How to Track Twitter Links via the WunderCounter

I recently had someone ask me just how to go about tracking Twitter links, so I thought I'd summarize the different ways. There are, essentially two ways to use the WunderCounter to track Twitter links. Firstly, you can integrate the WunderCounter with your software and secondly, you can create the links using a link generator in your WunderCounter account.

For more information on integrating the WunderCounter with software solutions, check out my posts on Automating your link tracking is easy with TweetDeck, Tweetie and Tweetings.

If you use different software which allows you to specify a custom URL shortener, please let me know, so that I can post an article on that software as well.

If you're unable to shorten links automatically with software or if, for example, you're posting directly from twitter.com, you can create links in just a couple of clicks. Once you have logged in to your WunderCounter account. Choose "Generate HTML" -> "URL Shortener". Enter the URL you want to link to on this page, click "get short URL" and your shortened URL will be presented to you. Just copy/paste this shortened link into your tweet and your tracking will begin.

Tonight's Upgrades: Twitter Tracking goes Beta

I had a chance to perform some code and OS upgrades on the WunderCounter this evening. Most WunderCounter web servers are now running the very latest updates of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and I've also upgraded the WunderCounter codebase to the very latest version in the repository. Most of the changes have taken place in the back end. So, if they've been patched correctly, you should never notice them. Some changes of note:

Session Control Reset (One Time Change)

After upgrading Perl, I had to change the way some session data is stored. This means I had to reset all session control data in the system. If you have Session Control enabled, you may see some pages tracked twice late Monday evening. This is a one time blip and it's part of the upgrade process. There wasn't any good way to get around this, so I made the decision to start fresh. It should only affect a small amount of user and tracking data. If you have any questions about this, feel free to get in touch with me.

URL Shortening/Twitter Tracking in Beta Mode

The WunderCounter has had link tracking for a lot of years and it's a great feature. However, the link tracking code is quite long and not suited for use with services like Twitter or Facebook. I'll be rolling out URL Shortening in Beta mode this week. If you have a paid Premium account and you'd like to be a Beta Tester, just message me with your account name and I'll give you access to the new service to test and give your feedback. This new service will provide short URLs which the same sort of fine grained tracking which you've come to expect from the WunderCounter. It will also be suitable for tracking links in email campaigns and any situation where you'd like to get feedback on how often a link is clicked, like Podcast and other media downloads, photos and links you're sharing on Twitter, links you share on Facebook and the list goes on. I'm really excited about this as it opens up many new opportunities to integrate the WunderCounter with services which many of you are already using.

I expect the Beta period to be relatively short as I'd like to roll the service out to all Premium users ASAP. I'll post more info on the blog as I know more.

Better/Newer Hardware + Load Balancing

I'm in the process of moving the WunderCounter to newer, faster servers with more RAM. The login area is already on the new setup. Over the next couple of days the front end of the WunderCounter (the one which actually does the tracking) will move to the new system. This will make serving the counter images faster and more reliable. If, for any reason, one of the WunderCounter servers has to be shut down, traffic will automatically be routed to a backup machine. This will mean even better uptime and a live backup machine ready to step in and share the load at any time.

Git > SVN

The real geeks may be interested to know that I've changed almost all of the source code management from Subversion to Git. I've found Git to be much more flexible and generally much more of a pleasure to work with than Subversion. Don't get me wrong. Subversion is great for what it is, but branching and merging code in Subversion can drive a grown developer to tears. Branching and merging in Git, by comparison, is a real pleasure. Developing the WunderCounter and adding new features should be much easier under Git. I've held off on upgrading the live sites as I switched from Subversion to Git. Now that the transition is complete, I'll be able to roll out changes to the WunderCounter quite quickly.

Tracking Facebook Links Outside of Notes

By now you may have already read the post on Facebook Link Trackers in Facebook Notes. There are a couple of other places on Facebook where you can place link trackers. Basically, you'll find that wherever you can post an URL, you can post a Link Tracker, since a Link Tracker is really just an URL. The catch is that outside of the notes, you'll probably only be able to enter the actual URL -- you won't need to enter actual HTML like you do with the notes.

There are 2 ways to get the straight link tracker URL. The first way would be to follow all of the same steps you followed in the original tutorial. Just copy/paste the URL (which is everything between the double quotes ("). The other way is to use the Adwords Tracker. Don't let the name throw you off -- it works.

1. Log in to your WunderCounter Account
2. Choose Adwords Tracker from the Generate HTML menu
3. Enter the URL of the page you're linking to. I'll use http://www.wundercounter.com
4. Give the tracker a name you can remember. I'll use fb_tracker/wundercounter.com
5. Take the URL which you're provided with and use it in your Facebook account as a tracker URL

Now, where can you place these URLs? I don't claim to be a Facebook expert, but here are a couple of places that should work:

1. Wall posts
2. Share a Link (under the Wall tab on your Profile page)
   
3. In comments on notes
4. In comments on status
5. In the website box under your Contact Information
6. You can experiment with the other boxes of the Contact Information area (under the Info tab on your Profile page). Many of them may accept tracker URLs as well.
   

If I've missed anything or gotten something wrong, please comment back and let me know.