Why Bitly is the only link shortener you need

Bitly

Short links are the currency of social media. We see them, we share them, we click them.

And some of us make them.

A link shortener is a tool we likely take for granted. They help shrink an unwieldy URL into a tweetable form. In a world where 140 characters comprises deep thought and a 6-second video goes on forever,

My favorite tool, one I use daily, is Bitly. I can quickly shorten links on the site, through a plugin or mobile app. It’s free, with an enterprise level available.

The free account gives me a wonderful set of features, all worth plenty to marketers and social media managers.

  1. Metrics for every link. By adding a plus sign, +, to any Bitly URL (whether I created it or not), I can see the number of clicks, the originating countries, the referrers and more. Try it now: bit.ly/25INgyD+
     
  2. Custom keywords. I can make links even easier to share with memorable URLs. Bitly allows me to change the keyword to whatever I want (that’s still available). Anyone can share this post by using bit.ly/SHORTLINK (yep, all caps, since case matters). A great way to extend branding for campaigns and companies.
     
  3. Custom domains. Twitter users see them all the time in big brands …

(See how even in the shortened URL we can see brand names, instead of bit.ly?) Custom domains are free, too. I provide the domain, connect it to bit.ly, and everything is branded with my name, such as itswa.de/25INgyD.

  1. Power branding. Why not put the custom domain and custom keywords together? That’s compact memorable branding in a tiny package: itswa.de/SHORTLINK.

We can share links. But we can share them with style.

Give Bitly a try. And save the characters for when they’ll come in handy.

Learn more about tools that can help with your marketing,
social media, time management and more.

Tags: , , , , , ,

About Wade Kwon

Wade Kwon, chief haiku writer

Y'all subscribe!

1,100 MEMBERS ... Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive discounts and updates on the conference and more!