I too, cringe at the addition of “2.0″ to words other than web (I even cringe at that one sometimes) but this really is a new, more social form of commenting. TweetBacks are an implementation of the concept of trackbacks for Twitter. By installing the JavaScript code on your blog template, you can display a list of all of the Tweets that have been posted that link to your content.
A few days ago I created the first implementation of the idea of TweetBacks and published it to my blog. This is beneficial for a variety of reasons:
Twitter tends to be a quicker and easier way for users to comment on and share content that they like; by allowing your users to join in the conversation via Twitter, you’re opening the door to a whole lot more feedback.
TweetBacks also opens up the possibility of a Twitter user’s avatar and username to be displayed on a potentially popular post, creating more incentive for users to spread your content for you. Reputation and “fame” is always a great motivator; just think of all the “First!” comments you used to see on Slashdot.
As my research has shown, social proof is an important factor in how “viral” your content becomes, and displaying a list of individuals who liked your content enough to spread it is a powerful way to tap into that.
TweetBacks also form a sort of implicit call to action for your readers to hop over to Twitter to spread your content. As soon as they read your post, they’ll have that idea brought to mind because they see a list of other people doing it.
In the coming weeks I’ll be integrating TweetBacks into my ReTweet mapping system, to allow for a more general idea of ReTweets. Most ReTweets contain a link, meaning that over 70% of ReTweets are in fact TweetBacks. Using the javascript implimentation of TweetBacks will allow your content to be included in that system and allowing you to analyze and track the spread of your content in ways not currently possible.
Dan Zarrella is a self-proclaimed social media and viral marketing scientist, check out his viral marketing blog for more of his posts, research and tools.
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