Bitly + iPhone + Twitter hack

People who follow me on Twitter know that most of the links I send have been shortened by Bitly. However, when “Tweeting” a link from my iPhone, it’s generally difficult to get the URL in my Twitter client to share, let alone shorten it.

Here’s how I solved the problem, connecting Bit.ly, Twitter, and my iPhone so I can send the cool links I find while reading mobilly.

For those of you who don’t know, Bit.ly is a NY-based and Betaworks-incubated URL shortening service. Because of it’s rich click-through stats, it’s simply a tool I could not live without (more on why tracking click-throughs in Twitter is important in a forthcoming blog post).

Step 1

Add the bit.ly bookmarklet to Safari

Step 2

Sync your Safari bookmarks with your iPhone (I use MobileMe so it does it automagically, but you can also do this manually on the “Info” tab in iTunes).

Step 3

Go back to the page you want to share in your iPhone’s browser.

Step 4

Go into your bookmarks and click the “bit.ly” bookmark.

Step 5

Congrats! You now have a shortened link.

Step 6

Type your message, click Sign-in/Post (where you’ll have to enter your Twitter credentials).

And there you have it! It’s a great way to use bitly on your iPhone!