Get Your Own Short Url

January 7th, 2013 // 11:00 am @ Michael Lorin Friedman

A short url is a unique web address you can use to more smoothly and compactly share links in social media. They are usually 3-8 characters.

Here are some popular examples: goo.gl, fb.me, youtu.be. Can you guess what three companies these short urls are from? As you can see, short urls often have strong, undeniable branding implications.

So, Why Do You Need a Short Url?

You’ll get great analytics on your supporter’s/follower’s click-throughs, to see your specific influence on a link. Facebook and Twitter won’t give you that data alone — but using your custom short url, we are given data on how effective your social media shares are.
You get to brand links with your unique short url identity, keeping your branding with any re-tweets and shares.
Savvy internet consumers remember short urls.

How Do I Get My Short Url?

The easiest way to find (and buy) your short url is to use the Domai.nr web tool. Play around with the tool for a few min and I’m sure you will find something great. Mine is mlor.in (.in being the Indian domain which happens I to fit my name well).

Once you buy your short url, you can easily administer it through many of the free url shortener services online. I suggest Bit.ly, or other comparable service with equally solid data tracking. The shortening service will automatically assign six characters to your tiny url, such as http://mlor.in/zgvQER, or you can customize the urls ending for more permanent or notable sites, such as my website at http://mlor.in/mlorin.

Good luck finding and setting up your perfect short url…

Now get to linking!