Comments on: Trust And Our Addiction To Link Shortening http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/ Gaining Insight From Social Media Data Fri, 18 May 2012 11:13:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: PudgyM29 http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-825 PudgyM29 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:18:26 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-825 I agree. I feel compelled to tell people when I post a shortened URL that it is not hiding anything like a referrer or affiliate link. It is just that: My World-Wide Web pages would otherwise look like h**p://members.myownisp.net/myaccountid/thisblogpost01.html. Which would break in most text-based E-Mail programs, and gobble up most of my 140 characters in Twitter. I'm using one on the link to this response. Snipr.com is a real, verifiable website. Yes, I do sporadically check to view how many people have clicked on it. I agree. I feel compelled to tell people when I post a shortened URL that it is not hiding anything like a referrer or affiliate link. It is just that: My World-Wide Web pages would otherwise look like h**p://members.myownisp.net/myaccountid/thisblogpost01.html. Which would break in most text-based E-Mail programs, and gobble up most of my 140 characters in Twitter.
I’m using one on the link to this response. Snipr.com is a real, verifiable website. Yes, I do sporadically check to view how many people have clicked on it.

]]> By: Janet Aronica http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-624 Janet Aronica Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:54:47 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-624 Great post. I think Brian brings up a good point, many people (me included!) use URL shorteners out of convenience. I use CoTweet for 99% of my Tweeting and it's just so tempting...the URL shortener is right there! My hope is that my personal brand and the description of what I'm Tweeting (which I have more characters to provide b/c of the shortened link) helps my followers decide if it's click-worthy or pointless crap. Great post :) @Janet Aronica Community Manager @oneforty Great post. I think Brian brings up a good point, many people (me included!) use URL shorteners out of convenience. I use CoTweet for 99% of my Tweeting and it’s just so tempting…the URL shortener is right there! My hope is that my personal brand and the description of what I’m Tweeting (which I have more characters to provide b/c of the shortened link) helps my followers decide if it’s click-worthy or pointless crap.

Great post :)

@Janet Aronica
Community Manager @oneforty

]]> By: Ben Bennett http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-596 Ben Bennett Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:40:14 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-596 I'm completely addicted. I use it primarily to tell the story about how engaged our online audience is with our Country Music entertainment properties. There is a stereotype that I'm still working through that Country Music fans aren't as tech-savvy as other types of music fans. While that is still partially true, i've built a great story showing that these fans are much much more tech-savvy AND younger than previously presumed. http://cmafest.com http://cmaawards.com I’m completely addicted. I use it primarily to tell the story about how engaged our online audience is with our Country Music entertainment properties. There is a stereotype that I’m still working through that Country Music fans aren’t as tech-savvy as other types of music fans.

While that is still partially true, i’ve built a great story showing that these fans are much much more tech-savvy AND younger than previously presumed.

http://cmafest.com
http://cmaawards.com

]]> By: John Lane http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-587 John Lane Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:45:27 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-587 Interesting take. Thinking of two extremes, I'm not sure that my dad even reads what a link actually says before he clicks it. I doubt he's alone. He's probably one of the majority of computer users who click links based on the description or instruction instead of the location of the URL you'll be going to. On the other hand, I imagine the Twitter (and other social web power users) rely far more on the trust they have in their network than the location they'll be going... whether they personally know the poster or not. This leads me to think that the text of the link has very little to do with the trust in it. And that probably disturbs orgs like CNN quite a bit. (Will they somehow figure a way to block shortening of links?) Have you thought about a little A/B testing to see if a real URL works better than a shortened one? (Or are you doing one right now? I clicked the shortened one.) And I wonder if Twitter's new auto-shortening that will still expose the first 20 characters of the link (if I understand it correctly) will change people's willingness to click links? Will we see a change in the number of clicks? And will that be attributable to "trust?" Regardless, this is good food for thought. Thanks. @johnvlane Interesting take. Thinking of two extremes, I’m not sure that my dad even reads what a link actually says before he clicks it. I doubt he’s alone. He’s probably one of the majority of computer users who click links based on the description or instruction instead of the location of the URL you’ll be going to.

On the other hand, I imagine the Twitter (and other social web power users) rely far more on the trust they have in their network than the location they’ll be going… whether they personally know the poster or not.

This leads me to think that the text of the link has very little to do with the trust in it. And that probably disturbs orgs like CNN quite a bit. (Will they somehow figure a way to block shortening of links?)

Have you thought about a little A/B testing to see if a real URL works better than a shortened one? (Or are you doing one right now? I clicked the shortened one.)

And I wonder if Twitter’s new auto-shortening that will still expose the first 20 characters of the link (if I understand it correctly) will change people’s willingness to click links? Will we see a change in the number of clicks? And will that be attributable to “trust?”

Regardless, this is good food for thought. Thanks.

@johnvlane

]]> By: Tom Webster http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-586 Tom Webster Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:13:52 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-586 Brian - that's certainly true on symmetrical networks like Facebook. Twitter and other asymmetrical networks might be different here - dunno. It would be an interesting study, though, to send out a bunch of links that are shortened along with the originals and see if there is any differential in clicks. Hey, maybe I'll do just that... Brian – that’s certainly true on symmetrical networks like Facebook. Twitter and other asymmetrical networks might be different here – dunno. It would be an interesting study, though, to send out a bunch of links that are shortened along with the originals and see if there is any differential in clicks.

Hey, maybe I’ll do just that…

]]> By: Tom Webster http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-584 Tom Webster Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:08:31 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-584 Well, of course you are - and one I use every day. :) Didn't mean to imply Argyle was "just" a link shortener. Thanks for commenting, Eric! Well, of course you are – and one I use every day. :) Didn’t mean to imply Argyle was “just” a link shortener. Thanks for commenting, Eric!

]]> By: Brian Altenhofel http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-579 Brian Altenhofel Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:23:26 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-579 For me, the use of URL shorteners is mostly out of convenience. The tracking offered by bit.ly is just a bonus; I can track my URLs good enough with Google Analytics. I think it shows enough trust for most people if they are seeing any link retweeted or shared by someone they know. For me, the use of URL shorteners is mostly out of convenience. The tracking offered by bit.ly is just a bonus; I can track my URLs good enough with Google Analytics.

I think it shows enough trust for most people if they are seeing any link retweeted or shared by someone they know.

]]> By: Eric http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-578 Eric Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:08:15 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-578 Right on! Much like lust was the unspoken driving force behind the early web, vanity is the unspoken catalyst of the social web. PS - Thanks for the Argyle mention. But, we're a marketing analytics platform, not a URL shortener. :) Right on! Much like lust was the unspoken driving force behind the early web, vanity is the unspoken catalyst of the social web.

PS – Thanks for the Argyle mention. But, we’re a marketing analytics platform, not a URL shortener. :)

]]> By: Tweets that mention Trust And Our Addiction To Link Shortening | BrandSavant -- Topsy.com http://brandsavant.com/trust-and-our-addiction-to-link-shortening/comment-page-1/#comment-576 Tweets that mention Trust And Our Addiction To Link Shortening | BrandSavant -- Topsy.com Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:52:30 +0000 http://brandsavant.com/?p=587#comment-576 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Hugo Guzman, Tom Webster and mo' stash, SocialMedio. SocialMedio said: Trust And Our Addiction To Link Shortening http://bit.ly/9fquYj [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Hugo Guzman, Tom Webster and mo' stash, SocialMedio. SocialMedio said: Trust And Our Addiction To Link Shortening http://bit.ly/9fquYj [...]

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