The chat today focused on using metrics to measure what readers are clicking on, at what time of day, and on what type of device. This is important to journalism because it allows journalists to better understand their readers. It helps newsrooms understand what their readers like and don't like as well as how their audience reads the news.
The industry is changing and it is no longer so much the audience looking for news as it is journalists trying to get the news out to readers before they find it somewhere else. Metrics allows newsrooms to find out how or through what type of device or social media site readers are attaining information, as well as in what time frame this is occurring.
Bit.ly is a free site that allows users to shorten URLs as well as track how many people are clicking the shortened link. The site provides a metric summary which monitors the location of users clicking on your link, the referring domains (ex:twitter, facebook, direct click), and a detailed time-line of when users looked at you link. Bit.ly also offers an add-on for Mozilla Firefoz. This allows users to scroll over a bit.ly link and see a preview of the link as well as how many clicks it has received.
A similar site is TweetReach that is specifically designed for Twitter. The site allows you to search for a user, hashtag, phrase, or URL. It shows you how many users that term has reached using however many tweets.
In the JRCChat, users suggested that newsrooms keep these metric sites up on display so that reporters can use the information to their advantage.
People argue that metrics are simply for "click-baiting" and not for journalism. Splitting up an online story into multiple pages is an example that I believe proves that statement to be true; although readers have not yet complained about this set-up.
After learning all about metrics and how it works, I took some time to explore it myself. I registered myself for a bit.ly account and started sharing links! I posted a bit.ly link of online version of the Pet Photo Contest article to my twitter and my facebook. And then I waited. Within a half hour I was able to see that one person clicked on the link through twitter while three people clicked on the link through facebook.
I tried the same thing with my blog. I shortened the link with bit.ly and posted it to facebook and twitter. I also sent it to Howard Good, one of my previous professors, in hope of him sharing it with some of his colleagues and friends. Another half hour later, I was able to see that 5 people clicked on the link through e-mail or a direct click, while 15 clicked on it through facebook.
After experimenting on my own, I was able to see what worked better. Clearly, facebook (at this time of day) was working better for me in spreading my links. The idea is that journalists can use applications such as these to decide what to post, when, where, and how, in order to get optimal views.
I'll be keeping tabs on how many clicks I get now!
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