USING URL SHORTNERS
The problem is that many URLs are very long. That means a URL can take up an entire tweet leaving no room for you to explain why you’re sharing it. That’s where URL shortners become an essential tool of microblogging.
UNDERSTANDING WHY URL SHORTENERS ARE USEFUL
URL shortners offer another benefit to bloggers. Sometimes URLs change. If a URL that you share via Twitter changes, then the URL you publish in your tweet won’t work. Using a URL shortener often fixes that problem. After you create a shortened URL, it will always lead people who click it to your original linked page.
CHOOSING URL SHORTNERS
There are a number of URL shorteners available. Following is an overview of several of the most popular sites to shorten URLs for your Twitter updates.
TinyURL (www.tinyurl.com). TinyURL shortens URLs to 25 characters, making it the longest URL shortener. TinyURL is free to use, and you don’t have to create an account to shorten your URL’s. There’s a useful toolbar that you can download to make shortening URLs quick and easy. Many users like the fact that they can create customized URLs with TinyURL, but there isn’t a tracking mechanism, which turns off just as many users.
Bit.ly (www.bitly.com). You can shorten URLs to 14 characters and track the number of clicks they get with or without a free account. You can access full history reports, and even add the bit.ly sidebar bookmarklet to your browser toolbar to make shortening URLs and publishing them to Twitter as easy as possible. If you prefer, you can also shorten URLs and publish them to your Twitter account without leaving the bit.ly web site.
Snurl (www.snurl.com). Snurl, also called SnipURL, allows you to shorten URLs without registering for an account. However, if you do create a Snurl account, you can track clicks on your shortened URLs and customize your shortened URLs. You can also browse through a list of recent snips from other users Snurl shortens URLs to 13 characters.
Ow.ly (www.ow.ly). With ow.ly you can shorten URLs to 17 characters with or without an account. Ow.ly allows you to shorten a URL and share it with the click of a mouse not only on Twitter but also on a variety of other social web sites such as Facebook, Blogger, Digg and more. If you create a HootSuite account, you can also update images, videos, MP3 files, and documents. HootSuite stores them and automatically creates a shortened URL for you to share the links to these files. With a HootSuite account, you can also track the clicks on your shortened URLs.