11 Must-Have Link Shorteners for Social Media Marketing

Ever got irritated seeing a never-ending gibberish link? You are not alone.

Your followers equally detest their screens bleeding with clunky blue links. They might perceive them to be spammy.

Well, you can’t deny the fact that they do look fishy. As a result, your followers might scroll past your links, or worse yet, unfollow your page.

So how do you post links without risking your integrity? We have the perfect solution in store for you – URL Shortening!

What is URL Shortening?

Before jumping on to the shortening part, let’s first understand why it is so massive?

URL or “Uniform Resource Locator” turns out to store the exact address of a file on the internet.

You can implement the URL shortening technique to make those lengthy and complex links into something short, simple, and even meaningful.

And how do you shorten your links? Use URL shorteners. They help you to cut short your tedious-looking links into a click-worthy one.

You can even customize them by adding custom phrases to add more relevance. It can also provide a micro context to your link’s content. You can use these URL Shorteners to track vital metrics.

The benefits don’t just end here. Let’s have a look at a few more of them.

Importance of Link Shortening Tools

• Lengthy links not only look unappealing, but they also look suspicious. With so many numbers, letters, backslashes, a person is bound to stay away from that link. With a URL shortener, though, you can keep links short and trustworthy.
• Most social media platforms have a limit on the number of characters you can include in your posts. So, including a lengthy link would take up most character limits, leaving you with a compromised post caption.
• You can create custom-branded URLs with some tools. This becomes useful, especially when you want to share these URLs in flyers, posters, business cards, etc. It helps you spread the word about your brand.
• They are easy to read, and you can memorize and type them out for quick reference.
• You can track the performance of your links. It gives you information about who, when, where, how many, and other such metrics that can help you calculate your campaign’s ROI and understand how you can improve them.

3 Tips on How to Use Link Shorteners

• Make a custom short domain for all your shortened links
  If you have a long brand name, adding that might be tough in those shortened links. One solution to that is to devise a custom short domain. Let’s say your brand is ‘The Shoe Company.’ Your customized URL can carry the word “tsc” instead of a lengthy brand name.
• Customize content based on specific information
  If you’re sharing an article titled “5 ways to write content that converts” on Twitter, you can insert the shortened link and add information about your content in the brackets. For example, “the link address (write-content-that-converts).” This gives your audience an idea of what they’ll find when they click on your link.
• Make the link as memorable as possible
  Avoid using a lot of different numbers or characters. Before putting the link out, ask yourself, “Would I remember this link address if I were caught up in traffic and couldn’t access the link in the present but would like to do so later?”Because the reality is that people are too busy. They might not get time to click on your link right now, but when they do get the time, if your link is memorable, they can access it right away.

Bitly is one of the URL shorteners that allows you to do a lot of things. You can shorten your URLs and see each link’s performance with various metrics like demographic data, click-throughs, and referral sources via its dashboard. This way, you can target your audience better and understand which campaigns are driving the most traffic.

This link shortener tool is a part of the Hootsuite platform. Ow.ly is optimized for social media sharing, and you can track the link’s traffic along with a range of metrics, including device and traffic channel. It helps you measure your ROI for all the links you post on your social media platforms and the entire campaign.

Replug is a branded link shortener that allows you to set up custom domains. It increases conversions with retargeting pixels, catchy calls to action, and QR codes. You can track your shortened and get deep analytics on your optimized links. From shortening to A/B testing, this URL shortener is one stop for all.

Sniply is a URL shortener tool with a twist. It not only shortens your link but every link that you share comes with a Call-To-Action (CTA) attached to it. It becomes an excellent way to advertise your website on every share. Not only that, it tracks the effectiveness of both the CTA and link so you can calculate your campaign’s ROI in one shot.

This is one of the unique link shorteners that allows you to do a lot of things. Rebrandly helps you to customize and brand your shortened URLs. You can set up a new domain name for short URLs or set up your current website domain name to use with short URLs. It integrates with over 50 platforms that help seamlessly distribute your links.

TinyURL is one of those URL shorteners that allow you to shorten your links with no difficult steps. It doesn’t need you to be an expert at things. You don’t even need to have an account or go through any complicated steps like having too many options on the dashboard. You can also add TinyURL to your browser toolbar and create shortened links for the site you’re currently on.

Bl.ink is one of the robust link shorteners available on the net. It allows you to create custom links, but unlike the other tools, the custom links are created using relevant words and not just a random string of characters put together. You also get various analytic reports that allow you to track clicks by time, language, date, device, location, etc.

Bit.do has quite a simple website, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to know that this is one of those URL shorteners for social media marketing that is a simple and sweet tool that would meet all your needs. From shortening your links, generating traffic stats, customizing to having an automatic QR code generator, this tool has it all.

With Clkim you can set up a branded domain in 2 minutes. If you already have a domain, all you need to do is point your domain to their servers and begin building branded links. They also have smart redirects.

Based on contextual triggers, the URL redirects users based on geography or mobile operating system so they can access the site in a way that’s best for them.

GoLinks is a top-rated link shortener that is known by various names. This super easy tool can shorten any link that is ready to be shared across all platforms. Its customized link shortener gives your links an easy-to-remember name that individuals and businesses can use. You can use the same in your emails, chats, conversations, and more.

Capsulink is recognized for its Smart URLs feature, empowering businesses to craft dynamic branded links with configurable rules for location, time, device, and language. App creators benefit from deep links that amplify user engagement. The Teams functionality facilitates seamless collaboration and the creation of unlimited links, fostering unified link management and heightened productivity. Capsulink additionally offers insightful analytics, empowering users with data-driven decision-making capabilities.