For some of us using URL shortening services is second nature. I still see newcomers being slow to adopt this practice and I think it is hurting their message.  Here’s a very quick recap on URL shortening and where, why and how to use it.

The world of social networks is about information sharing, context and value.  URL shortening services like tinyurl.com and bit.ly help you share web addresses quickly and easily so YOUR info stays relevant while the context and value are clear.

For instance.  I want to post on Twitter or a Facebook update that: “Beer Lovers! Great Guiness B-day Bash Contest here: https://sso.cbc.ca/SSOAuthenticationDomain.ashx?mode=Login&RedirectURL=http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/content/guinness_enter.html

Woah! Two main problems here. For many social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter their small format updates (140 characters or less) wouldn’t allow that long URL.  Use an URL shortener and the update becomes “Beer Lovers! Great Guiness B-day Bash Contest here: http://tinyurl.com/nv2o6l”

The second (and forgotten) problem is: IT JUST LOOKS PLAIN MESSY.  A traditional marketer would never use a full sub-domain page URL in their advertising campaign (it could look like this RBK poster I mockeded up, terrible!).

A traditional marketer pays to have a homepage created with a short, catchy URL.

We don’t have that luxury but a URL shorterener will give you a nice clean result.  See an example below from my LinkedIn newsfeed.

Someone posts about a job opening and pastes the entire job board URL in their update. Yikes! Why not just shorten the URL and then add some context like “Superstar Sales Exec Opening in T.O. http://tinyurl.com/mrth84”  Using URL shortening as a rule will give your social network updates more clarity and result in more click-thru.