How to Shorten a URL for Twitter

Twitter - everyone is talking about it and it seems like everyone is using it. Why not? It's a free and quick way to share information with your friends (and followers). With Twitter, you can do way more than just update people on what you are up to -- you can share information including articles you've read and the websites of new and interesting information. The challenge is - how to do it in less than 140 characters. The answer is to use one of the many FREE tools that are available to help you shorten a URL or Permalink (the web address) of what you want to share. Read on for the details.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A Twitter Account
• A computer with internet access
• Something to share!

1. When you are drafting your tweet, you will want to include the link to the article or website you want to share with your followers and friends. The first step is to copy that permalink or URL. To do so, scroll over it in your browser's navigation bar to select it and then press Ctrl (Control) and "C" at the same time - this will copy it.

2. 
   www.TinyURL.com

   One of the fastest FREE tools for shortening a URL or Permalink to allow it to fit into your Twitter update and still have characters left to write is TinyUrl. You can find this at www.tinyurl.com

3. Once at TinyURL.com you will follow the directions and copy and paste your URL in the box and then select "make tiny". The site will provide you with a customized "tiny" version of your previous URL that you can then paste into your Twitter update.

Resources

• Mozilla Tiny URL Generator
• GeoCities Tiny URL Generator
• TinyURL.com