How to Compress Links on Twitter

Twitter users can compress URLs in their tweets with a link-shortening service.

Twitter users may want to share a website or YouTube video clip with their followers. However, there is a 140-character limit for Twitter updates and a long website URL can use up most or all of the available space. This leave no room for leaving an additional message with your link. Fortunately, there are several URL-shortening services available to convert those long addresses into something shorter. Twitter offers links to two services: Bitly and TinyURL.

Instructions

Compress Links with Bitly

1. Open your web browser and go to bit.ly.

2. Enter the URL you want to post on your Twitter account into the text box in the center of the page.

3. Press the "Shorten" button. A shortened URL will appear below.

4. Click the "Copy" link to copy the shortened URL to your clipboard.

5. Log in to your Twitter account. Paste the copied link into your tweet box by pressing "Ctrl-V." Mac users will need to press "Apple-V" instead,

Compress Links with TinyURL

1. Open your browser and go to tinyurl.com.

2. Enter the URL you want to post on your Twitter account into the text box under the "Enter a URL to Make Tiny" heading.

3. Press the "Make TinyURL" button beside the text box. A page will appear with your shortened URL.

4. Highlight the URL address with your mouse and copy it to your clipboard by pressing "Ctrl-C--Mac users will need to press "Apple-C" instead.

5. Log in to your Twitter account. Paste the copied link into your tweet box by pressing "Ctrl-V" or "Apple-V" for Mac users.

Tips & Warnings

• Some shortened URLs on Twitter may contain malicious links.

References

• Twitter Help Center: How to Shorten Links

Resources

• Bitly
• TinyURL