Twitter Is 2nd After Google in Referrals To My Blog, But They Stay Longer ...

Referrals - percentage of visitors by top ten sources for past 30 days (April, 2008)

Twitter for me is mostly a listening tool.  A place to quickly get a range of responses to questions, rapid research for blog posts, and social presence.   A side benefit is that brings people over to my blog.  I do share URLs to my posts, but try to link to a conversation.

Is Twitter A Traffic Tool, Not

In Google Analytics I'm closing looking at referrals.  This past month, for the first time, Twitter is now the #2 referral of visits to my blog, but only 1/3 of those referrals are from my own tweets.   The rest are coming from other twitter users.   That's why I think setting up a Twitter account with a TwitterFeed that just promotes your blog posts probably may not be as effective as engaging with your network on Twitter.  It takes time for Twitter to be a golden referral -- a year ago, Twitter did not make my top ten referrers.

So, do visitors from Twitter simply click and then flit away?   I did a comparison of time on-site with top referrals and Twitter referrals stay longer than Google.   I wanted to see if Avinash Kaushik had written in depth about analyzing Twitter in Google Analytics - I found his reference in his blogging tips that Twitter was golden in terms of referral.  Maybe he'll get on Twitter.

Does Twitter Work Better As A Listening Tool

Last week inspired by this blog post written by an artist named Tina, I asked my Twitter network, "How would you use Twitter as a listening tool?"  Alan Benamer mentioned that he thinks listening is so important. "Most of my friends on Twitter all only interested in themselves. It's become all too spammy."

• Complaints and Celebrations: Holly Ross at NTEN described what she listens for when she puts her listening ears on for Twitter - this includes listening to people's complaints and celebrations.  Generally, she uses Twitter to take the community's temperature and get rapid feedback on questions.   She later wrote more about this in a expanded post on the NTEN blog. 
• Inspiration and Ideas: Paul Sanchez, like Holly, uses Twitter for quick polls, but also uses it as a source for inspiration.  Paul notes, "I find a lot of ideas in the streams of conversation."  Social Butterfly views Twitter as a great brainstorming tool.
• Twitter Focus Group: Jordan V from Convio calls Twitter an unofficial focus group! "If you listen closely, you can pick up on trends and ideas that can really help your outreach and communication efforts."  Beth Dunn is using TwitterLocal with local artists -- a way to listen to a specific group of people who might be served by her organization's programs. 
• Automating Listening: You can automate your listening by using a tool like Tweetscan and search for particular terms - like nonprofit.  (What's cool is that you grab an RSS of the search).

Twitter As A Conversation Tool

This post from Cometrics -- Developing Metrics for Conversation for Twitter -- has lots to ponder.  It lead me to this post by Louis Gray called "What's Your Twitter Noise Ratio?"   He goes on to describe how the noise ratio is constructed. 

I feel there are different categories of Twitter users, from those who have a listening audience, measured by a high "followers" to "updates" ratio, those who are engaging, seen with near equal "followers" and "updates", and those who are more noisy, with a lot more "updates" than actual "followers".

He goes on to do an analysis of specific users and categorizes them into different and more polite profiles than twerps and twits.

Listeners (Ratio of Updates to Followers of Less than 1)
Middle Ground (Ratio of Updates to Followers 1-2)
Conversationalists (Ratio of Updates to Followers 2-5)
Megaphones (Over 5)

My ratio is 2.4, so I'm in the low end of conversationalist.  I wonder if there are gender differences?  Most of Mr. Gray's data set was male as far as I could tell.

What does all this mean anyway?

This is, of course, a simplistic analysis of a select number of Twitter users. An argument could be made that those with thousands of updates are flat-out noisy, regardless of how many followers they have, but I also believe that being selective in one's tweeting habits can lead to an increasing audience for further conversations. If there's an imbalance between how often somebody is tweeting and how many people are choosing to follow them, it could be the noise has grown too loud.

I asked my Twitter network today when Twitter would reach the trough of disillusionment - when the honeymoon is over and people start complaining.  It always happens even if as Twitter follower Microveldt
says "the strength of twitter is the character limit. It's in the sweet spot of low barrier to participate, high volume usage."  I think when that high volume usage kicks in is when  we will hear more and more  complaints about noise and information overload.  Some have started already, as BarbaraKB notes and with Twitter being covered in the mainstream news watch out..

Gary Vaynerchuk puts a different spin on the "noise."

Twitter As A Barrier to GTD?

Last week when I was leading a workshop for arts organizations and artists on social media and demonstrating for those who had seen or heard about it before.  When people on Twitter responded to my questions, the reaction from people in the room was, "Isn't anyone getting any work done?"  I put this question out to my Twitter network:

• Twitter is integrated into workflow (Angela Stockman)
• There's a learning curve in the beginning but then you get into routine of quick scan (Edengee)
• Some people use Twitter while multi-tasking (Alison Brynes)
• It helps when you're doing boring work, gets in the way when you need to concentrate (SueBob)
• Can stimulate creative thinking or offer energy like a walk in the part (Csamuels)
• Need to use the boxing, ignore it, quick skim/read, ignore a lot (suggested by many)

I think some of the best advice for being effective using Twitter comes from Howard Greenstein via Chris Brogan.

Chris likened Twitter to a Chinese proverb about “Seeing flowers from horseback.” You see a different image as the landscape goes by on horseback, but stopping to look at a flower or group of flowers gives you a totally different image.

We discussed this and agreed that in that sense, watching Twitter is watching like flowers going by on horseback. Stop and get off the horse and look - see what people are talking about - and then get back on. You can look at any time. Tools like Tweetscan can help you monitor conversations, and like FriendFeed can help you catch up with what your friends are really saying. But trying to participate all day can be like a full-time job, and you might fall off your (work) horse.

Shara Karasic has written one of the absolute best primers for Twitter.  It's an excellent how to get started guide that while geared for the business community is a great step-by-step advice for thinking through your Twitter presence.  It includes advice for both a twitter presence for traffic or for listening or conversation.

What's your Twitter noise ratio (divide total updates by number of followers - and see categories). Did it surprise?   Do you think we'll see disillusionment with Twitter?   What's next?

Comments

[aaron]

Appreciate this post Beth. So many new thoughts and ideas. Where do you suggest a person starts to increase exposure for a nonprofit? What is the best incremental investmental for the best return?

[Beth Kanter]

Aaron:

First read this excellent primer
http://www.work.com/twitter-for-business-4020/

Steps

1. Think about how you want to use Twitter
2. Set up an account
3. Find some nonprofit people to follow (see twitterpacks.pbwiki.com)
4. Start listening and having some conversations ...

[SocialButterfly]

Another great post! I like all the links to other people posting about Twitter's recent growth and usage. I agree that TwitterFeed is probably not the best way to go about sending links, etc. I've noticed how I tend to overlook those more...both the Guardian and Southwest (both of which I'm huge fans of) use Twitterfeed, but they don't catch my attention as much, and especially SW's read like an ad, rather than an engaged user.

Thanks!
SocialButterfly

[marnie webb]

@Aaron: I think using Tweetscan to search and follow some conversations and then join in is the best way to get started. At some point, you've simply got to just start talking. If you can do that in response to posts you find relevant, it'll be a fast and easy way to get engaged.

[Stacey Monk]

I'm a conversationalist - a 3.7. Actually, much noisier than I thought by these metrics. A very interesting analysis. Thanks! I do have one suggestion for other nonprofit tweeters: follow outside the nonprofit sector too. While I'm all about drinking our own koolaid, there's SO much to be learned from our for-profit peers.

[Alanna]

I get amazing traffic from twitter. Not a ton of it, but the people stick around, read a lot, and comment. I use twitter in four different ways:

1) To flag things I should write about later. People who care enough can see things go from my initial twitter jottings to the (I hope) thoughtful blog entry.

2) To offer up links that don't really belong on my blog.

3) To socialize a little with people who are interested in the same stuff I am.

4) To learn - I'll sign up for just about anyone's twitter feed to see what they have to say. Anything that doesn't engage me gets dropped, and the twitterers who remain expose me to an amazing variety of things I have never thought about before.

[chas]

Beth, great post, thanks.

On a completely different tune, I noticed that stumbleupon is up at the top. It's at the top for us as well and for a couple other green NPs that I've chatted with. I haven't really explored, but I'm slightly baffled by this seemingly hollow referral.

I'm sure we're not actively listening/participating, or doing what we need to do to take better advantage of the tool, but I'm sort of at a lost. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Chas

[Todd Van Hoosear]

Great post! Thanks for sharing the data and your thoughts about it!

[jen lemen]

4.7! yikes! i'm almost a megaphone. so not how i see myself on twitter, but i think when i do get on to chat at the watercooler, i am very chatty.

and btw, twitter is in my top five of referrers. didn't used to be that way for me either. great post, beth!

[Beth Kanter]

@chas
see this case study from Danielle about generating green traffic from stumbledupon
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/04/social-media-ca.html

I think a lot of referrals are probably from JColeman and Danielle's efforts ..:-)

Also see this

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/04/three-conferene.html

[Roger Carr]

Hi Beth,
Twitter Noise Ratio puts me in Middle Ground at 1.2. Does this make me boring or balanced? Great post! It has me rethinking about my use habits on Twitter.

[Roger Carr]

Hi Beth,
Twitter Noise Ratio puts me in Middle Ground at 1.2. Does this make me boring or balanced? Great post! It has me rethinking about my use habits on Twitter.

[Lissa]

I think I'm too new to Twitter to have an accurate reading -- I also have two audiences (or groups of followers who might be paying attention?): good friends, with whom I exchange rather pithy commentary on the day, and healthcare/nonprofit/tech folks who might at some point gather interest from my healthcare blatherings. Not sure how all of this will level out, but it's interesting, certainly.

[Mr. Sustainable]

Invaluable content! I'm just beginning to appreciate Twitter. Your insights will help me greatly. Thanks!

[Jordan V]

It's true, Twitter is one of my favorite outlets for information and thought consumption. I was amazed to see how many referrals you get for your blog through your tweets! And seeing these numbers makes me realize what I've known for a long time - I need to spend more time with Stumble Upon. Great post, Beth. Thanks for compiling all these wonderful examples and resources.

[Beth Kanter]

Dear Mr.Sustainable:

I love your name BTW,

Here's a few getting started resources to help you in your twitter learning journey.

http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/twitter_primer

[Beth Kanter]

@Jen Lemen - think there is a gender difference?

[Gregory Heller]

Beth, great article. I don't subscribe to the tweet noise ration calculation since tweets exist forever, and followers change overtime. I think a true calculation would have to be (tweets/time period)/followers. Events where folks are tweeting frequently skew results otherwise. It would also be interesting to look at the automatic tweeting (from blogs for example) vs replies, vs manual tweets.

[Kivi at Nonprofit Marketing Guide]

I've noticed new, real traffic from twitter too. I'm "middle ground" on the scale.

I do like twitterfeed for people I follow, because it's a quick way to see what's happening on their blogs(also why I've been going to alltop a lot lately). Guess this points out that I have too many feeds in my rss reader, which I've been avoiding, because it's just too overwhelming now.

Thanks for the ongoing Twitter analysis!