access the tons of useful and helpful links, tips and tools I find on the web.

One thing I’d like to clarify before continuing. Online social media promotion tools (such as the sites mentioned above) are best used as an extension of your existing, traditional marketing activities. The benefits in most cases result in:

• More targeted audience.
• Greater geographic reach.
• Reduction in marketing costs.
• Save time (in other words using time in a more productive effective manner).

However, the above are only some of the most immediate that come to mind.

One thing I always try to advise clients is to break down their business or blog promotion requirements to reflect the jobs (or responsibilities) at hand. Generally, there are four primary groups:

Management. Your are the blog and/or business owner. Your primary goal should be to raise awareness and visibility of your products, services, content, etc. You should work towards being the leader in your niche (whatever that is). Additionally, you’re the one that should seek out talent you require to that end.

Public Relations. You are the one that should be monitoring what visitors, blog followers, clients, etc. are saying about your blog and business. You should be responding to them and illicit discussion, creating “spins” and attention to your blog and the business or community it represents.

Marketing. Your job is to ensure you’ve targeted the appropriate venues to stream your information to (the blog, products, services, etc.) You are doing this to build traffic, that is one of your primary functions.

Sales. Your role is to find or create new business leads. As such, you need to establish an effective network in order to move forward, expanding it as new contacts are added to your database.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, most people who launch and maintain a blog, provide the functions at each level above. For many of us, that is where some of the questions begin. Which tool is best for which function?

The illustration below illustrates this issue:

As I’m sure you could appreciate, there are hundreds of social media tools available. In the above diagram, I’ve only selected a few of them. So… Let’s recap:

Managers/Blog owners can use tools like Pownce (closed on Dec. 15, 2008), Plurk, Twitter, etc so as to increase awareness of their information (as well as their visibility) within online communities. You are using a blog, right?

Side note: You can follow me on twitter here: @BloggerSavvy

Marketing gurus however, can best capitalize on tools like Stumbleupon, Digg, Flickr, Reddit, Furl, Delicious, Youtube, Newsvine, Mixx, etc. to get the “word out” where communities can access it and visit the appropriate content on your blog. Such tools provide a superior venue for increasing your blog traffic and at a cheaper cost, than traditional solutions.

The sales people need to maximize their contacts and find others contacts. Tools like LinkedIn, hi5, Bebo, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook, Freindster, etc. are best able to facilitate this. You can build your contacts much faster then via traditional methods.

Of course the PR people need to keep their fingers on the pulse. They need to be aware of what is being said and need to respond (which I’ll note in a moment). Some good tools to help monitor what’s being said about you in the blogsphere are Technorati, Backtype, GetSatisfaction, Twitscoop, etc. As I just mentioned, PR people need to respond to some of the things they find. Commonly, tools like Dig, Reddit, Flickr, GetSatisfaction, etc. provide the facility for effective responses to individuals and the community as a whole.

In conclusion, one point I’ve also tried to impress is to ensure you’re using the right tool to get the right response and right traffic. After all traffic just for the sake of traffic is a futile exercise. For example, I’d rather have visitors to this blog that are genuinely interested in the contents, than to have a ton of disinterested traffic that does nothing other than use my bandwidth up (costing me more money).

What tools do you use that I’ve not mentioned? What are your thoughts? Feel free to let us know in your comments! Any new startups we all should know about? – Announce them below.