My friend Deb of Deb Works invited me and a few blogging friends to attend the #140Conf Smalltown in Hutchinson, KS earlier this month. Unfortunately, my work schedule didn’t permit a road trip that week and I asked my buddy Kelly Kinkaid of Kellyology to wrangle some bloggers and make the trip for me. She agreed because she’s awesome like that. Thank you to @DebWorks, @Kellyology, @andsosheblogs, and @VickiMaeisOK.

In 2009 the 140 Characters Conferences, #140Conf, began.  These conferences “explore the effects of Twitter on a wide range of topics including:  Celebrity, ‘The Media,’ Advertising, Politics, Fashion, Real Estate, Music, Education, Public Safety, Public Diplomacy and quite a few other topics.”  They have been hosted  in New York, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, London, San Francisco, Barcelona, Austin, Washington D.C., and on Monday, November 1st, Hutchinson, Kansas.  Now if, to you, Hutchinson, Kansas seems like a weird place to have a media conference that focuses on the global impact of social media, you’re not alone.  The idea for the conference was the brainstorm of Becky McCray, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur and rancher from Hopeton, Oklahoma, population 262. She approached Jeff Pulver, the creator of #140Conf, and suggested that it would be interesting if one of the #140Conf would explore the impact of social media on Small Town, U.S.A.  It would be called (wait for it) #140Conf Smalltown.  And so it began.

#140Conf Smalltown was held at the historic Fox Theater and was attended by 250 visitors from over 12 states. In addition, thanks to live-streaming, many more people were able to attend remotely, including a host of international viewers. What was the draw? Everyone was interested in hearing about how Twitter could impact, has impacted, or will impact the members and the businesses of small town communities.”  And although the list of speakers was long and diverse including college professors, journalists, community activists, ranchers and farmers, members of the Hutchinson police force, educators, marketing experts, and some guy who tweets while riding his self propelled tractor, the message seemed to be the same from all and included three main ideas:

1. For members of small town communities, Twitter is the great equalizer.  On Twitter large companies with huge marketing budgets cannot outspend community activists, small business owners, or the guy on the tractor who wants to talk about his opinion concerning the latest elections.  All you need is the ability to create tweets with purpose, have a defined mission about what you wish to accomplish, and have the ability to create tweets with personality that make people want to join your conversation.
2. For members of small town communities, Twitter eliminates the problems that could exist by living in a more isolated area. You can live in Hopeton, Oklahoma and have a thriving national business.  You can build an international company working out of the basement of your home.  And you can have conversations and share knowledge with people that you otherwise might not have access to — all because you have opened yourself up to the rest of world by creating a Twitter account.
3. The most important aspect to consider when opening your Twitter accounts are the the relationships you build with others. You never know what you might learn about your area of expertise from a relationship you build with someone in another part of the country or even another country.  You never know when a conversation about a great recipe from a twitter friend might lead to a mutually beneficial professional relationship.  You never know how important a Twitter friendship can become to you personally even though you’re communicating with someone who you have never met in person.

In the United States today, 281 million people live in communities with a size less than 50,000 people (per the ers.usda.gov).  With an overall population of of over 310 million people in the USA, that statistic suggests that, in fact, the vast majority of Americans live in small town communities.  With the creation of Twitter and other forms of social media such as Facebook, Four Square, LinkedIn, etc., the people of the United States are growing more connected by the day.  And with each connection it seems to matter less and less about where you live.  Instead, according to the speakers at #140Conf Smalltown, all that matters are the connections and relationships you create on line.

#140Conf NYC 2011 will be taking place June 15th and 16th at the 92nd Street Y and another #140Conf Smalltown will be held in Hutchinson, KS on September 20, 2011.

This is a guest post by Kelly Kinkaid of Kellyology.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I don’t usually post press releases here at Blogging Basics 101 because I don’t feel the majority of them are relevant. I’m posting one today, though, because I specifically asked for a copy. There’s a conference going on November 1 that I think you need to be aware of and should attend if you can. It’s the Small Business #140conf and it’s being held in Hutchinson, KS on November 1 (in case you missed the title of this article </tongueincheek>). Here’s the scoop:

Heavy Hitters Head to Hutch

Monday November 1, the Fox Theatre in Hutchinson Kansas will be the host to some of the most cutting edge personalities in the online universe. Hosted by Jeff Pulver and Becky McCray, the 140 Character Conference is coming to small town America.  These conferences have been hosted in cities like New York, London and Tel Aviv.  #140conf Small Town will be a ground breaking opportunity to look at the effects of the real-time web on the people and the businesses inside of and around Small Towns.

The #140conf events provide a platform for the worldwide twitter community to: listen, connect, share and engage with each other, while collectively exploring the effects of the emerging real-time internet on business. It creates serendipity in talking to each other, sharing ideas across industries, and exchanging thoughts with people like you and not like you. To put it in rural terms, we’re going to cross-pollinate some ideas. Or think of it as hybrid vigor: your new ideas are much stronger than the ideas that brought them about.

Who’s speaking?  At the release of this article there are 31 contributors lined up. This conference will be flexible and there may be more speakers as well.  These are just some of the topics that will be covered – and the bios of those presenting.

Anita Cochran  – from TV to Twitter. A self-proclaimed “News Goddess,” Anita Cochran became a household name as a News Anchor in her home state of Kansas. A graduate of Wichita State University, her Radio/TV/Film degree morphed into a career that took her from Hays to Garden City and back to Wichita and allowed her to cover stories from all corners of the state and even across the country. In spring 2009, Anita celebrated her 20th year on camera, and walked away from the Industry she loves. Today, a mother of two daughters, and wife of almost 24 years, Anita has gone through a downsizing of her material life, to upsize her spiritual one.   She’s blogging and writing a book about that experience…..and living on one-fourth the income, her family became accustomed to.

Dennis Deery   – Small Towns & Online – Melding Two Visions of Community. Dennis Deery is the founder of Irish Rose Consulting, a technology consulting firm located in western Wisconsin. He has worked in the field for over 20 years, specializing in technology planning, software development and web site development. Irish Rose Consulting works with small- to mid-sized companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies throughout the United States and Europe. Dennis also does extensive work in the field of community development, focusing mainly on small towns and rural areas.

Warren Parker and Michelle Tucker – Bridging the Gap between the Farm and Urban Areas. Warren Parker has a degree from Fort Hays State University in Communications and Radio/Television.  He worked for 10 years at WIBW-TV/radio in Topeka Kansas as reporter, anchor, and chief photographer.  He covered the Kansas legislature and courts, covered three national political conventions, and created an award-winning television feature series ‘Parker’s People’ seen nationally and internationally.

After leaving the media, Warren moved to the Kansas Farm Bureau as lobbyist and governmental relations assistant director for membership-approved policy in Topeka, Kansas and Washington D.C. He is now the web development director for Kansas Farm Bureau managing the organization’s website.

Warren says “I appreciate all kinds of agriculture, and embrace them. However, in my travels to different parts of the world, and seeing complex political and geographical diversities, I have learned there is a need to feed that world, and a safe, modern agriculture that allows our food security, as well as trade with other nations, is required.  I believe in true, science-based solutions, and have little patience for agenda-driven hype and emotion.  I look forward to sharing views.”

Michelle Tucker. I am a mother, wife, Farm Insurance nerd and all around people lover.  I am currently raising the 5th generation in the same home that was placed there over 100 years ago.  While we do not farm for a living, we are still active in raising some cattle and help my father who still farms the land.  I love sharing my story of Ag and life on Twitter and having the amazing opportunity to connect to others I would otherwise not have met.  Oh and I love my Kansas State Wildcats!!

Debbie Lyons-Blythe – Life on a Kansas Cattle Ranch. Debbie Lyons-Blythe is a cattle rancher in central Kansas, in the heart of the grasslands of the Flint Hills. She has been married to Duane for more than 20 years, and they have five kids. They have about 250 mama cows raising calves, and 300 heifers (cows that haven’t had a calf yet). Debbie sells bulls and heifers and sometimes feeds out steers to enter the food chain.

Debbie’s job is to raise the cattle and kids. She and her husband believe that connecting to the people who do not live on a ranch is very important to their children’s future on the ranch. Debbie blogs weekly about her life, shares beef recipes and stories about the ranch at KansasCattleRanch.blogspot.com.  She uses Twitter and Facebook to connect to people across the world.  She says, “I am a typical rancher, albeit a woman. But we do things like everyone else around here does—with a basic respect for the cattle and the land. Our future depends on the sustainability of our ranch. The only difference is that we realize that we must make the time to open our lives up to ‘city folk’ so they can see what we do and why we do it.”

Cort Anderson – Support Your Local Newspaper. Cort Anderson is the CEO (Chief Everything Officer) of Cort D Anderson Limited Company and a Senior Partner in Identis, LLC.  He provides a variety of services for his clients from software training to graphic design to web consulting. In addition he shoots occasional news assignments for local newspapers and fine art photography.

At Kansas State University he studied journalism and went on to work for newspapers and a wire service.  For the past 20 years he has combined his knowledge of photography, printing and computers to help companies move into desktop publishing and digital imaging.

From 1999 until 2009 Cort was the Technology Consultant for the Kansas Press Association. He traveled the state working with small newspapers on training and technology issues. He has presented programs on digital photography, PDF creation, websites and other newspaper technology hurdles for various state and national press associations.

Jonathon George Micro-messaging: Creating Signal in the Noise. Jonathan George is the founder and CEO of AppRemix, a real-time mobile micro-messaging company known for its popular iPhone application Boxcar.  Prior to AppRemix, Jonathan led and developed several web startups.  With 10 years of web and software entrepreneurship, he is particularly familiar with the many important aspects of usability, interaction design and their relationship to technology.
Jonathan is from Coffeyville, KS and currently resides in Wichita, KS.  He is known for his candor and insights into the internet and application industries, and blogs on a non-regular basis.

Gus Wagner – Using Social Media to Drive Reaction to Agribusiness in Government. Gus is originally a farm kid from Franklin County, Missouri. He spent 12 years as a manufacturing consultant before launching The Rocket Group in 2001 where they focus on Relationship, Graphic and Communication Strategies for Business, Politics, and Government. After being an early adopter of Facebook and Twitter for client marketing, he became certified in Social Media Strategy in 2010.

Gus says “My official capacity in government was as a Chief of Staff to two Missouri State Senators over an 8-year period. My responsibilities included managing all the legislative issues involved within the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food Production, and Outdoor Resources and a Senate district in Southwest Missouri with one of the fastest growing population areas in America. . My company and I have managed, assisted, or contracted on more than 135 campaigns from small city halls to the halls of Congress since 1998 and have been victorious more than 70% of the time.”

Gigi Belmonico – Living Life Connected. Image Consultant, Glamour Girl, and Bombshell Coach! Many entrepreneurial women lose their femininity and friendships as they build amazing businesses and Gigi shows them how to turn up “The Bombshell Factor™”!  An Image Consultant for over 25 years, she’s shown thousands of women how to feel powerful in their femininity through tools such as body typing, makeup and fashion personality, core wardrobing, and much more so that EVERYday is Bombshell day!

Many women have qualities that make them “look” beautiful, but Gigi takes it even further and teaches the “missing link” …the more esoteric qualities that truly connect women with each other without the typical drama, trauma, and jealousy so prevalent today.

She was featured in “Mom Spa: 75 Relaxing Ways to Pamper a Mother’s Mind, Body, and Soul,” by Gin Sander, and was a contributing author in Gin’s book “Raging Gracefully: Smart Women on Life, Love, And Coming into Your Own”.

Mark Linder – Mobilized to Feed the World. Entrepreneur, Investor, New Media and Podcasting Pioneer and former Fortune 500 executive. Managing Partner of ND Partners, LLC (Owner & Operator of Sola Salons in Texas) and President/Principle of Forefront Media Labs (producer of New Media and Social Media projects.) Early Podcaster featured on PodShow/Mevio since their beta days. Speaker at 2008 SXSW, 2007 Portable Media Expo, 2008 New Media Expo and 2008 Thin Air Summit. Finalist for 2009 Podcast Award from PodcastAwards.com. Forefront Media Labs has worked on many New Media projects one of which included heading the team which brought Barack Obama to Second Life. Based in Dallas, Texas, his company currently produces three podcasts for Mevio, operates Internet Radio Stations, creates social media programs and websites for a variety of organizations and has a soon to be released in print audio book.

Heather Lytle and Cyndy Hoenig – Trust me: How to Use PR & Social Media to Create Brands People Know, Like and Trust. Heather Lytle is a New Media Strategist and Technology Specialist. As senior partner with H&L Media Partners, Heather uses her extensive corporate background as well as her intimate understanding of the needs of small business owners to offer clients a unique marketing perspective with a focus on new technologies. She also owns HVM Solutions, which offers a full range of technology solutions for business from web design and development to iPhone applications, and ShopGadgetGirl.com, which started as a blog but after generating a huge buzz went retail in March 2009.

Heather holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from University of Central Oklahoma and a MBA in Leadership and Organizational Development from Oklahoma Christian University. She serves on the Board of Directors for Keep Oklahoma Beautiful and served as the Corporate Sponsorship Co-Chair for Go Red for Women. She was just named a 20 under 40 by the Business Times and awarded a 40 under 40 by OKC Biz. A very busy and successful year for one who won’t turn 40 for seven years.  Lytle lives in Edmond, Oklahoma in the house she grew up in with her husband Kevin and cow dog, Shawnee. She loves Edmond, Lake Tenkiller, writing and her family.

Cyndy Hoenig’s career has taken her from her home in Oklahoma to a 20-year entertainment career in Los Angeles, where she served as Director of the Television Division of Bender, Goldman & Helper, and a top public relations agency. Her area of expertise centers on planning and executing media relations programs that achieve high levels of coverage. Cyndy has managed media relations for the Emmy’s, Screen Actors Guild and VH-1 Music Awards shows, as well as top television shows for NBC, CBS, FOX, Carsey-Werner, Aaron Spelling, Disney Channel and 20th Television.

She organized the media for the Oklahoma City National Memorial’s 10th Anniversary, handling over 700 media outlets. A program she planned and managed for Oklahoma City’s Race for the Cure enhanced awareness to a level that resulted in a 35% increase in participation.

Currently, Hoenig owns Pure PR, a PR company in Oklahoma City, and is partnered with Heather Lytle in H&L Media Partners, a company that offers consultant services and trainings in PR and Social Media.

Hoenig is a sustaining member of the Jr. League of OKC and PR chair for the Edmond Women’s Club. She studied communications at University of Central Oklahoma and St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.   Residing in Edmond with her beloved dog, Digger, Cyndy has four grown daughters and eight grandchildren.

Andrea Springer – Tell Me Why I Should Care – Nonprofits, Social Media, and Storytelling. Andrea says “I’m looking forward to my first #140conf and am tickled that it’s going to be in the Fox Theatre.  In a previous life, I was executive director of the theatre’s restoration.  It’s a 1931 art deco movie palace, restored to its original glory and a great space.  We hope everyone enjoys their time there.

In addition to what you read, I was raised on a farm in Illinois but consider myself a Kansan by choice, having been here for over 25 years.  Fourteen of those years were spent working in public broadcasting – both radio and television.  I’m passionate about community in all its forms – online and off.  In addition to my consulting work with nonprofits I volunteer with four local organizations with missions ranging from the arts to social services to economic development.  I’m also a knitter and teach classes at a local yarn shop on a regular basis.”

Andrea’s background includes 25 years of experience working for and with nonprofit organizations. She served as Capital Campaign Manager and Director of Development for KPTS Public Television in Wichita, Executive Director of the Fox Theatre restoration project in Hutchinson and Senior Consultant for HartsookCompanies, a national fundraising firm. She is also a founding member of the Kansas Historic Theatre Association. In 2004, Andrea started Springer Coaching and Consulting, a firm that focuses on the specialized needs of small nonprofits.

Marci Penner – How 8 Wonders Drive Online Success. Marci Penner is the director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, a non-profit founded by her and her father in 1993.  The office is based on the family farm near Inman.

Major stops have been at the University of Kansas, the University of Wisconsin, and the Philadelphia area.  In 1990 Marci moved back to Kansas and has been working with rural communities ever since. The mission of the Foundation is to preserve and sustain rural culture by educating Kansans about Kansas and by networking and supporting rural communities.

Some of the better known projects are the 8 Wonders of Kansas, the Kansas Sampler Festival, and Rural Kansas: Come & Get It, the Kansas Explorers Club, and the Kansas Guidebook for Explorers.  Marci went to every one of the 627 incorporated cities in Kansas in the early 2000s to research for the guidebook.

Marci served as a co-chair for the Governor’s Rural Life Task Force, was named Distinguished Kansas of the Year in 2005 and has received other state and national awards for her work with rural communities.

Jay Ehret – Your Tweet is Your Brand: Small Town Business Branding. Jay Ehret is Chief Officer of Awesomeness for The Marketing Spot, a marketing coaching and consulting firm he founded in 2001 in Waco, Texas. He is a marketing coach, consultant, speaker, and blog author. He helps entrepreneurs and brands build marketing plans based on the four essential spots of marketing: Branding, Experience, Conversation, and Promotion. He empowers his clients with knowledge, giving them a course in marketing, turning entrepreneurs into marketers while transforming businesses into extra-ordinary brands. Jay has developed a full-day workshop that teaches participants how to build and implement their own marketing plan.

He is a frequent speaker at conferences and industry association events. He was a featured speaker at the 2010 National Golf Course Owners Association annual conference. Jay has presented at numerous marketing and trade association conferences and been a featured speaker at South by Southwest Interactive, the Optimization Summits, and the Global Golf Marketing Conference in Seoul, Korea.  Jay authors the award winning Marketing Spot Blog and hosts the Power to the Small Business podcast.

He is married to Carol and has four grandchildren and two dogs. He is active in his church, is a wine lover, and dreams of someday playing in the World Series of Poker. (Jay is on the left)

Cody M. Heitschmidt – What is Your OPA …Online Presence Assessment? Cody attended Hutchinson Community College Classes while at Hutchinson High School, graduating in 1993.  United States Marine Corps followed from 1994 – 1998.  After leaving the military and returning to Hutchinson, Kansas, Cody did a short but enjoyable time with Koch Industries, leaving to develop and build H&R Outfitters, a hunting guide business. Although he enjoyed it tremendously, it did not prove to be financially prudent so he teamed up with his wife, Tamara, in her business LogicMaze, Inc. Web Designs and Small Business Marketing to do her sales and marketing in 2004.  Together they grew the business and sold it to Harris Enterprises/Hutchinson News in December, 2009.  They continue to manage, design and market the business for the Hutchinson News.

Cody was one of the original committee members in the development of the Young Professionals Organization in Reno County that now has grown to over 250 members; he was also instrumental in the marketing and publicity of organizing the first Third Thursdays that are now a popular event in the downtown area of Hutchinson.

Deb Brown – Volunteering Pays. Deb was born and raised in Franklin County Iowa.  Luther College educated her and she lived in Chicago for many years. She’s worked as an insurance underwriter, a retail management professional, salesperson, a teacher and a writer. Deb returned home to Iowa to care for her elderly parents. Much to her surprise, the Iowa Deb remembered was so much more than just a place to raise pigs. Franklin County has a rich prairie heritage, is loaded with historical sites and treasures, welcoming neighbors and good old fashioned entrepreneurial spirit. It was the perfect place to begin Debworks – combining many years of experience in various fields into her own business.  Social media merging with volunteer activities has created another line of income in her income stream.  Deb believes everyone can make a difference if we just live into our greatness and teach others to do the same.

Lynn Woolf – From the Farm: Advocating for Agriculture Using Social Media & Other Tools. Today’s consumers are looking for more than a great product, service or cause. They want — and deserve — ways to become engaged and to interact as part of a community. Credible, interesting and “fresh” online content and social media initiatives can help you do just that. And, traditional forms of communication — print media and newsletters, for example — are still important ways to build relationships.

“I am a copywriter with journalism and PR experience — that’s a double dose of expertise in creating informative, engaging and persuasive content for web sites, publications, company collateral and more. “

Simran Sethi – Social Media for Social Change in the Classroom (and Beyond). Simran blogs about sustainability for online outlets including The Huffington Post, Mother Earth News and Oprah.com. She has been a featured guest on NPR and is host of the Emmy-award winning PBS documentary, “A School in the Woods.” Simran has lectured at institutions ranging from the Commonwealth Club to Cornell University; keynoted conferences including Bioneers by the Bay, the green Business Conference and the North American Association for Environmental Education; and moderated panels for the Clinton Global Initiative University, Demos and The Climate Group.

Simran is a 2010 fellow in the Poynter Institute’s Sense-Making project, a Ford Foundation-funded program that is studying the integration of new media and democratic values. She has also served as an associate fellow at the Asia Society since 2008. Simran is a member of the Sustainability Advisory Board, a mayoral appointment in the city of Lawrence, Kansas. She holds an M.B.A. in sustainable business from the Presidio Graduate School where she now lectures in their sustainability certification program and graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Sociology and Women’s Studies from Smith College. She is the 2009 recipient of the Smith College Medal, awarded to alumnae demonstrating extraordinary professional achievements and outstanding service to their communities, and the 2010 recipient of the American College Personnel Association Champion of Sustainability award for leadership on sustainability within academe.

Elizabeth Norton – Living in a Victorian Town in a Real Time World. Even at the age of 28, Elizabeth has had many opportunities to play her share of different roles. While her journeys have taken her to stage, writing, children party entertainment and beyond, her finest casting role is one of being a mother. Elizabeth Norton is never at a loss for words. What is more important is that she is a wife and mother to over 25 children while 23 of those have come and gone through Elizabeth’s house through the foster system of New Jersey 2 birth children remain who are delightful(sometimes) boys.

Elizabeth pokes fun at her own imperfections as she discusses matters of motherhood, party planning, and hot topics that affect the families of today. She is a voice for various motherhood panels and owner of the Party Planning Professor.

Patsy Terrell – Twitter is Today’s Civic Club. Patsy Terrell is a writer and artist. She does public relations for the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. She is a columnist for the statewide magazine, Kansas Country Living, and writes freelance for a number of publications. Her background includes being a journalist, a graphic designer, and executive director of a non-profit. She consults with businesses and organizations about how to incorporate social media into their marketing; she speaks to groups about social media, food and food traditions, and creating a meaningful life.

Details:

The lineup is a great one – and this is one event you won’t want to miss in Hutchinson Kansas.
November 1, 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. at the Fox Theatre, 18 East 1st Avenue.  Stay overnight at  Ramada Hotel and Conference Center Hutchinson (formerly known as the Grand Prairie Hotel and Convention Center) 620-669-9311 or 800-362-5018.  A block of rooms has been assigned for conference attendees.

The schedule is posted at http://smalltown.140conf.com

You can purchase your ticket at http://smalltown.140conf.com/register

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Why Should I Shorten My URLs?

URL shorteners have been around for years and most do the same thing: they take a long URL (http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/2010/04/helpful-blogging-links-get-shared-on-facebook/) and making it into a short URL (http://bit.ly/ckNJhr). There are several advantages to shortening your URL:

• If you’re sharing a link on Twitter, you’re limited to 140 characters. Any URL you share can quickly eat up those characters and limit your actual message. (Tip: You don’t want to just post a link; you wan to tell people what they can expect when they click over.)
• Any time your link is visible, the longer it is, the harder it is to remember (and it’s not very pretty, either). Shortening it (especially if you use a service that allows you choose a keyword for the link; see below for some options) can solve this problem in some cases.
• Some URL shortening tools allow you to track how your audience uses and shares your URL.

URL Shorteners with Keywords

These services not only allow you to shorten your URL:

• Doiop
• TinyURL.com
• Snipurl.com

Not only do they shorten your URL, they give you the option of choosing a specific keyword to include in the URL. The result is something like http://doiop.com/blogging. These services don’t allow you to track your stats, but you can use Google Analytics to track specific user behavior or referral information for the page you’re linking to. For basic shortening with no bells and whistles, you can use one of these services:

URL Shorteners with Analytics

For those of you who want to know who’s clicking on or sharing your links, you’ll want to consider using a more powerful tool like the ones listed below.

Bit.ly allows you track the short URLs you create with an analytics page for each URL. You can determine your top referrers, reader location, actual clicks. Bit.ly is free. Some people have been confused when their Bit.ly statistics and their Google Analytics statistics don’t match up. It appears that there a few reasons for this.

1. No two analytics programs are going to ever show the same data; they all have different interpretations of data.
2. When you use Bit.ly (and possibly any URL shortening tool) to shorten a URL on, say, Twitter, Twitter will then look up the link via bots/spiders. Your Bit.ly stats include those false hits in their stats. I say “false hits” because those aren’t really pairs of eyes seeing your content, it’s just Twitter’s bots finding the link. Google Analytics won’t count those bots in its statistics.

Clicky.me requires you to run their analytics program on your web site (similar to Google Analytics) and will then track many of the same metrics Google Analytics tracks: “top referring domains, top countries, average time on site, bounce rate, etc)” as well as individual visitors. Because the clicky.me shortened URLs are linked to the clicky.me analytics you run on your site, the stats they provide are specifically for your web site; if you choose to share a link to another site that’s not running the clicky.me analytics (for instance, if you’re part of a campaign that’s tweeting links for a client), you’ll only be able to track how many times the link is clicked, not what people do once they arrive at your site. Clicky.me offers both a free and premium accounts, but the free account only allows you to shorten five URLs each day.

HootSuite.com is a very popular tool because, in addition to shortening URLs, it provides a suite of tools to help you manage your social media presence. You can

• track stats (including the most influential re-tweeters of your link)
• set up a Twitter dashboard similar to what you may be used to with Tweetdeck (you can have columns dedicated to specific keywords, hashtags, or users)
• schedule tweets
• manage multiple Twitter accounts
• collaborate with your team

There are actually many more features offered by HootSuite, but I suggest you check out the HootSuite blog for more info. HootSuite is free.

photo credit: LunaDiRimmel

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Twitter Trends for 2009

If you weren’t on Twitter this year, you weren’t getting your breaking news. Here are two articles that look back at what happened on the second-biggest social network this year:

• Twitter Reveals Most Discussed Topics of 2009 by Ben Parr via Mashable. This list provides a break down of what we Twittered this year. From Michael Jackson to Google Wave to Harry Potter, Twitter was the way news broke and was dissected and discussed.
• Twitter’s Top 10 Tech Trends of 2009 by Jolie O’Dell via Read Write Web. Not surprisingly, Google Wave is number one. As techies, you’ll be interested to see what the other nine most talked about topics were. It was interesting to me that conferences made the list. If you’ve had any doubt that your hashtags are important, worry no more.

Most Popular Downloads for 2009

I love efficiency. This year iPhone apps, Mac apps, and even Windows apps enabled me to achieve a higher level of efficiency. Oh my word, I love technology and it’s ability to make my life faster and easier.

• The App Store’s Biggest (Official) Hits of 2009 by John Herrman via Gizmodo. Mr. Herrman provides Apple’s official list of what’s hot and what’s not this year in the App Store. The lists include apps and games divided into best sellers and top rated. I was surprised there weren’t more free apps included in the lists. I’d love to know what your favorites were this year. Will you leave me a comment and let me know what apps or games you can’t live without? (If you happen to remember the cost, please include that as well.)
• Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2009 by Adam Pash via Lifehacker. Two things in my life that I love? My Mac and efficiency. So many times those two things go together. This list provides some of the most fun and efficient tools you can download for your Mac.
• Most Popular Free Mac Downloads of 2009 by Adam Pash via Lifehacker. Although I love my Mac, my family also has a PC running Windows. This article lists some of the most popular downloads for that OS.

More Best of 2009 Lists

• Check out Lifehackers entire Best Of series. It includes lists for Linux, photography, how-tos, and more.
• Jennifer Wagner links to 15 Best of 2009 lists including The Best TV Lines of 2009
• 2009 Best of What’s New via Popsci is broken into categories like Engineering, Home Tech, Gadgets, Health, Green Tech, and more.
• Gina Trapani breaks down why Google had a banner year in 2009 in her article This Year in Google: The 2009 Edition. She says, “When technologists of the future look back in time, they’ll remember 2009 as the year Google got serious about an internet operating system, speeding up the web, and indexing EVERYTHING in sight. Take a look at the year 2009 in Google.”
• AdWeek Media has their picks for the best of marketing and media Best of the 2000s.
• Mashable has several lists, but I found The 10 Most Innovative Viral Video Ads of 2009 to be quite entertaining.

This article is cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Twitterfeed
Twitterfeed allows you set it and forget it (wow, I really hope that’s not trademarked by the Ronco guy–it’s just so snappy). By associating your blog’s RSS with your Twitterfeed account, any time you publish a new article on your blog, the URL is shortened via bit.ly and fed directly to Twitter via your Twitter account (you can also feed it to Facebook). In addition, the confirmation email I received said, “If you use Feedburner and have authorized their awareness api then you can also see those stats on your dashboard, making it easy to compare your traditional RSS distribution with Twitterfeed’s social distribution.” If you take advantage of that feature, you could find some interesting correlations.

To set up a Twitterfeed account:

1. Go to Twitterfeed.com.
2. Complete the sign-up form with an email address and password.
3. Choose whether you’d like your feed to be sent to Twitter or Facebook.
4. Connect with the appropriate account by clicking either the Authenticate Twitter (to send your feed to Twitter) or Connect with Facebook (to send your feed to Facebook) button.
5. Type in the name of the feed you want to send out.
6. Type in the URL of the feed you want to send out.
7. Click Update Feed.

If you like, you can use the advanced settings to set

• update frequency (every 30 minutes, every hour, on up to every day)
• whether to include the title and/or post description
• which service to use to shorten your links (e.g., bit.ly, SnipURL, TinyURL, etc.)
• post prefixes and suffixes

TypePad
TypePad has recently unveiled some new feature to its software. One of those features allows you to share your newest posts with Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed as they are published. To use this feature, though, you’ll need to link your TypePad account with those third-party social media tools. Just go to Settings > Sharing and choose which accounts you want to share your TypePad posts with. Right now you can only share your posts with Twitter, Facebook, or FriendFeed. Once you’ve established a connection between your TypePad account and your other social media accounts, follow these instructions for sharing your posts with Twitter (and/or Facebook and FriendFeed):

1. Write your post as usual.
2. Check the box next to Twitter (and/or Facebook and FriendFeed) under Share This Post in the right sidebar of the New Post page.
3. Save/publish your post as usual. When the post is published, TypePad will send the permalink of the article (shortend via bit.ly) to the accounts you checked.

Do it yourself
You may not want to tweet everything you post. Many people choose to tweet only posts by others or posts they’ve written themselves only if it relates to a specific, current conversation. In those cases, you can simply paste the permalink into your tweet and Twitter will automatically shorten the link via bit.ly.

You’ve probably noticed that the tools I’ve recommended all use bit.ly to shorten your URLs. It’s by far the most popular URL-shortener and I encourage you to try it out. The feature that makes bit.ly so popular, I think, is that it allows you to set up an account with them and track how many click-throughs your bit.ly links receive. If you’re tracking that information, you can really get a good idea of which social media communities are using your information consistently. You can also track which topics are more popular than others. When it comes to data tracking, the possibilities are endless. Bit.ly is just one more tool for your arsenal.

Related interesting reading:

• Twitter’s Chief Talks About Lists, Traffic and Revenue by Claire Cain Miller
• Basics: Grow Your Blog with Twitter’s List Feature by Neicole Crepeau
• Real-Time Google Reader Shares to Twitter–There’s an App for That by Louis Gray
• How to Make Your Blog and Tweets Work Together Like a Charm by Alex Cristache

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.