Liz Pullen : Follow her at @nwjerseyliz

Question

At some point, you might take into account the fact that Tweets are distributed to many other venues. My Tweets are posted to my FriendFeed account (where I have almost 1 thousand subscribers) and my blog (and other people post to their Facebook account). So, the advertisers could, potentially be getting twice or three times the exposure than just on Twitter.

I realize it would complicate things to try to figure all of this out for each Twitterer but I think it is a selling point to advertisers that, at least for me, they are reaching a secondary audiences such as FriendFeed.

Ted’s Answer

Liz, you bring up a great point. Tweets are being syndicated to Facebook, FriendFeed, blogs, twitter meme sites and beyond. We recognize that this is a benefit to the advertiser, but unfortunately there is no way for us to easily track this across so many platforms and permutations. While followers are important, Sponsored Tweets relies heavily on follower activation. It is easy to get a large following or to distribute content over a wide syndication network. It is much harder to activate people and have them click on a link inside the tweet itself.

We use clicks as our primary way to gauge activiation. More clicks will lead to a higher FAR and lower Cost Per Click for the advertiser (better ROI). While we can’t calculate the total reach outside of Twitter we can track the total clicks no matter where the tracking URL you are provided is distributed. Your additional reach on Facebook and FriendFeed will help you generate more activiation and should create a more favorable advertiser experience.

The Tweeters that have the biggest following have put some time and effort into growing that following. Follower count  doesn’t mean everything, but it can have an impact on how advertisers perceive you. My friend and IZEA Advisory Board member Chris Brogan has put together a short list that we think makes a lot of sense.

1. Find great stories from other people and share them with a link (and/or attribution). Do this 3 times or more a day!
2. Share useful information that others can use, too! example: “I’ve discovered that Blip.fm is very useful for sharing my musical interests.” (Bonus points if you provide the URL).
3. Participate in online events that use #hashtags, because others in the event will find you and appreciate you, too!
4. Respond to OTHER PEOPLE using the @reply method. This is advanced, so here’s an example: “@glendawh – Is it true you were out all night last night singing karaoke?”
5. Use Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com) to find people talking about the things YOU talk about, and follow them!
6. Add your Twitter URL to your signature line in your email! (Easy to do!)
7. Don’t overtweet (more than 20 a day is a bit spooky to most people).
8. Don’t talk about your food (unless you’re me!)
9. Don’t use Twitter like IM (use direct messages for that)
10. Don’t tweet all about you: tweet all about them.
11. And never, ever, ever invite your friends to be part of your Ninja dojo (unless you’re @cspenn), your mafia family (unless you’re @jgottinotdead), or to participate in a “what type of piercing am I?” quiz.