People share links to web pages by email, through Twitter and Facebook and a lot of other methods. There are a number of URL shorteners available but one in particular is standing out from the rest. Not only does it easily shorten your links but it also shows traffic, conversations, and history from those links.
Over the summer I made the switch from TinyURL to bit.ly for my URL shortener. This little tool is becoming a big deal. It is now the default shortener for Twitter and has rapidly become the most popular URL shortener available. Google Reader included it in their new “send-to” feature, which lets you share any post on Twitter, automatically shortening long URLs with bit.ly.
You can drag a convenient button to your browser’s tool bar to shorten a URL from any Web page and quickly share it without interrupting your reading. You can customize the copy to share and even customize the URL if you want.
Bit.ly allows me to more easily share links to people in my network. Whether I want to do it through Twitter, Facebook, Email. I can also get real-time stats. Just review the stats from the post link above just after I shortened the URL and and shared it through my Twitter account: http://bit.ly/info/1BAyEm. It shows me the clicks on the link, the conversations that took place about the post, etc.
The great value in this, from a new business perspective, is getting instant feedback, knowing what information is appealing to your audience.
Targeted traffic = inbound lead generation. To generate traffic you have to hone your appeal.
If you get into the habit of checking these kinds of metrics, it will greatly help you to become a better writer by providing the resources your prospective clients are searching for.
Remember: People want to work with people that they know, like and trust.
[...] my online reading, using Google Reader. When I find a good post that I want to share, I click on bit.ly (a tool to shorten, share and track your links) in my browser bar, configure the information about [...]
[...] my online reading using Google Reader. When I find a good post that I want to share, I click on bit.ly (a tool to shorten, share and track your links) in my browser bar, configure the information about [...]
…very useful topic, excellent! thx a lot!
[...] my online reading using Google Reader. When I find a good post that I want to share, I click on bit.ly (a tool to shorten, share and track your links) in my browser bar, configure the information [...]