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How to Get the Most Value out of Twitter Links

I’m not Fred Wilson (who posts ideas and sees them built almost instantaneously) but I’m going to post about something I’d like to see as a Twitter application and maybe, just maybe … someone will build it.

Fred (and many others) are certainly right — the value of Twitter is in the links. We’re seeing real-time search engines like OneRiot put an emphasis on links, and sites like TweetMeme and MicroPlaza that help organize links by popularity. Twitter itself, through Twitter Search is supposedly working on indexing the content of tweeted links to improve its search results with more context. Ultimately none of these systems do exactly what I want.

So here’s what I’d like to see (and it could be a Twitter app, website, integrated into a desktop app, etc.):

  1. Ability to display a list of tweeted links based on interests. For example, I might want to see links for venture capital, startups, montreal and recruiting. So I want the links categorized by self-defined interests. The system would have to index the content of the tweeted links, otherwise I don’t think it would be smart/accurate enough to give me the best content just off keywords or hashtags in tweets.
  2. A URL shortener with tagging. Before indexing the content of links, I think we need a URL shortener that allows us to tag content, like del.icio.us. Hashtags are helpful (and could be used as part of the assessment of links) but there’s not enough space for real tagging in 140 characters. But imagine if you had a URL shortener where you could input a bunch of tags into a separate field. The tags wouldn’t be displayed in the tweet but they would be associated with the URL as a way of identifying the URL and its content. That would help my proposed system a great deal. I’d love to see tagging of tweets built into a URL shortener like bit.ly and then integrated into desktop apps like Tweetdeck. People are fairly comfortable tagging content, and this would add richness tweets and tweeted links.
  3. Ability to rank list of tweeted links by who submitted them. I don’t want to see every link within these categories, it’s too much. So I want to see the links ranked (or filtered) by people I follow, and then allow me to open up the firehose to everyone (which encourages friend discovery.) And ideally it would rank the people I follow as well – by some kind of reputation system (a measurement of the relationship b/w me and that person, how often their links are re-tweeted, etc.) This should bubble up to the top the best links from the best people in the right categories.
  4. Ability to rank list of tweeted links by other factors. Some kind of algorithm is needed to determine the ranking of tweets. Showing only links from people I follow is step one, and implementing reputation on those people is step two. But ultimately displaying popularity of links (based on retweets) and adding other variables could be useful too. But this isn’t the core priority, and this is where most other systems in my mind fail; they focus almost exclusively on popularity of links. That doesn’t help me find the needle in the haystack that really matters to me.
  5. The system has to learn. It would be great if the system learned what I liked over time, to improve the algorithm for displaying a sorted list of the best tweeted links by category/interest. This could include a favorites feature. It might also track how often I click the various links to recognize what content I’m most interested in, and from which person (which in turn could increase that person’s reputation.)
  6. Only show me the links. I don’t want to see the content of tweets – I just want the links (and the submitters’ names.) I find systems that display the tweets are too noisy and messy. The tweet content doesn’t really matter; if the system is smart enough to tell me this is a valuable link from a valuable source, I don’t need to see the message the submitter tweeted the link with. Just give me nice, clean links.

The goal is to capture all the tweeted links of value from the Twitter stream (both from people I follow and those I don’t.) And the secondary goal is to help me discover new people worth interacting with based on the links they’re submitting.

In the spirit of giving, I wanted to throw this idea out there and see what people thought. And maybe, someone will build it, or some element of it. I think in its initial form you would need a URL shortener with tagging + a site for displaying the links in some ranked fashion. The limitation in this system is that the only content that might get picked up initially is content from tagged tweets, which would require people to adopt a new URL shortener. There may be smart ways to overcome that though.

I’ve also got a domain we can use — http://linktwits.com. This was inspired (of course) from Stocktwits, which I think is a brilliant system. I’d be happy to use this domain name for the project.

And, I’m happy to help in any way that I can. I’d certainly be a user of the system, and maybe I can help with other elements of it…

The Real Value in Tracking Event Hashtags on Twitter

Twitter Search and Hashtags
Tracking event hashtags on Twitter has grown a ton in popularity over the last few years, ever since Twitter exploded at SXSW. It’s easy to do using Twitter Search by inputting the hashtag for the event. It’s not a perfect system – sometimes there’s too much noise, spam creeps in, etc. – but it’s still a decent way of getting real-time news about an event. (Suggestion: If you use Twitter Search include “-RT” in the search criteria so you eliminate all the retweeting activity that takes place.)

But is the real value in following event hashtags about catching up on real-time news?

Not really. Ultimately people will write blog posts (w/ more in-depth analysis) summarizing the conference you’re tracking, and you can use that as a way of catching up. And as valuable as real-time data is, tracking a very busy conference is overwhelming and distracting.

The real value (and fun) in following event hashtags is discovering new people to follow and build relationships with.

Events are great for discovering intersecting interests. They’re great for seeing who is active in a specific field or around a specific topic, and because of all the concentrated Twitter activity taking place in a short period of time, you also get a good sense of who knows who and how people are connected.

In the last couple of days I’ve followed two events – Social Recruiting Summit (#srs09 + #socialrecruiting) and 140 Characters Conference (#140conf). During that time I followed 50+ people at least, and many of those people reciprocated. Each one was actively using Twitter, and I was able in a very short time to gauge their interests and value (to me as a follower).

Event monitoring via hashtags and Twitter will improve. I know there are companies working on how to distill the best information from hashtags (with the main use case being for events), so that you can track the best tweets in real-time and reduce the noise. That’s great, and I look forward to seeing those solutions emerge, but at the end of the day, the real value is in discovering people to follow with mutual interests, who can provide you with meaningful value (and of course vice versa.)

The Definition of Us

Startups change. It’s the nature of the beast. Ideas change. Plans change. Teams change. The one constant for startups is change. But how can a startup handle and excel through so much change?

Some companies have a very strong system of corporate values in place. They use it as a definitive guide for everything they do. They use it as a decision filter for hiring, feature development, etc. Google’s “do no evil” can be considered one such corporate value, although I wonder if it’s definition is too open for interpretation.

Here are two great examples of companies that have DNA-like corporate values, with slightly different styles:

Using strong, well-defined corporate values as a decision filter is very interesting. Startups face so much uncertainty and so much change, it’s incredibly easy to fall off the path of success. It’s tempting to chase every opportunity, make quick decisions to keep momentum, and “do what’s necessary to hopefully survive.” It’s easy to lose your vision and ability to execute on it effectively.

One of the most common startup failures is a lack of communication with customers (as obvious as communicating with customers might seem.) Beyond that, you see patterns of startups that had an idea, assumed it was great, built something, launched it, and kept on running based on intuition, instinct and opinion. And most of the time, they failed. We see the importance of getting out from behind the computer screen, interacting with customers, testing assumptions, etc. But beyond that, where do company values play a role?

So these are questions running through my mind — hopefully you can help me answer / discuss them:

  • How important is it to have strong, well-defined corporate values?
  • Have you ever created any, or participated at a company that had strong values?
  • Can strong corporate values serve as a worthwhile decision filter?
  • Can using corporate values as a constant decision filter improve a startup’s response and resilience to change & craziness?
  • Do companies stick with them through thick and thin, or abandon them when it’s convenient?

I believe companies have a personality. I believe they have a culture. And I believe startup founders have to visualize that personality and culture upfront and build a team to evolve and refine things from there. The definition of us is important. But how important?

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About Ben Yoskovitz
I recently joined GoInstant as VP Product. GoInstant changes how we use the web, making it shareable like never before.

I'm also a Founding Partner at Year One Labs, an early stage accelerator in Montreal. Previously I founded Standout Jobs (and sold it). I'm a hands-on startup guy, helping companies grow successfully from the idea forward. You can reach me at byosko at gmail dot com.

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