In 8^th grade I was in a mediocre band, and I ran an equally mediocre website to promote that band. The one thing we had going for us was used cjb.net to shorten the convoluted URL Angelfire.com has given us. Maybe our abysmal Green Day covers weren’t turning heads, but at least we had a pithy URL. But that was 10 years ago, when URL shortening was all about style. Now it’s mostly about fitting those long URLs into the character constraints of tweets and text messages. But should link shortening be just about brevity? Some organizations are taking URL shortening to the next level by using their own, branded URL shorteners.

A lot of websites use link shorteners like Tiny URL or bit.ly to facilitate the tweeting or texting of links. Those services are easy to use. Enter a URL, and they’ll generate a shorter URL that points to the original. Sure, they’re brief but they aren’t exactly stylish. Depending on what service you use, the shortened URL will start with http://tiny.cc/, http://bit.ly/, and so on. You might argue that this doesn’t matter, because readers don’t care about what a URL looks like, as long as it’s short enough to fit into a tweet. You might be right, but I’m seeing branded URL shorteners popping up more and more.

Marketers love talking about brand equity, that intangible value your brand name provides its products. A branded URL takes advantage of brand equity,  evoking the reputation of the website it’s connected to. If somebody tweets a news story, you’re decision to click on it will be informed not only by the headline, but also by where the link will take you. The New York Times branded shortened URL is http://nyti.ms. If the URL begins with http://nyti.ms you might more likely to check out the link because of the positive association you have with The New York Times.

If you want your own branded URL shortner, there’s YOURLS. Check it out. It’s great tool that lets you customize your shortened links, with a URL that corresponds with your own brand. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Get a catchy URL and a place to host it. Learn from the nyti.ms example and try a domain that’s an abbreviation of your current one.
2. Download YOURLS and follow the setup instructions.
3. Since this is your branded link shortening device, make sure “private” and “custom” are both set to true. Otherwise, other people would be able to create links from your branded URL.
4. Show off your tech savvy by creating branded, shortened links.
5. Take advantage of all the extra goodies YOURLS provides, like historical click reports, referrers tracking, and geo-location stats.