Creating awe.sm Links Overview

awe.sm is quite different from traditional URL shorteners. An awe.sm link represents a single sharing action and can contain information about the sharer, how the link was created, where the link was shared, and more.

Please review the key concepts before continuing.

An awe.sm Link's Lifecycle

Let's look at the sharing process:

Link is created. See url and url/batch/
Link is posted to a social network.
Link is updated with information about the posting, if available. See url/update/{awesm_id}
Link is clicked and the visitor is redirected according to redirection pattern rules, if enabled.
Link-clicking visitor converts. See conversions
Link clicking visitor also shares the webpage, creating an awe.sm link with a parent-child relationship.

Applications & Tools

Applications and tools allow awe.sm to track the creation method of links. Applications define a collection of tools and an application must have at least one tool.

Example:

the awe.sm-powered Facebook Like Button is an application that has 3 display modes. Each display mode has a tool defined. This allows the efficacy of each display mode and of the sharing method overall to be measured.
a mobile developer may distribute an iPhone, iPad, and Android version of an app. A unique tool for each mobile platform could be used to identify the device type. Later, performance data could be retrieved based on mobile platform for comparison.

Applications and tools are managed through Application Settings: log into the awe.sm web app and select Applications from the Settings menu.

A tool key is required for link creation. This key can be found and reset in Application Settings.

Services & Channels

Services and channels allow awe.sm to track the specific destination and sharing-method of links. Services define a collection of channels.

For example, a user can share on Facebook (service) via the Like button, Share button, wall post, and private message (channels). Because each sharing method has a defined channel, you can measure the efficacy of each sharing method and of Facebook-sharing as a whole.

Services and channels are managed by awe.sm. If you don't see a channel or service in this list that you think we should add, please contact developers@awe.sm with your request.

Pass the channel parameter during link creation to track services and channels. List of all services and channels

Services have other uses as well: parameters like service_userid, and service_postid allow you to record service-specific identifiers as metadata on your awe.sm links so you can backtrack to where you posted them on the service itself.

Optional Link Parameters

Sharer Identification

An awe.sm link can be associated with a user in two ways: your application's internal user id and an external, service-specific user id. Username, profile URL, and icon URL metadata can also be specified.

Campaigns

Each awe.sm link can be associated with a campaign. A campaign is a project-specific label for filtering and grouping links. Each campaign has a human-friendly name, sanitized label, and description. Campaigns are best suited for low-cardinality grouping.

Notes

Each awe.sm link has an arbitrary, open-ended field. Notes can only be retrieved on an individual-link basis and cannot be used for filtering or grouping.

Parent-Child Relationships

When creating an awe.sm link, the parent parameter allows you to identify another awe.sm link as the referrer. This allows for the identification of reshares, such as ShareTree.me.

Last updated 2011-10-26

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