subject: Twitter Tips - How to Add a Link to Your Tweet [print this page] Twitter Tips - How to Add a Link to Your Tweet
Depending on what you want to share a link to on Twitter, you've got several options you can choose from.
First, there is the basic copy and paste. You go to the page you want to share, copy the link from the URL bar, and paste it into a tweet. Simple. But if the URL is long it may be over the character limit of 140 or may not leave you much room to add your thoughts. And of course you want to add your thoughts so your followers know why you are sharing the link.
So, the second option is to use a link shortener to shrink the link down to fewer characters. You can use a free link shortener like TinyURL, SnipURL, or Bit.ly to shrink your URL. Go to the page you want to share, copy the link from the URL bar, go to the link shortener website and paste in the link then click to shorten. You'll get a new link that's much shorter and you can copy and paste that into your tweet. This will give you more room to share your thoughts. It can get a little bit time consuming though to have to shorten your links.
Another option is to use a tool like Hootsuite for tweeting. It offers a link shortener conveniently below the tweet box so it's easy to shorten links and include them in your tweets without opening another website.
On many websites you can share a link easily by clicking on a "Tweet MeMe" button. This is the green button that shows how many times a page has been tweeted and has a "retweet" link below it. The new Twitter version is blue and popping up on many websites. Both of these tweeting links will automatically shorten the URL for you.
Or there may be sharing options at the bottom of the page. Just look for the Twitter logo, a tweetie bird or a tweet this link. These will usually shorten the link for you and make it easy to tweet.
There you go. Five options for shortening a link to share on Twitter. Now that you know how to shorten links you have more room to share your opinions, thoughts, and comments on those links. Happy tweeting!
And now, let me give you access to some great free resources for small businesses including 101 Free/Cheap Ways to Market Your Business, 119 Things You Can Outsource, and more at http://www.michelleshaeffer.com
Michelle Shaeffer has been a work at home mom for more than 10 years and loves to share the tips and strategies she's learned to help other home based business owners balance, manage, and market their businesses.
