Musicians Guide to Using Bitly

URL shorteners are must-have tools in today’s world of marketing and branding. Sharing information is critical, but you have to be able to keep it brief. With character limits on social media platforms, a host of developers and software brands started creating short link software. Bitly is a link management software, helping create and manage custom URLs. Their custom URLs support marketing campaigns, provide information, and establish brand identity with clients. Here’s what we found most essential for independent musicians:

Short URLs

So first, what are short URLs? This software is designed to allow users to input a link of any length and generate a custom link that is much shorter. In addition to the business-grade URL shortening tool, Bitly has full-service features for any marketing or business needs.

The Business Features of Bitly

One of the first questions that might come up is: is it free? Yes!

The free account offers up to 50 URLs/month and tracking for up to 1,000 links per month. Plus, the affordable paid plans have impressive features, including services for branding and tracking tools. Now, you could also purchase one of Bitly’s business accounts. Bitly offers the Basic package for $29/month and the Premium for $199/month.

Bitly’s plans include features such as: custom SSL certificates, domain finder, link filtering, webhooks, custom data streams, single sign-on (SSO), downloadable QR codes, and more. Administrators can also design, launch, and manage personalized marketing campaigns, group links, and import/export data in CSV format.

Features of Bitly’s Link Management Platform

If you’re looking to share unique content in a way that feels personal to each user, you will need a link management platform. With the Bitly platform, you can: brand your links with a custom domain, build QR codes, shorten links in bulk, redirect links, build campaigns and leverage many more features. If you need to create links at higher volumes, you can also take advantage of the powerful Bitly API.

Creators (AKA musicians), small businesses, and even large enterprises: if you’re looking to grow and scale your brand or business – Bitly has a plan with the features you need.

Maximize Your Performance Using Real-Time Analytics

With Bitly, you can easily track your customers’ journeys on every link and channel from a clear spreadsheet. Understand what content is resonating with your audience with comprehensive metrics on every link and campaign—like clicks, geographic data, and top referring channels. Bitly takes the guesswork out of your link performance so you can share more of what your audience wants and less time hoping to create content that your audience will engage with.

How to Sign Up for Bitly

Visit www.bitly.com and sign-up for your free account.
Copy any URL you’d like to shorten and paste it in the top-right of your screen
After shortening your URL, you will be given the option to customize the characters in your Bitly URL (i.e., https://bit.ly/customtext) by clicking on the pencil icon. Or, you can simply copy the standard URL and paste it where it needs to go!
To check your Bitly Link’s performance you can visit the “Stats” tab in the menu bar.

Other tools Bitly offers include letting businesses and creators like yourself create short URLs for SMS communications. This provides updates on customer support, service delays or changes, order statuses, fundraising, appointment reminders, and location-based promotions. We highly recommend exploring this platform tool and all of its features for yourself.

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