The Next Web reported this morning that Twitter has opened its analytics platform to the general public, free of charge (until now, the feature was only available to Twitter’s advertising customers). Now, if you log on to ads.twitter.com and click  “Timeline activity” under the “Analytics” tab, you’ll see a comprehensive chart showing the favorites, retweets, and replies each of your tweets has received. You’ll also see an interactive timeline charting your mentions, follows, and unfollows on a day-to-day basis. Also for your benefit, the site lets you download your analytics into an Excel spreadsheet.

Here's mine. I'm not sure how to interpret this, but my most popular tweet in the past few days was about Liza Minnelli being my spirit animal.

Sure, it can be pretty depressing to see a visual representation of that two-week period where you lost six followers and gained none—or to be reminded of the time you thought your Red Wedding tweet was hilarious, but nobody favorited it. But there’s no doubting it’s a helpful tool in improving your Twitter skills and charting your progress—or just a nifty way to stroke your social media ego.

Tumblr founder David Karp. (Photo: wikipedia.org)

One of the great frustrations of Tumblr has long been the unavailability of rather basic metrics--a major problem for a company that wants to be a hub for the world's creators and brands, as well as a sophisticated advertising option. (It's hard to get marketers to do much without offering access to some sweet, sweet ROI metrics.)

Soon, however, all those brands with purdy pages will have access to a real-deal analytics dashboard. That is, if they work with Tumblr's preferred partner. In an announcement released today, the site has crowned Union Metrics as its preferred analytics provider.  

UPDATED TO ADD: We should clarify that brands participating in the Sponsor program already have access to a metrics dashboard that is reportedly pretty powerful. The partnership with Union Metrics opens an option up to the rest of us, from mere analytics-obsessed bloggers to brands who'd prefer to forgo the sponsorship offering.

Included in the statement is an enthusiastic endorsement from Tumblr revenue and marketing man (and former Betabeat columnist!) Rick Webb:

"We are psyched to endorse and recommend Union Metrics to brands and marketers so they can better measure their success on the network. No one has built anything similar and the intel the tool picks up on brands is amazing. This is a great new analytics product for brands on Tumblr, and we can’t wait to see what comes from this data."

Included in Union Metrics' offering:

• Powerful filtering capabilities that facilitate comprehensive tracking of any blog or topic
• Summary analytics showing overall engagement levels and trends over time
• Identification of influential contributors and curators
• Analysis of posts and tags to surface most popular content
• Individual post engagement analysis, including interactions over time, amplification trends and a reblog tree visualization, which clearly shows how posts spread through Tumblr

Finally, you can understand what your popularity among Bronies means for your brand awareness.

Peter Stern, Bitly's CEO (linkedin.com)

UPDATE 5/17: Bitly CEO Peter Stern reached out to Betabeat Thursday to dispute much of what was reported in The Verge yesterday. "While I would be delighted to report that we raised a significant amount of money, I’m not in a position to report that just yet," said Mr. Stern, who did acknowledge that he is in the process of raising funds, but said that has been true since he started his tenure as CEO. The company raised a $1.4 million convertible note in March.

Mr. Stern said Bitly is at work on a consumer product, but the company is not yet willing to discuss it. Last October, Bitly blogged about developing a real-time search engine that lets the company "see into the future." However, Mr. Stern said, "A Bitly revamp is in the works, but it doesn’t include a viral search, which is only available for business customers."

Link shortening service Bitly is moving up and out--literally and figuratively. According to The Verge, the company moved out of Betaworks' offices this week into its own space, and has also landed $20 million in new funding.

The Verge says the company:

is raising around $20 million in a new round of funding, we have learned from multiple sources. That's twice the amount the company raised in its last round, and shows a mature startup closing in on a working business model. We also hear Bitly is about to launch some new consumer products, including a real-time, viral search engine.

Despite the fact that Bitly is widely known as a link-shortening service, its main business revolves around a product that allows publishers to track link statistics across the web. Bitly has always had bigger aspirations for itself, primarily as a full-scale viral analytics platform, so the move to build a real-time, viral search engine dovetails nicely with that vision.

What me worry?

Yesterday Betabeat wrote a post about some of the frustrations folks in the fashion industry have been venting about Tumblr--on their personal Tumblrs of course. Well, apparently, the story struck a nerve. Raman Kia, the Head of Digital Marketing at Starworks Group, laid things out in a post titled Exposed: The Actual Problem With Tumblr: (The text, below, has been lightly edited for brevity.)

Related: The Fashion Industry Wants Tumblr to Get its Fucking Act Together

My team and I represent 15 of the most prestigious and powerful brands in the fashion space. I am also married to the aforementioned Jessica Coghan of Digitalista fame. I have this year tried on two occasions to work with Tumblr on a professional level. So, I am coming to the table from a position of truth and authority.

In the first instance we invited Tumblr to a meeting with one of our clients. I am not in a position to reveal any names but I can assure you that this brand is one of the largest online retailers of luxury fashion globally. The meeting was set to discuss mutually benefitting opportunities. So, it came as a surprise to my client that the person representing Tumblr at this meeting had no idea who my client was. Let me just put this in perspective: This is one of the biggest retailer of luxury fashion in the world (did I already say that?) – and probably one of the most reputable and prestigious. It’s like saying I am the Director of Automotive but I’ve never heard of BMW or Mercedes!

Like I said, my team and I represent 15 of the most prestigious fashion brands in the world. You would think we would be treated with professionalism. So, let me ask you: do you think I will in good conscience recommend a paid partnership between a client and Tumblr at this point in time?

NO! Let me make it even more clear ABSOLUTELY NOT! My team and I are just the kind of people that make social media platforms really rich. We have been spending dollars on Facebook since media programs have been available; we have been part of every media based beta program on twitter; we were one of the very first to do a paid promotion with a fashion brand on Foursquare; and I am almost certain that under our guidance our clients were one of the very first handful of fashion brands to join Instagram, and for what it’s worth Tumblr.

Let me be clear our experience with all of these platforms has not always been without it’s problems. Not all Facebook reps have been fantastic, Twitter support for the longest time was hard to come by, Tristen Walker for a long time was a lone ranger at Foursquare – you get the picture – but I can with my hand on my heart say one thing with full confidence: at a senior level all of these networks and platforms showed us empathy in the face of our concerns.

So far Tumblr has behaved with prejudice, without empathy, and without apology and, in doing so, it has bitten the hand it hopes will feed it someday. So make no mistake Tumblr can not correct this by developing platform analytics – it needs a change of regime and a change of culture.

Thanks
Raman Kia
PS. This blog was written using wordpress. I love Tumblr. I have a Tumblr page. It is really fun – but then again so is the Disney store.

In the post, Mr. Kia pointed out that he has had terrific experiences working with other small startups like Foursquare and Instagram.

A number of media sources in New York had aired this kind of grievance before, often directed pointedly at Tumblr's fashion director Rich Tong. But this is the first time a major agency in the fashion industry has publicly derided Tumblr's business practices and given specific, if guarded, examples.

Tumblr president and resident grown-up John Maloney issued a terse response on his Tumblr: "Gradatim Ferociter" which translates loosely as, "step by step, courageously".