9 Best Twitter URL Tools
If you have been on Twitter for a while, you are familiar with the 140 character limit that Twitter has set forth from the very start. That’s what Twitter is all about. To express yourself and communicate with others in under 140 characters. But if you waste half or more of your character limit on a URL, you are not going to be able to say much. That’s why you should use a Twitter URL service that not only allows you to share shorter URLs but also helps you track the number of clicks and the sources for those clicks as well. Thankfully, there are lots of cool URL shortening service to choose from that let you do just that:
1. BudURL: Bud URL is one of my favorite Twitter URL tools. Not only it allows you to shorten your URLs and track their clicks, but if you create an account, you gain access to a whole lot of details about who’s clicked on your URLs.
2. SnipURL: another cool URL service for Twitter that lets you create snips and share them on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks.
3. Bit.ly: another one of my favorite URL services that not only shortens your URLs, but lets you know about the retweets and the source of your traffic. You also can track your clicks by region as well.
4. Ow.ly: a great tool for sharing your URLs on Twitter and Facebook. Makes it easy for your best URLs to go viral.
5. Poprl: a great way to shorten your URLs and also spy on top URLs shared online.
6. adjix: adjix not only helps you compress your URLs but makes it easy for you to make some money on the side.
7. tr.im: tr.im is another great URL service that lets you compress your URLs and track your stats as well.
8. twurl.nl: another fun URL service for Twitter that makes it easy to share and track your URLs.
These URL services can help you find out which one of your URLs was visited the most on Twitter. It’s certainly better than flying blind.
Your turn: what’s your favorite URL shortening service?
50 Things To Do On LinkedIn
LinkedIn is one of the most underrated social networking sites on the planet. Until recently, the service was not getting too much respect from Web 2.0 fanatics. But as Facebook and Twitter have become more mature, people have come to realize the need for a more formal community to find jobs and network with others in your niche. LinkedIn comes with a whole lot of tools that anyone can use to expand her network and take her career to the next level.
But there is more to LinkedIn than meets the eye. There are a whole lot of things you can do on LinkedIn to expand your network, build business, and develop new products. What you don’t want to do is spam people and insult them. But don’t be afraid to ask for favors and reach out to superstars.
Here are things you can do with LinkedIn:
- Build your network
- Connect with your friends on LinkedIn
- Get the latest news in your niche.
- Reach out to professionals in any niche
- Build a Group.
- Publish your blogs on LinkedIn
- Promote your business
- Promote your blogs/websites on your profile
- Find clients for your consulting business.
- Track industry experts
- Ask questions!
- Establish yourself as an expert by answering questions.
- Tell others what you are doing now (status)
- Better yet, tell the community what you need.
- Do market research.
- Do company research.
- Come up with new product ideas from Q&A and Groups.
- Share your slides on LinkedIn.
- Connect with your colleagues face to face.
- Collaborate privately with your colleagues.
- Track polls.
- Better yet, set up polls for the community to respond to.
- See what others are reading and share your reading list.
- Track your business’ online reputation.
- Recommend others and get recommendations.
- Find events online.
- Hire employees.
- Get job offers.
- Track your progress in the community.
- Manage your contacts.
- Ask for product feedback.
- Observe what others are doing and innovate.
- Write an app for LinkedIn.
- Advertise on LinkedIn
- Push your Facebook groups/profiles
- Push your Twitter account on LinkedIn
- Offer free service and get more clients.
- Share free reports and go viral.
- Push a great cause.
- Manage your contacts from Outlook.
- Answer to famous people’s questions.
- Start a business page.
- Manage your LinkedIn account from your browser.
- Learn about new job search tactics.
- Buy Job Credit
- Create and track surveys
- Upgrade your account and reach more users.
- Send direct messages to top folks in your industry
- Ask for interviews on Linkedin
- Find Guest bloggers.
There are a million other things you can do with LinkedIn. As long as you are not stalking, insulting, or spamming, you should be fine.
Your take: how do you use LinkedIn?
Twitter API – Up and Running Review
Twitter is one of the hottest web properties these days. It’s growing so fast even its founders are struggling to keep up. But what’s even more exciting than talking with your tweeps on Twitter is playing with some of the apps that have been written for the Twitter platform. Twitter is truly a data goldmine, and a lot of talented developers have taken advantage of Twitter API to write sophisticated tools that can analyze the data and give you actionable information. Now you can do your market research, trend analysis, brainstorming, product research, and brand promotion all with the help of top Twitter applications. But you don’t have to wait for others to write Twitter applications for you when you can learn to do it yourself by reading Twitter API – Up and Running.
I have been a fan or O’reilly books for years. If you want to know about the most cutting edge technologies out there, there is no better place to refer to than O’reilly publishing. Twitter API: Up and Running is the latest O’reilly book that is written to help you get started with Twitter API fast. The platform is expanding fast, and there is no reason you shouldn’t play a bigger part in it. Whether you want to make money from your application or just provide value to Twitter community with your apps, this is the book that you are going to need to start writing those killer apps.
Who’s This Book For
Simple answer: for anyone who’s interested in doing more than just tweeting all day. Twitter is full of great information. Twiter API allows you to get more out of the platform by enabling you to develop killer market research, trend analysis, friend management, and account management apps. I was impressed with how easy-t0-read this book was. Kevin does not try to go over your head and assuming anything about your web development knowledge. It’s probably necessary to be familiar with how web apps work, but you don’t have to be an expert in CSS or PHP to take advantage of what’s presented in this book.
Twitter API – Up and Running gets you started with a Hello Twitter chapter that familiarizes you with various Twitter concepts. I strongly recommend everyone read this chapter before moving ahead. It’s a great read and builds the foundation for you to get a better understanding on how Twitter applications work. The second chapter takes you beyond theory and familiarizes you with a few top Twitter applications available on the market. The more you study Twitter apps, the better you can figure out the unfulfilled needs and wants of the community. And in case you are not comfortable with web programming, you are going to get a crash course in the third chapter.
The rest of the chapters walk you through everything you need to know to write sophisticated Twitter applications. But, what I was most excited about this book was the task automation chapter. I don’t know about you, but I rather outsource non-core Twitter activities, and what a better way to do that by writing an app to get the job done. I am not suggesting that you should use task automation to add a massive number of friends on the go, but there are simple tasks that can be automated. In this chapter, you learn how to do just that.
The Sample Applications chapter is another great one for those of you interested in doing things the practical way. Kevin will get you familiar with various applications to help you build a better understanding of how to write exciting apps using Twitter API. You can read theory all day, but if you are more interested in actually doing some coding instead of reading theory, this is a must read chapter.
Overall, Twitter API – Up and Running takes you from beginner to pro in a flash. You should take time to familiarize yourself with MySQL and other web development technologies to write killer apps, but this book teaches you the concepts and provides you with sample codes to get you started. And it helps that it’s one of the most addictive technical books on the market (once you pick it up you don’t want to put it down!). If you are tired of just tweeting all the time and want to get your hands dirty with some Twitter API coding, reading this book is a great place to start. Another smash hit by O’reilly!
*don’t forget to check the book’s official page for more information.
