Share Nicely: Add Shortened URLs to News and PR

[Jason Kintzler]

Unless you're an SEO-type who relishes keyword content in your url, or a PR pro sending your news through a traditional wire service, a shortened url is a quick way to help your readers share your content. If you want your news article, blog post or press release to get viral why not make it easier on the reader by including a "pre-shortened" url?

I've begun to include a shortened url inside each of my blog posts and will continue to use them in my social media releases (SMR). The easiest way to include them in your post is to first, save the post. Then, use a url shortener service to shorten that post's url. You'll then need to go back into the post and add that shortened url. Pretty easy, but considering the amount of time you save your readers, it seems worthwhile doesn't it?

Here are the Top 5 Favorite URL Shorteners (as tallied in a Twitter survey by Brian Solis):

1. TinyURL
2. Bit.ly
3. Is.gd
4. BUDURL
5. Tr.im

To learn more about these services, and others see Brian's Directory of Short URL Services.

When we developed the PitchEngine SMR we wanted to make PR content as sharable as possible. By including a shortened url, in addition to a friendly url (which includes the release headline text), we've made it easier for people to direct-tweet their releases, or copy-and-paste the short links into their own networks and social sharing sites.

Photo: The shortened "pitch.pe" url allows readers to easily share social media releases from PitchEngine.

So, there you have it, a quick way make it easier for readers to share your blog posts, press releases and news articles via social networking methods.

Share this PitchEngine post via shortened url: http://bit.ly/b5aP
Tweet at me via @pitchengine

[Maryam Webster]

Jason, a commentary to that. I serve in part, a woefully internet-undereducated population of psychotherapists, social workers and other helping professionals. This sector is very slow in adoption of internet marketing strategies, and tend to be suspicious about the internet in general. Many may not even have a personal or business website.

In teaching large teleclasses, one of my biggest headaches has been giving out the URL of a resource, a program I am promoting, or the bonus promised on the call. My name, Maryam Webster is also my main domain url (http://maryamwebster.com) which is a nightmare to spell on a class of generally speaking, ten to twenty or more different countries.

"URL shortening service" I thought, "what a fantastic workaround!" I use them for twitter @maryamwebster, and in Skype conversations. What could be easier? When I used is.gd and bit.ly (my two faves for tweeting due to the shortness) and gave them out to my large classes, nearly EVERYONE got confused, to wit:

Participant/s: "but where do I put the .com?"
Me: There is no .com - it's .ly (or .gd)
Participant: But I can't use the internet without a .com! There HAS to be one!
Me: No no, it's a new service, the suffix .ly is just as valid as .com. It's a way to make long URLS short enough for you to easily -
Participant: (breaking in, now both confused and irate) What kind of crazy stuff is this?

Even reporters I've sent bit.ly urls to have asked me if I was sending them to a spam site. PitchEngine is geared towards the highly internet savvy. However, many otherwise highly educated audiences will not segue smoothly into using services like this. Even written in my newsletters, I've had queries to my helpdesk aplenty on "where's the .com?". Did they even try to click the URL? No, they went on their intuit that this didn't "look right" to them.

So the caveat here is that Education in all corners is called for when introducing new helper apps.

Excellent post, and I once bought a Vaio from Brian Solis - nice guy!

Warmly,
Maryam Webster

[Jesse Luna]

Jason, great job on PitchEngine and on this community site. I'm still working my way around the PitchEngine features and so far everything looks cool!

I use the URL-shorteners extensively on Twitter, Facebook, and on my blogs but am very cautious about using them on public email communication (company newsletters, announcements, press releases), especially text based ones. People are still "suspicious" of these links as Maryam mentions. Most email marketing programs are using some sort of encrypted link to capture tracking information (this is by design) so people are starting to get used to them.

One issue that recently came to mind was, "what if the URL shortner company goes out of business?" Will there then be tens of thousands of links out there that can't be resolved?

Another potential drawback is hiding rogue links in a URL shortened manner. I had to triple check sources before clicking on these links during the Twitter phishing attacks a couple of weeks ago.

But for releases that are done specific to social media sites, the URL shortened formats are fine. I like the way Mashable is using them on their site.

[Jason Kintzler]

Great points from both of you! Sometimes we get a little wrapped-up in social media land and forget the rest of the world is different. Thanks for your insight!

[Deb Robison]

I like the abbreviated form, I will be able to post my release tomorrow on twitter, plurk, facebook, etc. tomorrow and take advantage of the shortened link.