Easy to use shortening service and tracker
March 23, 2016

Easy to use shortening service and tracker

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Bitly

I had previously used bit.ly in my job as editorial assistant at a weekly newspaper, to both shorten links for social media and to track the popularity of stories and their sources. It's intuitive and clean interface made it easy to use, and now in my own personal and freelance writing, I still use it for the same purpose.

It wasn't being used by my whole organization, but everyone in my department implemented it on my direction, and they were all happy with it. When new employees filled the roles, they continued using the service, in concert with Hootsuite, which planned posts.

Pros

  • Shortening links.
  • Tracking clicks.
  • Clean UI.

Cons

  • I would love if it interfaced with other sites more easily, like Twitter or Facebook.
  • It would be great if link names could be customized (maybe including the abbreviation of the publication or company).
  • It hasn't had a negative impact.
  • Working in editorial, it was difficult to measure the positive impact, since the business and editorial departments were generally separate. But I was able to see the types of stories that had viral spread, and could work to encourage those types of stories.
  • I was able to see what types of tweets or posts/teases would generate clicks, outside of simple SEO that would come with the headline writing.
I use both Hootsuite and Bit.ly. They worked well together, and one didn't eliminate the need for the other, however I'd prefer if they merged and shared functionality. But using them both seperately seemed to be all that I needed.
TinyURL I haven't really used since trying it, mainly because it is easier to stick to one platform, but also because Bit.ly had more functionality when I was picking what platform to use.
It's definitely well suited to editorial work, and tracking what's of interest to the general public. It's a pretty simple and straightforward service with good functionality and ease of use. I recommend it for simply shortening links easily. I could also see it being helpful to anyone in marketing or who works heavily in social media. It's an essential tool for any social media manager.

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