Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

Read an interesting article online or find a funny video on YouTube? Just like millions of people every day, you’re probably going to share that URL with others. To give you an idea of how common this is, in 20 minutes 1,000,000 links are shared on Facebook and everyday tens of millions of links are tweeted on Twitter. As a Social Media Manager, unless you’re directly benefiting from someone visiting that page, don’t you want to stay a part of the conversation when someone shares a link that you first posted?

You can do more with your URLs and there are certain steps you can take to expand your reach as links go viral. Many people are already familiar with URL Shortening services for this reason. They make links easier to share on social media channels, give you insights into how they are performing, generate QR codes, and in some cases allow you to customize part of the URL. The practice has become so common that many applications now automatically shorten long URL’s for you. There are a number of services that offer the same features, but you need to go beyond the basics to really stand out. I’m talking additional branding opportunities. And the best part about it, I’m only sticking with free options in this post. Baby steps before you go for a $15/mo. service like awe.sm, right?

Below I’ve highlighted two services that create branding opportunities in addition to shortening a URL that will hopefully get you thinking about what more you can do with shortened links:

bo.lt

The term “remixing” has now made its way to URL shorteners. There’s really no better way to describe BO.LT. You have the ability to customize pages, adding your own twist to personalize the page you’re linking to.

What first caught my eyes was this example of what Virgin America did for a promotion they were running on Daily SF by using BO.LT.

The customizable button could be a great addition to any shared link, even one linking to your own site. Highlighted in the BO.LT promotion recap, “Twenty percent of the viewers of the shared link also made their way to the Virgin America web site.” That’s a lot of traffic and a high click-through rate for a little addition to a page.

In addition to building a customizable button, you also have the ability to “hack” other sites, giving you a number of options to make the page unique. It’s easy to use for someone with little web development experience by using their “edit” set-up. For those with a stronger understanding of HTML, the possibilities are endless. It will surprise you with what you’re actually able to do, adding, removing, and replacing anything on the site with your own material (including text). For instance, take our own Social Media Playground homepage:

 In just a few minutes I was able to make these changes:

 Another feature is a comment box which allows you to leave a short message (140 characters) that will appear on the loaded page. This could be a call to action related to the page, something you’d like to point out, or anything else that suits your link.

A downside to using BO.LT is that they do have their own branded bar on the bottom right section of every page. It’s understandable as the service is free. Although there is value in the bar as it includes a Twitter share link. When signing up, you should make sure your username isn’t too long. The username appears before “bo.lt” in the shared URL. If you’re looking to cut down on characters, don’t get too carried away.

bre.ad 

This “promotional” tool allows you to promote your brand on a full-page interface before the user is brought to the linked site. The page that loads first is called a “Toast” where you can create a billboard to recommend almost anything. It includes a short message (140 characters or less), and an image (720×300) which gives you the option to link to another site. The Toast loads for 5 seconds then takes you to the linked destination.

If you have a universal message that you’d like to share, whether it’s highlighting a promotion, bringing attention to your company, or telling people about a cause you’re involved with, it could be a great option. By activating a link within the larger image, you also give the user a chance to go to a page in another tab related to your message.

Here is an example bre.ad Toast from start-up Roozt.com:

Since it’s a new service, and hasn’t been widely adopted yet, people unfamiliar with bre.ad links may think they are sitting through an ad for 5 seconds. The user does have the ability to skip the page, but that doesn’t help ameliorate the distaste many people have for ads. One other downside is that you can have multiple Toasts activated, but you’re unable to specifically target them to certain links. Any link shortened through bre.ad will randomly select one active Toast.

Major brands and celebrities have used the service. PepsiCo, Hello Kitty, Britney Spears and Ryan Seacrest all have toasts featured on the bre.ad homepage. But a few things to note, PepsiCo was an early supporter along with major investors, including Lady Gaga’s business manager Troy Carter, in backing the company so it’s not a big surprise these names have used the service. It did receive a lot of attention when it was released in early June, 10,000 people signed up in the first four days, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve been able to keep up with that same momentum.

Whatever your goal may be, it’s worth looking into the value found in branding shared links. While keeping URL shortened links user friendly, these added branding efforts could lead to big returns for your social media properties and company. No matter where that unique link goes, you can still leave a lasting mark.