I was recently pondering analytics and twitter. Twitter streams can be viewed from the actual twitter website as well as third-party applications (Tweetie, TweetDeck, Twhirl, Seesmic Desktop, etc).
So how are these apps counted when someone clicks on a link on Twitter, that definitely shows up as the referring link. But what about when someone clicks on a link in a twitter client? Is it still tracked as a referral from Twitter, or is it tracked as a direct link?
So here is a little test. I am going to put a link to this post out on Twitter. If you came here from Twitter or a Twitter client, leave a comment with where you saw this link. I will try to match up the referrals with the sources and maybe get some answers.
Came here from the web.
I saw the link in my instance of DestroyTwitter and clicked the link in-app to come here.
Saw the link on Tweetie for Mac client. Link opened in Safari.
Tweetie Mac application.
2nd test. Clicked on link from within Safari.
I saw this link in Tweetie on a Mac.
Saw ur post on Tweetdeck.
Follow me – http://www.twitter.com/kevnetik
Via bit.ly via tweeter via iTweet
via TweetDeck.
Via Twitteriffic on my iphone and from twitter.com on my pc.
Jeremy
Saw this via Twhirl while monitoring @artesiancity work twitter account.
Gary
(@logosmith)