I might suggest starting with Bitly and exploring the possibility of getting a custom branded shortener, which you can set up through Bitly once the domain is purchased. For example, my website is philpallen.com but I shorten all links to philp.al/link so it's more professional.

I feel like many other shorteners look like spam, but I'd say your safe with Bitly because it's widely used. A custom one would be even better!

I've tried ½ dozen and I've scaled it down to two. 1) Goo.gl and 2) Bitly

I use Goo.gl when I post to Google+ and Bitly everywhere else. If you're planning to use Buffer App to schedule your updates, you will like how seamlessly Bitly works with Buffer. Even the fremium version lets you search for and find your Bitmarks to track # historical of clicks on your links.

I have more than 7 years of experience in digital marketing, managed over $50,000 in ad spend on various social media networks and currently managing over 30 Social media assets for various clients. I keep myself abreast of newer and newer social media platforms and tools by reading prominent blogs in my area of expertise. An important aspect of what I offer my clients is ROI Return on Investment and to demonstrate that I need solutions for tracking and analytics of which URL shortners are a big part.

bit.ly would be my recommendation due to its nice layout and ease of use. Also, it is free and supports multiple platforms including your own custom domain. Its easy to see the clicks in hourly, daily, weekly or fortnightly graphs and It support multiple social networks and the links appear optimized when shared on these.

I also consult on the merger of gamification, loyalty marketing and social media and how to calculate Paid, Owned, Earned Media value to calculate ROI for your campaigns. If you have any further questions, I'd be happy to answer them for you here: https://clarity.fm/gs.gill/expertise/use-facebook-ads-to-meet-your-business-goals

Some social media management tools use their own shorteners such as Hootsuite & Hubspot. I recommend using Bit.ly since it connects really well with other solutions out there. It's simple & easy to use.

Hope that helps!

I'm a bitly fan as well as a custom campaign advocate. Track every link with where it is placed. This has been a game changer with clients. Easy Google Template to get you going. Essentially you can monitor which link is getting the best traction on which network. It's not just about focusing on the link but about which network works best for the link.

hope that make sense. https://drive.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0Agl8lwsP-cNVdDJDa0s1cnNmOFZDMUFYa0kyN0RNaWc&mode=public#

Design your own. There's a domain service called Hover.com (owned by Tucows) where you can buy your own short domains and set up your own vanity shortener URLs on them. You can use .com or .net .info or any of the new extensions. I just set up cwd.link as a shortener for our social links on our new business cards - We're Cyberwalker Digital (CWD) and so cwd.link/tw is the link we use on the cards to our Twitter account and cwd.link/fb for Facebook

As everyone has stated, we use a custom bit.ly (http://rckstr.us/) as well as GaggleAMP.com (which provides advanced tracking and will tie to my Google Analytics to track performance). I also use ads.twitter.com to track raw performance of individual tweets.

A member of our Rockstar team, Steven Groves, co-author of The ROI of Social Media and a marketing measuring fiend, recommends additional reading from the respected publication TWN here: http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2013/10/08/want-to-create-your-own-url-shortener-heres-how-in-2013/

If you have further questions, you can reach me through Clarity.fm or on http://linkedin.com/in/loriruff or Steven Groves, ROI of Social Media: How to improve the return on your social marketing investment at http://www.socialmarketingconversations.com.

As everyone above suggested, bit.ly is probably the best one available in the market. But I will suggest you to take a look at a new link shortener service called Snip.ly. I started using it very recently and really loving it.
The uniqueness of this link shortener is that you can add 'custom call to action' to each shortened link. Then you can track analytics for both the link and also the 'call to action' engagement. You can give it a try and see whether it serves your purpose.

We're using Hootsuite's shortener and you can apply your own custom domain to it as well. Additionally, Hootsuite has analytics tracking built into their publishing tool which is quite helpful. Hootsuite also offers an API to shorten links outside of their publishing tool.

As an affiliate marketer i need to track all the click on my links across all the websites... i investigated in Goo.gl and Bit.ly solutions but i wanted a hosted solution. I found Yourls an open source shortener and Prosper202. I use Yourls with a Google Analytics plugin on my own domain name www.jeclic.com and i can see all the click as page view in GA, i have interesting detailed reports :)

]Like most of the folks who've already replied to your question, I also use bit.ly with my own domain. If your intent is the shortest possible URLs and you don't care about using your own vanity domain, bit.ly also owns the "j.mp" domain, which can be interchanged anywhere you otherwise see "bit.ly".

However, if you're looking for more detailed metrics, you might also want to consider looking at some of the ad tracker tools internet marketers use, as they support features like advanced campaign management and duplicate detection.

hyperTracker (www.hyperTracker.com) provides some pretty detailed metrics, and they also provide guidance for using your own short domain(s) to masquerade URLs created with their service.

I 100% recommend Linkhero. It's SO much better than Bit.ly and Goo.gl with added features to help you pixel your audiences (and their actions) re-direct traffic, and retarget. The founder of Linkhero is a good friend of mine. You're welcome to watch the video interview I did with him. Search "Trish Leto Link Hero" in YouTube and you'll find it. He also gives some awesome ninja traffic tips while sharing his screen during our interview. I've been using LinkHero for over a year and I love it. Hope this helps!

Social media marketing is an incredibly important activity in today’s business world. You can reach millions of potential customers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more! As such, businesses that compress URLs for marketing should use social media as a distribution channel for their links. It is important, then, to find a web link shortener optimized for social media marketing and link sharing.
1. Bitly – For businesses that need enhanced link tracking and analytics. Bitly’s well-regarded URL shortener includes several features optimized for social media marketing. On Bitly, you can share both links and QR codes on social media. You can optimize your Bitly links for both desktop and mobile use, thus making them easier to share on social media apps. In fact, Bitly directly integrates with social media management platforms like Adobe Social and AgoraPulse. With these integrations, you can set up link marketing as part of your larger social media strategy and automatically shorten any links shared on social media with Bitly. Finally, Bitly lets you track who clicks on your links and records which channel they reached your link on. This way you can track which social media platforms your links perform best on. Bitly pricing begins at $29/month for 1 user seat and 1 custom domain. Businesses that need multiple seats, custom domains, and branded links should contact Bitly for custom enterprise pricing.

2. Ow.ly – For marketers that want to integrate short link campaigns into their larger social media marketing strategy.
Ow.ly is Hootsuite’s URL shortener and link sharing platform. As Hootsuite is the most popular social media management platform on the market, it should be no surprise that Ow.ly is optimized for social media sharing. Like Bitly, Ow.ly URL shortener can track your links’ traffic along a variety of metrics including traffic channel and device. Additionally, Ow.ly can measure your social ROI for each link or campaign. Ow.ly is a great way to integrate short links into your larger social media marketing strategy. And since Ow.ly is accessed from within Hootsuite, you can schedule or post links to multiple social media accounts at once all from the Hootsuite platform.
Ow.ly link shortener can be used on both Hootsuite’s free and paid plans. However, if you need branded URLs, ROI reporting, and multiple users on one account, you will need to choose a paid plan. These range from team plans for 3 users starting at $129/month to custom enterprise plans.
3. Sniply – For advertisers that use CTAs in their social media campaigns.
Sniply provides a tiny link creator with a twist: every link you share comes with a call-to-action attached to it. This way, you can advertise your website on every link you share. Sniply tracks the effectiveness of both your links and CTAs, so you can track the social ROI on each of your campaigns. Additionally, if you download Sniply’s browser extension for Chrome or Firefox, you can integrate it directly with Hootsuite, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more! This lets you create sniply links and CTAs from within your favorite social media platform.
Sniply pricing begins at $29/mo for individual users up to $299/mo for business with 10+ marketers. All plans come with basic CTAs and unlimited short links, though higher-priced plans are necessary to add A/B testing and custom branding to your links and CTAs.
4. Rebrandly – For businesses that use multiple domain names and social media platforms.
Rebrandly’s Social Share feature lets you shrink links specifically for different social media platforms, from Twitter to LinkedIn to SMS. Then, you can track these links with Rebrandly’s analytics and analyse how they perform on different platforms and devices. Rebrandly also integrates with several social media sharing platforms such as MeetEdgar and Postcron. Schedule your social media posts and include Rebrandly links on each one so you never stop providing your followers with new content.
Rebrandly provides the best free account of the social media link shorteners on this list. You can access all integrations, analytics, and QR code links and create up to 5 custom domains for free! For more tracked links, custom domains, and additional features, you can sign up for an individual or team account, ranging from $29/month to custom enterprise pricing.
5. Droplr: For Enterprises that need robust security. Droplr is a unique app in that it includes a URL shortener alongside a screenshot and screen recording tool. You can use Droplr to share short links and annotated screen captures with anyone! Droplr generates a unique short link for every screenshot or screen recording you take that you can paste into your social media platform. Short links will preview in social media and on platforms like Slack and Discord. You can expand your social media marketing to include screen captures with Droplr. Droplr’s bundle is only available for Enterprise customers and comes with robust security features: Pricing begins at only $5/user/month for enterprises.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath