Twitter unveiled a new analytics tool Tuesday, and on the same day announced an expansion of its Promoted Tweets program that will put ads into people’s stream even if they don’t follow that particular brand.
Twitter Web Analytics is designed to help website owners understand how much traffic they receive from Twitter and the effectiveness of Twitter integrations on their sites, the company said. Twitter Web Analytics, which was driven by the company’s acquisition of BackType in July, initially will be available to a small pilot group of partners and will expand to all Web site owners in the next few weeks, according to a blog post by Twitter’s Christopher Golda (who had founded BackType). Additionally, the company will release a Twitter Web Analytics API for developers who want to incorporate Twitter data in their products.
“Twitter is a powerful platform for websites to share their content, and drive traffic and engagement,” Golda wrote. “However, people have struggled to accurately measure the amount of traffic Twitter is sending to their websites, in part because web analytics software hasn’t evolved as quickly as online sharing and social signals.”
Twitter Web Analytics will provide three key data points: how much of a website’s content is being shared across the Twitter network; the amount of traffic Twitter sends to a site; and the effectiveness of Tweet Button integration.
For the Promoted Tweets program, Twitter is working with companies including AMC Theatres, American Express, Best Western, Disney, HP, Lexus, Lionsgate, MovieTickets.com, Pepsi, Red Bull, Salesforce.com, Sephora, Xbox, and Yahoo. The company said it would begin with a small percentage of users who have demonstrated in interest in tweets from those or similar companies, then will evaluate the response before deciding on further expansion.
Related Links:
Twitter blog – http://tinyurl.com/5v63dkt
CNET – http://tinyurl.com/65kjl8s
ZDNet – http://tinyurl.com/6g9kqvv
Photo by flickr user andrusdevelopment, used under Creative Commons license
Glad I’m not twitterpainted. TV Is bad enough with all the adversting. I’m already thinking of cancelling my satellite dish and simplifying life. It’s not all about advertising.