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Shrink links
Shrink the URLs (links) in your posts to save characters. The Hootsuite dashboard offers four link shorteners: ow.ly (dashboard default), owl.li, ht.ly and htl.li. Clicks on your shortened links can be tracked and measured with Hootsuite Analytics reports, and ht.ly and ht.li are also equipped with Hootsuite's Social Sharing Bar.
Depending on your plan type you also have the option of adding custom URL parameters to shortened links, and can set up custom vanity URLs to use as your link shortener.
Learn more about Hootsuite link shorteners
To shrink a URL
- In the compose message box, place the cursor where you want to insert the shortened URL into your message.
- Click Add a link.
- Enter or paste a URL, and then click Shrink.
To change the default link shortener
- In the compose message box, click Add a link, and then click Advanced
. - Under URL shortener, select a default shortener from the drop-down menu, and then click the X in the top-right corner to close the Advanced box.
This setting will be saved after signing out of the Hootsuite dashboard.
Note: Vanity URLs will only appear in the drop-down menu for organization members who are part of a team that has been granted the permissions to use them.
Customize link previews
Link previews consisting of a thumbnail image, title and description are generated for links posted to Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+ Pages. These can be customized for Facebook Pages and LinkedIn Pages.
Link previews are not supported for Twitter. To include an image with a link on Twitter, upload one to the compose message box. Links to websites that have Twitter cards enabled may generate link previews on Twitter natively, but this depends on the website.
After shrinking a link in the compose message box, you can choose a thumbnail image to display in the link preview, or upload your own. The number of thumbnail options is determined by the webpage developer. You can also edit the title and description text published with the links.
To customize a link preview
- Select a social profile from the Social Profile Picker (top-left).
- Click Add a link, enter or paste a URL, and then click Shrink. A link preview will automatically generate.
- Click the left or right arrows
on the thumbnail image to select a thumbnail, or click Replace image 
to upload your own image. - Optional: Click in the link preview title or description to edit the text.
Link previews for LinkedIn must include a thumbnail image, title and description. If any of these are removed, LinkedIn will fill in the missing data when posted. Link previews for Facebook posts must contain at least the thumbnail image. If you remove a thumbnail and don't replace it with your own, Facebook will replace it when the post is published.
Custom thumbnail images can be a maximum of 5MB in .jpg, .jpeg, .gif or .png formats. Content library images cannot be used for link previews.
Note: Posts can contain a link preview or an attached image, but not both. Either remove the link preview in the Compose message box so you can attach an image, or upload your own preview thumbnail.
To post a link to a Google+ page and either Facebook or LinkedIn at the same time, select the other social profile from the profile picker before the Google+ page, so that link preview customization is available. The changes won’t impact the Google+ post.