Because a Twitter post can only go as long as 140 characters, posting a link?with your tweet can eat up all the available space and leave no room for a personal message. It's also very annoying to look at a thread of tweets with only URLs on them and no introduction on what the link is all about.
Twitter?is a magnificent space to engage in with people all over the world. And with only 140 characters to deal with, getting a message out plus a link can be and look like a chore. [Read more about appying etiquette to your posts.]
URL shorteners?were created to help save space on a Tweet, reducing the character count for a URL to 20 characters or less. This leaves you room for a short intro to the URL or a personal note asking your followers to check the link out.
For online marketers, URL shortening services sometimes also offer a tracking feature that allows users to monitor how many times the shortened linked has been clicked over a certain period.
Take note that URL shorteners are not to exclusive to Twitter and can be applied to other types of social media, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc. This is to make your text look a lot less cluttered when posted and, thus, more inviting to your readers.
Twitter itself has an internal URL shortening function, represented by t.co.
Here is a list of some of the most widely-used URL shorteners in the social media space.
Here's what a post with regular URL looks like.
Now here's a post with a shortened URL.
Take note that URL shorteners are not to exclusive to Twitter and can be applied to other types of social media, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc. This is to make your text look a lot less cluttered when posted and, thus, more inviting to your readers.
Twitter itself has an internal URL shortening function, represented by t.co.
Here is a list of some of the most widely-used URL shorteners in the social media space.
