Technology Tip: Bit.ly for Twitter Users

If you use Twitter as a business owner then one of the 3rd-party applications that you need to check out is http://Bit.ly because it could change the way you view Twitter. According to their website,

bit.ly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier. bit.ly can be accessed through our website, bookmarklets and a robust and open API. bit.ly is also integrated into several popular third-party tools such as Tweetdeck. A more full list of third party tools can be found on the bit.ly blog. Unique user-level and aggregate links are created, allowing users to view complete, real-time traffic and referrer data, as well as location and metadata. Tracking stats are available after users shorten their long links with bit.ly by clicking on the “Info+” link on bit.ly, or just adding a “+” sign to the end of any bit.ly link (for example, http://bit.ly/n0og+).

Image: bit.ly

When I decided to take bit.ly for a spin and integrate it into the social media plan for my business, I received a wonderful surprise. Below are some of the things that I noticed about bit.ly,

• Real-time statistics: you can watch in the statistics page for any of your shortened URLs and see what’s happening with the number of clicks and who from where.
• Automatic integration: with Twitter & other 3rd-party applications such as TweetDeck.
• Tweet or retweet to Twitter: when shortening any of your URLs, you have the option to send the shortened URL to Twitter and later you can resend it at your leisure.
• Browser Bookmarklet: allows you to create a bit.ly shortened URL when visiting a webpage that you want to share with other.

There are so many other things that you can do with bit.ly and I feel that you should hope on over to their website and check it out.