AJ Vaynerchuk

Introduction

Sharing links is a vital aspect of Twitter that bloggers use every day. It is a great way to spread your content, and when done properly can expand readership, build brand, and provide value for your followers. Since sharing links can be so important, it is important that you use the right URL Shortner at the right time.

URL Shortner? What’s That?

Twitter only allows you 140 characters for you to get your message across. Since you are promoting a link, you will want all the room you can get for “the pitch.” Some links can be rather large(even 140 characters themselves) and the solution to this is a URL shortner. A URL shortner will take your existing link and convert it into a nice, clean package that is far shorter in terms of characters.

Examples of URL Shortners

Tinyurl
is.gd
snurl
Not Long
Tweetburner

When to Use Tiny URL

Tiny URL is most likely the most branded URL Shortner around. Twitter uses tinyurl as their default URL shortner, and thus, most of your readers will probably recognize tinyurl over all the other options. If you have the room to fit a slightly longer link, then use Tiny URL.

When to Use is.gd

is.gd is less known than tinyurl, but in my opinion it does the job better. I mean when it comes down to it, tinyurl.com has 11 characters, and is.gd only has 5. Those 6 characters are important! The only downside to is.gd is that it doesn’t have a .com associated to it, and sometimes followers may not understand or even be afraid of is.gd. I wouldn’t use is.gd unless you desperately need the extra characters (which does happen from time to time).

When to Use Snurl

Snurl is a great URL shortner and is the default url shortner of the popular twitter desktop application Twhirl. If you are a user of Twhirl, using Snurl is EXTREMELY easy and highly recommended!

When to Use NotLong

Not Long is an interesting service because all the other shortners on this list randomly generate your links while Not Long allows you to name/brand your links.

For example, if your blog post is about tips for increasing RSS subscriptions, your link could be: “increasing-rss-readers.notlong.com” or something to that extent.

If you don’t need much room to pitch, I would highly recommend using notlong to brand your links with vital information about your blog post.

When to Use Tweetburner

Tweetburner is interesting because it tracks clicks. If you have a link that you feel will be clicked on a lot, then you may want to use tweetburner for it’s marketing purpose. On the front page of tweetburner there is a list of top 10 links of the hour, you may be able to pick up a few extra eyeballs if your link is popular enough to crack the top 10.

Conclusion

URL Shortner’s are a blogger’s best friend. Amazingly enough there are certain situations where certain services work best. I highly recommend testing out all the URL shortners and tracking results; remember that a certain readership may respond to a certain shortner!

I wrote a guest post today for Blogging Bits entitled: The Art and Science of Retweeting for Twitteraholics.

Thanks to Mohsin for allowing me to make the post.

Here is a quick teaser:

Many bloggers use Twitter as a platform to promote their own blog. That’s an easy concept, no need to waste our time there. Instead, lets focus on something that is under-utilized by most bloggers: promoting other blogger’s content by “retweeting.”

Head over there and Leave a Comment

*Update: Getting lots of love from StumbleUpon, if you like this post, then Stumble it!

Introduction

Most people are concerned with how many people are following them on twitter, but something that is just as important if not more important is how many people you are following on Twitter. When it comes to figuring out how many people you should follow, you need to take a step outside of yourself and objectively understand what you are trying to accomplish by using twitter.

I just want to connect and communicate with friends

If you are using Twitter simply to connect and communicate with friends then the answer to this question is simple. Only follow your friends. If you have 100 friends on Twitter, then follow 100 people. If you have 500 friends on Twitter, then follow 500 people. Never feel pressured to follow people who are following you, remember, Twitter is whatever you want it to be.

I want to learn while using twitter

If you are on Twitter because some of the most brilliant minds in our industry are on Twitter then the answer to this question is also simple. Follow people who you believe will provide you with both quality value and knowledge. There is so much great information transmitted via Twitter everyday, and if you follow the right mix of people, you can take in a lot of valuable information. If your interests are very specific, then amount of people you follow will be relatively low; conversely if your interests cover a variety of topics, then you will probably follow a higher amount of people.

I want to see the latest news

If you are using Twitter as a means of getting your news, then guess what? The answer to this question is once again simple. Follow a lot of people! The more people you follow, the higher your chances of stumbling upon some breaking news. Be careful though, there is a certain point where you can follow too many people, and thus you may miss certain news. In this situation, a good number of people to follow is 1,000 - yes this is a bit high, but since you are simply looking out for news the noise shouldn’t be too bad.

Wait, I want to do all of these things and more!

Ah, here is where it gets complicated! Twitter is a multi-faceted monster that gives the user so much flexibility. The formula I use to determine how many people I follow goes a little something like this:

First I follow my friends. If a personal friend of mine uses Twitter I follow them. I am genuinely interested in what my friends are doing from time to time, and following them is nothing short of a pleasure, thanks guys!

I follow many industry leaders. If there is an individual who has accomplished a lot, or is truly interesting in our space, then I will most likely follow them. That isn’t to say that I follow every single big name, you need to pick those that are interesting to you.

I follow people I meet. If I meet someone at a conference that I feel as if I would like to network with in the future I follow them. Twitter is a great means of communication, and sometimes a tweet or two can turn an acquaintance into a friend.

I try to follow as many people as I can keep up with. I personally like to read each and every single tweet, and that being the case, that means I can not follow a thousand people. If you like to read every tweet, find a number of people you can keep up with and afford to dedicate your time to.

Conclusion

There truly isn’t a right way to use Twitter. If you wan’t to follow thousands of people go right ahead (Scoble does it, and you know what? It works for him!) If you want to follow 10 people, that works too. Following people on Twitter comes right down to you, the individual.