The SocialToo Blog

Tonight Facebook is set to launch a new vanity URL feature enabling its users to have an easy-to-remember URL they can share with friends. We’re excited about this at SocialToo, because more than anything, it means a very high authority site will give us each the opportunity for some pretty strong SEO in the keywords we choose. We encourage everyone to go out and get a Facebook vanity URL for this purpose.

However, there is one URL we think you’ll find much more useful than that Facebook will be launching tonight.

Before you get your Facebook vanity URL we encourage everyone to come, sign up and reserve a SocialToo Vanity URL, and we’ll provide you a few extra features that Facebook won’t be providing with a simple yourusername.socialtoo.com URL that redirects to your Facebook Profile. Starting today, we’re launching SocialToo SocialStats, which starts with your SocialToo Vanity URLs that redirect to your Facebook Profile. Best of all, the features we’re launching today are 100% FREE.

Here’s how it works:

A couple days ago I shared on Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook my SocialToo Vanity URL, http://jessestay.socialtoo.com, asking my friends to add me as a friend if they haven’t already (Go ahead – add me!). Guess what? I can tell you a little bit about the success of that share:

• Over 60 of you clicked on that link in that time
• The most popular browsers were Mozilla and Opera
• Most of the clicks came from FriendFeed
• Most of the clicks were in the US, followed by Taiwan, Brazil, and France

Over the past few days we’ve been tracking clicks, browser usage, referal stats, and location data for each and every individual that has clicked on your SocialToo Vanity URL which redirects to your Facebook Profile. This morning we launched a way for you to look and track this data.

Right now, if you log into your SocialToo account, you’ll see a new tab called “SocialStats”. Click on it. You’ll notice we’ve added a series of organizable graphs now for you to track who is visiting your Facebook Profile. We have a graph that tracks clicks. We have a graph that tracks all of the most significant browsers. We have a graph that tracks whether users are coming from Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, or other sites when they click on your Vanity URL. We even have a graph that shows how many users are coming from each country. We’re working on much, much more.

The only URL you’ll ever want to share.

Previously there was no way of knowing the numbers and demographics of people clicking on your Facebook Profile. We’ve now provided a way to give you a good idea. Simply hand this URL to your friends, add it to your business cards (it’s on mine – is it on yours?), add the link to your website, and your Twitter and FriendFeed profiles. You now have a way of tracking how effective sharing those links are for you and your brand. This is the only URL you’ll ever need to share.

Are you a developer?

Contact me with your needs. We have an API and I’d like to make this information available to you! I envision a way we can allow you to share with your users how many people are clicking on these profile links they’re sharing with their friends. In addition, I’d like to enable your App to be included in our statistics – if you’d like for that to happen please contact us at contact@socialtoo.com and I’ll get you set up.  However I’d like to hear from you how you envision using this data and we’ll get you set up according to your needs at no charge whatsoever.

We’re on Facebook Too!

Just this morning, we officially launched the very beginnings of our SocialToo Facebook App. Go to http://apps.facebook.com/socialtoo and you’ll be able to change your SocialToo username and Vanity URL right in the app! Or invite your Facebook friends to create their own Vanity URLs. This is a great way to get a little Karma for sharing a very useful tool.

How do I sign up?

To get one, simply register at http://socialtoo.com/registration, select your username (and a password) – this username will be the first part of your SocialToo Vanity URL. Then click on the link in the Facebook section, get the code from Facebook, and enter it in the box provided. Hit submit, and you’re done! No Twitter username or credentials necessary!  Although we provide that, too.

If you already have a SocialToo account and haven’t set up Facebook yet, there should be a message when you log in, prompting you to click on a link and get a code from Facebook. Do that, enter the code, and you’re set!

Much, much more to come

This is only the beginning – I foresee being able to provide you with much more information in the future. Expect broken down referer and location/IP information. Expect the ability to tell what Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed users are sharing your links. Expect the ability to also have a short URL for your Twitter profile, your LinkedIn profile, your FriendFeed profile, and many other networks, all providing detailed analytics around who is visiting those URLs. Expect to see stats right in the Facebook App itself, and much more built in that area. Expect integration with Facebook Connect on SocialToo.com very soon.  We’re also working on integration with your Facebook Page.

Now, imagine a world where you can also track “conversions” with these URLs. Imagine if, in addition to tracking the clicks and other data surrounding them, being able to see how many new friends you’ve added in that day (or lost) in result of those clicks. SocialToo is all about Analytics. We’re doing all we can to help you learn about the people following you on the Social Networks you belong to. These are all things we’re working on and hopefully you’ll see very soon.  We’re your Companion to the Social Web.

So we wish you luck in getting the Facebook Vanity URL of your choice tonight. But for now, come on over to our Registration page, get the only URL you’ll ever need at SocialToo, and feel good that the “real” URL you are giving out will actually provide you some real value.

Tags: analytics, facebook, profile, socialstats, statistics, urls, vanity urls

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.