The important thing is to have the proper social media analytics tools to measure the performance of shortened URLs. While the most popular incentive to using URL shorteners has been to avoid exceeding Twitter’s 140 character limit, it’s a good idea to use these shorteners on any social network, in e-mails, and on your site. Two Frequently Asked Questions about URL Shorteners… Are shortened URLs only for Twitter? Here’s sample of an ow.ly summary report generated within Hootsuite: Essentially, URL click data can be used to increase the chances of your followers clicking a link. For example, if 50 people click on a URL about a funny post promoting your new mobile app but only 10 people click on a URL about a more mundane post, this knowledge can be applied for future content creation and sharing. With the Ow.ly tool you can see a quick snapshot of the number of clicks on any link you shortened within HootSuite – insight you can use to determine what tweets or posts resonate most with your followers and potential conversions. The Ow.ly URL shortener is a standout because it tracks how many “human clicks” your links receive. When you shorten a URL you’ll be able to track click-through rates and even track where the clicks are occurring geographically. If you post a long URL, you won’t be able to track clicks or real-time engagement with it. Using these shorteners provides you with valuable data on how people behave when faced with your shortened URL. Remember though: bit.ly tracks all clicks, even non-human ones. It also offers tracking metrics so you know exactly how many people are clicking on your link. bit.ly is one of the first and most popular URL shortening services. 3 Top URL Shortenersīit.ly is a free service that allows you to share links directly from their site to your Twitter profile, or copy/paste the link for use anywhere. Some URL shorteners also provide tracking abilities so you can track how many clicks you receive on the shortened link. As you may know, a URL shortener converts a regular URL into a more condensed format. This post will cover what URL shorteners are, which ones are used the most today, and why they should be used in the first place. So much effort is put into creating great content that this little string of characters gets knocked to the bottom of the list even though it can be crucial to our social media marketing and SEO. These features can be used to assign tasks to team members and set permission levels for different types of tasks.īased in Vancouver, HootSuite was founded in 2008, and raised $1.9 million in venture capital last December from Blumberg Capital, Hearst Interactive Media and angel investor Geoff Entress.We often overlook the unsung hero of our social media posts: the URL. This functionality is also offered for Facebook, LinkedIn, and the slew of other networks people, particularly companies, want to keep an eye on.Įarlier this month, the startup launched several new collaboration tools for public relations agencies and teams of any kind looking to collaboratively publish and monitor content. You can, for instance, continually search for keywords on Twitter, and you can create lists of Twitter members you want to follow. In addition to URL shortening, HootSuite offers tools to help you track conversations online across multiple social media platforms. HootSuite will make it easy for a business of any size to tap into this strategy. Several examples besides the Amazon one I mentioned above: Facebook uses fb.me, Google has goo.gl, and Twitter now offers twt.tl. The next stop on HootSuite’s roadmap is to offer vanity URL shorteners to people and companies looking to brand their links. You can also export these reports no matter what, and both filter out bots and phishing attempts by checking against Google’s Malware/Phishing list. Whichever you choose, ow.ly or ht.ly, will become your default the first time you choose it.Īnd regardless of your choice, you will still have the same access to click-through data, broken down by region or date, and spliced according to custom metrics. Then again, maybe the company just wanted to offer more options. HootSuite attributes the shift to “changing desires in the marketplace.” People may have been annoyed by the bar, preferring instead to go with the clean and simple bit.ly, tinyurl or ff.im. But most users, particularly on Facebook, probably don’t care how far the link travels beyond their immediate friends. The company says this should be the preferred choice of marketers who want to see links shared as much as possible. However, if you like the social bar and want it included, you can use the shortener Ht.ly (pronounced “hoot-ly”).
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