Yes, 140 characters does seem like a very limited amount of information to broadcast. Instead of trying to say your piece in a tweet, you can easily link to a webpage or blog that you created or one that shares similar thoughts. Thanks to URL shortening tools, this has become very easy.

Tweeting links is a very popular practice and are often clicked by your followers. If you are reading this blog, chances are you may have found the link on Twitter!

Shortened URLs provide a great opportunity to create and distribute helpful information to others who have similar interests.

Rule: Don’t only link to your own content. To establish trust, find other valuable websites or blogs and distribute those links as well.

The Example:
In this blog, I insert links which redirect to other sites. Twitter does not provide a insert link feature so using a URL shortening tool like tinyurl.com (which is embedded in several Twitter clients) is a great alternative.

“Here are some great tips on becoming a better Twittizen, according to Janet Fouts! http://janetfouts.com/twitter-manners-how-to-write-good-tweets-be-good-twittizen/”

...is not tweetable (too many characters).

“Here are some great tips on becoming a better Twittizen, according to Janet Fouts! http://tinyurl.com/c77xvu”

...32 characters to spare.

Ok. Now I don’t feel so limited by the 140 character cap. But how do I know if people are even reading my tweets or clicking on my links?

The Tools:
A very valid concern. The amount of followers you have does not necessarily equate to the amount of people interested in what you have to say. This is where analytics come into play.

My preferred  URL shortening service is bit.ly because it has build-in, real-time analytics. Once you have linked your Twitter account to the bit.ly service you can track how many clicks your link has received, when your link was clicked, and the geographic location of those who are clicking your link.

Here is another tip. Tweet the link multiple times. No, I don’t mean in immediate succession! Tweet the link in the morning and in the evening. Tweet the link on different days. You can then use the analytics tool to see when your followers are most responsive to your tweets.

Using links and analytics in unison is a great business tool giving you the ability to campaign with more than 140 characters and a way to get instantaneous feedback.

Please comment with your linking and analytic strategies and tools!