We've been working quietly for a while now and are ready to show part of what we've been working on. Setting a great base for some larger feature enhancements, we're pleased to announce short URL creation is now part of theKit.

"What does this mean?" Well, now you can take any piece of content you've created in theKit and get a short URL for it.

"Why would I need this?" It's simple why this is handy to have, especially if have a social marketing effort. Because of the nature of social media networks, it's best to use a short URL when posting content, primarily on Twitter. This insures you have enough space left to type a message about the link.

Secondly, we provide some great statistics that allow you to gauge how well your efforts are doing, the audience you're reaching and where they are coming from. With these, you can tailor and adjust your marketing efforts in real-time.

So, what are the features of this feature? Glad you asked, here's a run down.

The Interface
When you get to the landing page for the Social Manager-Short URLs, you are presented with a clean simple interface. At the top, there is a text field that allows you to search for specific URL you’ve created by the landing page’s title or the url its self. Next is a refresh button that updates the data on the page and  finally the link to open the shorten URL interface.

Below that are the 30 most recently created shorten URLs statistics. Each URL shows the title of the page, date and time of creation, the short URL, total amount of hits, and a chart showing the day-of-creation activity.



When you click a URL you are then presented with a larger chart showing the full details of the life of the short URL with top visitors, regions, referrers and user agents below.



Creating A New Short URL
When you click the shorten URL interface you are presented with a drop-down. You can choose what manager the piece of content you’re wanting to shorten lives in, or you can choose “Other URL” to type in a non-Kit specific URL. If you choose a manager, you must then choose the piece of content from a second drop-down box that appears.

After you choose the URL you want to shorten, it will show up as text to the right of the chosen option. To finish, you want to press the “Shorten” button to the right of the “Cancel” button. This will return the shorten URL that you can copy and use anywhere you would like.



Here is an example of using the “Other URL” option to create a shortened URL.