When using the social media site Twitter, your message is limited to 140 characters.
You don't want to spend precious characters for a long link. Even links on Facebook can be messy and can be cleaned up with a shortened link.
Shortening links is generally safe, but bad links can be hidden by shortened links. Here's how to reap the benefits and keep your social media accounts and computer safe:
A link to last week's Social Savvy would look something like this: chronicle.augusta.com/things-do/applause/2010-03-10/social-savvy-use-caution-when-revealing-location?v=1268244683. Shortened, it looks like this: bit.ly/ak75HJ.
When you use bit.ly and tiny.cc, you can see how many people clicked on the link, which might help you in figuring out what your followers or friends are interested in reading more about.
Some applications for Twitter, such as TweetDeck and HootSuite, will shorten the links inside the system. TweetDeck is bit.ly and HootSuite is ow.ly.
You could see other shortened links gain popularity as web sites begin their own shortening.
The New York Times has nyti.ms, and NPR is in the process of implementing n.pr on their site, according to a March 3 announcement on the Inside NPR.org Blog.
There are some common sense tips to be aware of before clicking on shortened links.
Treat shortened links from strangers like e-mails from strangers: you wouldn't just click on a link without verifying that they're legitimate, right?
Also, Twitter has been the victim of many phishing scams through messages with a vague "lol, is this you?" or "I wrote something about you in my blog" accompanied by a shortened link.
Try writing back to the person who sent the link and ask whether it's spam ask or for more details about the link.
Facebook also has a history of the same sort of spamming.
Be wary of any suspicious posts on your wall from someone you don't usually talk to with links and a vague message.
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