You put so much effort into creating great content that when something you share on social media doesn't get a lot of clickthroughs, it can be confusing and even disheartening. When it comes to gaining traction on social media, creating high quality content is only half the battle. Everything from your headline and keywords to featured image and URL should be optimized.
Before you can start counting views and shares, you need to ensure people click your link. An easy way to spruce up your links and get the most out of your status updates is by using a URL shortener. With the right strategy, you can give your content a much needed boost while making it even easier on yourself to track and measure engagement.
What Are URL Shorteners?
URL shorteners convert regular URLs into more condensed formats. Most commonly they're used to turn a long URL into a shorter one. They're especially handy when you're working with complex URLs that have parameters and campaign drivers, like this one:
Could you image pasting that link into a Tweet? Not only would it be aesthetically unpleasing, but it'd eat up a major portion of your available characters. With a URL shortener, you can turn that distracting mess into something more concise and pleasant:
Your engagement skills are the key to managing your social media accounts like a celeb! https://t.co/YagOCR1qFJ pic.twitter.com/3sHSUTEy7W
- Sprout Social (@SproutSocial) May 10, 2016
URL shorteners not only help clean up your social media posts, but they can also help you track leads from gated content, offer insight on the best time to Tweet or even determine which channels are best for promotions. We'll cover these benefits more in depth with each tool.
Fortunately shortening a URL is a very easy process thanks to some helpful tools. Here are six of our favorite URL shorteners:
1. Bitly
One of the most popular link shorteners is Bitly. Millions of people use Bitly every day to shorten links and keep track of how they're shared. If you're a Sprout Social user, then you're already familiar with Bitly since its the default shortener used in our app.
What's great about this tool is that you don't need an account for basic link shortening-just copy and paste your link on Bitly's website and you're ready to roll.
If you're interested in more advanced features, you'll need to create an account. Doing so will grant you access to tools like link customization and archival as well as real-time stats.
Branded Short Domains, one of Bitly's premium customization features, can even increase clickthrough rates up to 34%. These domains-like the one pictured in the Tweet from Beats By Dre-replace the “bit.ly” portion of your link with your brand name. This gives you complete control of your content.
In Bloom. http://t.co/Ir4JmBkrVO #CherryBlossoms #BeatsPill pic.twitter.com/i2c0LpVbdt
- Beats By Dre (@beatsbydre) April 4, 2015
Although free accounts can't change the domain, you're still able to customize the string of letters and numbers and the end of your Bitly link (or Bitlink). This is great if the link you're shortening is part of a campaign or you just want to make it easy for you to find again later.
Tracking Your Bitly Links
Bitty offers users basic link analytics, enabling you to measure and track the performance of your links. You can use these insights to enhance your marketing strategy. For example, you'll be able to learn what type of content is popular, where it's popular and who it's popular with.
With the Audience Intel feature, available to enterprise users, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the most active time of day, including what day of the week and time of day people are clicking your links. You'll also be able to see which social media channels, devices and operating systems your most engaged viewers are using.
2. Goo.gl
You can also shorten URLs using the Google URL shortener.
Creating a shortened URL using Google is very simple.
- Access the shortener at goo.gl.
- If you're not already, click Sign in in the top right corner.
- Paste your URL in the Paste your long URL here box.
- Click Shorten URL.
You might be wondering why you should sign in to shorten your URL. There are a couple advantages of doing so. First, your links will automatically be added to goo.gl so you can track their use. If you're signed out, your links won't show up on your goo.gl page. Lastly, by signing in, you're ensuring that a unique short URL is created each time your link is shortened. If you're signed out, the same short URL is reused each time a link is shortened by you or someone else.
Tracking Your Goo.gl Links
After you've created your shortened URL, you can return to goo.gl any time to see how many people have clicked on your link. You can get detailed tracking information about your URL's usage, including the countries, browsers and platforms of people who have accessed it, by adding .info to the end of your short URL.
Something you'll want to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to use Goo.gl to shorten your links is that tracking for all URLs is publicly visible to all users. So if you're shortening a campaign related URL and don't want customers or competitors to have access to link data, consider using another option.
3. T.co
If you're not using a URL shortener, some platforms will automatically shorten your links for you. On Twitter, all links posted in Tweets or Direct Messages are shortened using the platform's http://t.co service.
All you have to do is enter a long URL into Twitter's compose box and it'll automatically be shortened. Keep in mind that a URL of any length will be condensed to 23 characters, even if the original link is less than that. This will be reflected in your remaining character count, so craft your context carefully.
It's worth noting that t.co can't be used as a general shortener on other apps or platforms. Unlike Bitly, which can be used on any social network, t.co is limited to only links posted on Twitter.
The main benefit of using t.co is that it's easy. You don't have to use a third-party URL shortener. Just paste your long link and Twitter will take care of the rest. What's confusing about this is that the visible link on Twitter.com still appears as the destination rather than a random string of letters and numbers.
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