Says Google’s Avinash Kaushik at the recent TWTRCON Conference in San Francisco, don’t get caught up in sheer numbers – whether it’s followers or hits. He also says don’t spend a ton of the time on positive, negative versus neutral sentiment, but focus moreso on people’s emotions. He says with humor, “HITS stand for How Idiots Track Success.” In other words, HITS alone equate to a ‘glorious datapuke.’

What’s even more critical, he says, is to understand the behavior behind tweet purchases & data links.