Twitter Mad

URL shortening for twitter: Bit.ly

If you frequently share links on twitter you’re probably aware of URL shortening sites like TinyURL.com. some more include:

Budurl, eweri, hex.io, indek.net, is.gd, lin.cr, POPrl, snipurl, twurl,urlborg, zi.ma.

Here is bit.ly; my favourite URL shortening service. (it’s even shorter then tinyurl!) One of the reasons I prefer bit.ly is that it allows you to create an account and track your urls. You can also tweet directly from the site.

For example: I create a shortened url from my blog. I tweet it! I can then click on stats to see how many people are clicking on it. It also shows me where they are clicking from and it traces where the link is begin tweeted.

If you’re using twitter to promote your website/blog or even do business bit.ly tracking is ideal to learn about the habits of your followers.

Clicks can be tracked either: Live, daily, weekly, monthly and all time.

I conducted a few tests using tweetgroup @guestbook. If you’re not sure what a tweetgroup is click here. I DM’d the group and my tweet was automatically sent to 6k+ followers. I sent out a tweet that demanded attention; something like

There’s this free program that helps you make money on twitter. seems pretty cool. will update you. More @ http://bit.ly/sample

Here is what I found: Remember the link was thrown in front of 6k+ followers.

1) Everylink tweeted on twitter has a lifetime of around 5 minutes: After several tweets I began to notice that the links I just tweeted got the the most clicks in the first minute. After about five minutes I was getting 1 click a minute.

2) Mostly American based traffic: By using the location feature on bit.ly it became apparent that America provided the most traffic.

3) tweetGroups: When I tweeted through a tweetgroup (@guestbook) 1 percent of the 6,900 followers clicked on the link.

4) Personal profile: When I tweeted through my profile I 10 percent of my followers clicked on the link.

Obviously these stats are based on my situation. These will differ for everyone. That’s why I think you should use bit.ly. It gives you insight.

Why should you track your URL stats:

Lets assume for a moment you’re marketing a product on twitter. You might have a few twiitter profiles and maybe you’re tweeting through tweetgroup. If you track your shortened URLs you can find out where is best to tweet about your product.

Use tweetgroups;

Tweetgroups are quite hard to find but if you can find them utilize them. Use tweetlater tools to send them Sceduled reoccuring DMs every so often.Here are two that I am aware of @guestbook and @share_a_tip

Connecting with other tweeple:

So you’ve sent out a link to an article you read. Other people are sharing that article and with bit.ly you can see who. By tracking the conversations you can find who’s talking about your interests or even talking about your blog!