Many people like to use Twitter, but more than just tweeting without a plan you really need to put Twitter to work for you. I recommend shrinking all links you use in Twitter with an application that gives you click stats. There is no better way to continue to spend time on Twitter than when you know what you are doing is truly benefiting you.
I use two applications for Twitter link shrinking for my own use and for clients. If I am using Social Oomph for tweet scheduling I also use a bit.ly account to shrink all my links outside of Social Oomph. If I am using HootSuite, I let HootSuite shrink and track my links. I like both applications.
On bit.ly, make sure you just don’t use it to shrink links, but get the value by setting up your own account first. When I use bit.ly I am able to see the number of link clicks web wide and those that my own tweet generated. In HootSuite I see similar information but in a graphical format. Both allow you to see what links where clicked and give you an idea of the viral and traffic generation nature of Twitter.
Once you or a client see the power of the links back to your website as well as to informational topics you’ll be sold on the fact that the time you invest in Twitter has value. So if you are tweet haphazardly and not tracking links, now’s the time to make a change and start measuring what you do on Twitter.