15 Inspiring Storytelling Quotes to Help You Move an Audience

There’s an old saying you might have seen floating around the internet that states, “Those who tell the stories rule the world”.

Even without the modern neurological research that proves storytelling is the best way to capture people’s attention, bake information into their memories, and forge close, personal bonds, humanity has always inherently known that people crave and seek out great stories almost as much as food and water. And the people (and brands) who can tell the most compelling stories are able to command the most influence within their community.

In the marketing industry, where 5% of branded content attracts 90% of total engagement, the need for storytelling is more pressing than ever before. Brands are creating content at a record pace and volume, but producing more content doesn’t necessarily mean it’s attracting more attention -- it’s really just making more noise.

If brands actually want to slash through the clutter and engage an audience, solely focusing on listicles and ultimate guides won’t suffice anymore -- they must also tell gripping stories.

To help you channel your inner storyteller, we’ve curated 15 quotes about storytelling from some of the world’s most insightful authors and filmmakers. Read on to get inspired.

Storytelling Quotes

1. “No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” - J.K. Rowling, author
2. “There is no friend as loyal as a book” - Ernest Hemingway, author
3. “I’m obsessed with giving the audience something they don’t see coming.” - Jordan Peele, writer and director of Get Out
4. "You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.” - Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale
5. “The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences, but through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time.” - Steven Spielberg, filmmaker
6. “I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” - Lena Waithe, screenwriter for Bones and Master of None
7. “I'll tell you a secret. Old storytellers never die. They disappear into their own story.” - Vera Nazarian, author
8. “The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” - Zadie Smith, author
9. “Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author
10. “Think about the word destroy. Do you know what it is? De-story. Destroy. Destory. You see. And restore. That's re-story. Do you know that only two things have been proven to help survivors of the Holocaust? Massage is one. Telling their story is another. Being touched and touching. Telling your story is touching. It sets you free.” - Francesca Lia Block, author
11. “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” - Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal
12. “Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution -- more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.” - Lisa Cron, Wired for Story
13. “Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.” - Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow, The Storytelling Edge
14. “Whether you know it or not, your desire to write comes from the urge to not just be “creative,” it’s a need (one every human being on earth has) to help others. A well-told Story is a gift to the reader/listener/viewer because it teaches them how to confront their own discomforts.” - Shawn Coyne, The Story Grid
15. “Create those things where human protagonists relate to us, where the stakes and conflict grip us, and where the emotions move us. Craft those simple things, those glorious things, those things so often forgotten but so desperately needed. There’s no hidden or corporate meaning behind the word ‘story.’ We know what they are. And we need to start telling them.” - Jay Acunzo, founder of Unthinkable Media

15 Inspiring Storytelling Quotes to Help You Move an Audience

1. “No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” - J.K. Rowling, author

2. “There is no friend as loyal as a book” - Ernest Hemingway, author

3. “I’m obsessed with giving the audience something they don’t see coming.” - Jordan Peele, writer and director of Get Out

4. "You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.” - Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale

5. “The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences, but through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time.” - Steven Spielberg, filmmaker

6. “I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” - Lena Waithe, screenwriter for Bones and Master of None

7. “I'll tell you a secret. Old storytellers never die. They disappear into their own story.” - Vera Nazarian, author

8. “The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” - Zadie Smith, author

9. “Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author

10. “Think about the word destroy. Do you know what it is? De-story. Destroy. Destory. You see. And restore. That's re-story. Do you know that only two things have been proven to help survivors of the Holocaust? Massage is one. Telling their story is another. Being touched and touching. Telling your story is touching. It sets you free.” - Francesca Lia Block, author

11. “We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.” - Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal

12. “Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution -- more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.” - Lisa Cron, Wired for Story

13. “Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.” - Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow, The Storytelling Edge

14. “Whether you know it or not, your desire to write comes from the urge to not just be “creative,” it’s a need (one every human being on earth has) to help others. A well-told Story is a gift to the reader/listener/viewer because it teaches them how to confront their own discomforts.” - Shawn Coyne, The Story Grid

15. “Create those things where human protagonists relate to us, where the stakes and conflict grip us, and where the emotions move us. Craft those simple things, those glorious things, those things so often forgotten but so desperately needed. There’s no hidden or corporate meaning behind the word ‘story.’ We know what they are. And we need to start telling them.” - Jay Acunzo, founder of Unthinkable Media

The 33 Best Free Fonts Designers Should Download

Finding stylish fonts for your design projects can be a major time sink -- especially when you have to wade through seemingly endless pages of typefaces that don't suit the vision you have in your head.

Finding a free font can be even more of a hassle.

So what's a budget-strapped designer to do?

We've scoured the depths of the internet so you don't have to, coming up with 33 of the best free fonts you deserve to have on your computer. Here's how we sorted them:

• Free Script Fonts
• Free Serif Fonts
• Free Modern/Sans-Serif Fonts
• Good Fonts for Logos
• Free Retro Fonts

Many of the free fonts featured here were developed by designers, for designers, so they understand the need for versatile, polished, free typefaces firsthand. Check out the fonts below and keep them in mind for your next design project.

Best Free Fonts for Designers

1. Hello Stockholm -- script font
2. Wildera Regular -- script font
3. Mightype -- script font
4. Selima -- script font
5. Oranienbaum Regular -- serif font
6. Butler -- serif font
7. Arctic -- serif font
8. Canvas -- serif font
9. Bitter ht -- serif font
10. Agne Regular -- serif font
11. Yeseva One Regular -- serif font
12. Moon -- modern font
13. Kolikö -- modern font
14. Mohave -- modern font
15. 20 db
16. Alcubierre Regular -- modern font
17. Bourbon Grotesque -- modern font
18. Frontage Outline -- modern font
19. Arciform Sans Regular -- modern font
20. De La Fuente -- modern font
21. Westfalia -- font for logos
22. Atami -- font for logos
23. Anders -- font for logos
24. Westmeath -- font for logos
25. Modeno -- font for logos
26. Rezland -- font for logos
27. Polya -- font for logos
28. Horizon -- retro font
29. Sweet Sensations -- retro font
30. ITC Bauhaus -- retro font
31. Bobbers -- retro font
32. FF Blur -- retro font
33. Canterbury -- retro font

Free Script Fonts

1. Hello Stockholm

What happens when you combine Scandinavian minimalism with classic brushstrokes? You get Hello Stockholm, a casual script that plays well with sans-serif fonts.

2. Wildera Regular

We think this whimsical, light-weight script would look right at home in a fairy tale (or in your next project).

3. Mightype

Subtle hand-drawn details set this script apart from the pack. Mightype is sophisticated without being stuffy.

4. Selima

Selima's breezy brushstrokes are perfect proof that script typefaces don't have to look old-fashioned or uptight -- they can be casual and modern.

Free Serif Fonts

5. Oranienbaum Regular

From small print to bold headlines, multi-tasking Oranienbaum is up to the challenge.

6. Butler

A decidedly modern serif typeface, Butler comes in 14 different weights to suit a wide variety of different uses.

7. Arctic

If you're looking for a slab serif font with a modern edge, give Arctic a try. It's a great way to give your headlines some character.

8. Canvas 

Canvas offers a modest but professional typeface that manipulates the thickness in the details of each letter. If you're looking for formality and creativity in the same font, this one takes the cake.

9. Bitter ht

We love the versatility of Bitter ht, a contemporary serif typeface that looks stylish at any size or weight.

10. Agne Regular

With bold lines and contrasting stems, this elegant font is a fresh take on old-fashioned serif typefaces.

11. Yeseva One Regular

If you're concerned that serif typefaces come across as too uptight or formal, consider Yeseva, a laid-back option for headlines and subtitles.

Free Modern Fonts

12. Moon

Have you exhausted your library of simple and free sans-serif typefaces? Add Moon to the mix. We love this font's clean simplicity and round edges.

13. Kolikö

This bold font evokes a sense of mystery to any creative work. Or, if you just want to geek out about something on your new tech blog, we can totally see this font playing a part.

14. Mohave

This all-caps font was designed with bold headlines and big type settings in mind.

15. 20 db

The font below is simply timeless. Whether you're designing for an event advertisement or the headers of your blog, 20 db is confidence in written form.

16. Alcubierre Regular

Clean, minimal, and geometric, Alcubierre is well-suited to projects that require subtle headlines and a clear focus on the content.

17. Bourbon Grotesque

Inspired by -- you guessed it -- classic bourbon labels, this sans-serif has a big personality that demands attention.

18. Frontage Outline

Frontage Outline is reminiscent of handcrafted facade signs, making it a suitable pick for logotypes.

19. Arciform Sans Regular

Arciform might be simple, but this sleek sans-serif is far from boring. Consider including this easy-to-read typeface in your next web design project.

20. De La Fuente

This cool typeface is decorative without being over-the-top, making it ideal for headlines, logotypes, and other design projects that focus primarily on the text.

Good Fonts for Logos

21. Westfalia

Give your next project an outdoorsy, authentic feel with this hand-painted brush sans, which makes for a playful logo as well.

22. Atami

Atami's numerous weights and display options make it the Swiss Army Knife of modern sans-serifs -- it can really do it all for a rising brand.

23. Anders

Anders just might be the avant-garde font of your dreams. It's unique geometric lines make it an excellent choice for logotypes.

24. Westmeath

Westmeath adds a dose of swagger to an otherwise basic font, making a logo that uses this font both legible and stylish.

25. Modeno

The Modeno font is consistent with the thin designs that many contemporary artists have gravitated to over the last few years. But don't mistake this one for just any new-wave typeface -- its lanky quality is hard to come by in today's sans-serif options.

26. Rezland

Rezland is just plain cool. It almost doesn't have time for you ... that's just how cool this font choice is.

27. Polya

Polya is perhaps the most interesting font we could find. The webbing of each letter makes for a truly mesmerizing logo.

Free Retro Fonts

28. Horizon

Horizon is a simple but retro font that elicits images of an old outer space movie. And yet, it still holds up.

29. Sweet Sensations

 

30. ITC Bauhaus

Similar to Horizon, ITC Bauhaus has a rounded, retro look that comes in numerous thicknesses. Thicker versions look like the header of an old playbill, while thinner styles give off a jazzy vibe.

31. Bobbers

Bobbers is a script font that has the goofy and over-the-top qualities of an old sitcom. Bring it back from the 1970s in your next design project for a truly confident header.

32. FF Blur

The haunting glow of FF Blur reminds us of an old horror movie. But it might be just soft enough to intrigue the audience of your next project.

33. Canterbury

No list of old-fashioned fonts is complete without the old-English stylings of Canterbury. Emulate many of today's most famous newspaper logos with this traditional typeface.

We hope you find these fonts helpful -- but because they are offered by other parties on their sites, we can't make any guarantees or promises about them (like that they will be available or free to use).

Also, we want to mention that the designers who offer these fonts might have rules about how you can or can't use them, so there might be limitations that are applicable to use of the font.

Want more font tips? Check out this tip for identifying the name of a font.

 

All About Website Page Speed: Issues, Resources, Metrics, and How to Improve

Posted by BritneyMuller

Page speed is an important consideration for your SEO work, but it's a complex subject that tends to be very technical. What are the most crucial things to understand about your site's page speed, and how can you begin to improve? In this week's edition of Whiteboard Friday, Britney Muller goes over what you need to know to get started.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hey, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Today we're going over all things page speed and really getting to the bottom of why it's so important for you to be thinking about and working on as you do your work.

At the very fundamental level I'm going to briefly explain just how a web page is loaded. That way we can sort of wrap our heads around why all this matters.

How a webpage is loaded

A user goes to a browser, puts in your website, and there is a DNS request. This points at your domain name provider, so maybe GoDaddy, and this points to your server where your files are located, and this is where it gets interesting. So the DOM starts to load all of your HTML, your CSS, and your JavaScript. But very rarely does this one pull all of the needed scripts or needed code to render or load a web page.

Typically the DOM will need to request additional resources from your server to make everything happen, and this is where things start to really slow down your site. Having that sort of background knowledge I hope will help in us being able to triage some of these issues.

Issues that could be slowing down your site

What are some of the most common culprits?

1. First and foremost is images. Large images are the biggest culprit of slow loading web pages.
2. Hosting can cause issues.
3. Plugins, apps, and widgets, basically any third-party script as well can slow down load time.
4. Your theme and any large files beyond that can really slow things down as well.
5. Redirects, the number of hops needed to get to a web page will slow things down.
6. Then JavaScript, which we'll get into in a second.

But all of these things can be a culprit. So we're going to go over some resources, some of the metrics and what they mean, and then what are some of the ways that you can improve your page speed today.

Page speed tools and resources

The primary resources I have listed here are Google tools and Google suggested insights. I think what's really interesting about these is we get to see what their concerns are as far as page speed goes and really start to see the shift towards the user. We should be thinking about that anyway. But first and foremost, how is this affecting people that come to your site, and then secondly, how can we also get the dual benefit of Google perceiving it as higher quality?

We know that Google suggests a website to load anywhere between two to three seconds. The faster the better, obviously. But that's sort of where the range is. I also highly suggest you take a competitive view of that. Put your competitors into some of these tools and benchmark your speed goals against what's competitive in your industry. I think that's a cool way to kind of go into this.

Chrome User Experience Report

This is Chrome real user metrics. Unfortunately, it's only available for larger, popular websites, but you get some really good data out of it. It's housed on Big ML, so some basic SQL knowledge is needed.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse, one of my favorites, is available right in Chrome Dev Tools. If you are on a web page and you click Inspect Element and you open up Chrome Dev Tools, to the far right tab where it says Audit, you can run a Lighthouse report right in your browser.

What I love about it is it gives you very specific examples and fixes that you can do. A fun fact to know is it will automatically be on the simulated fast 3G, and notice they're focused on mobile users on 3G. I like to switch that to applied fast 3G, because it has Lighthouse do an actual run of that load. It takes a little bit longer, but it seems to be a little bit more accurate. Good to know.

Page Speed Insights

Page Speed Insights is really interesting. They've now incorporated Chrome User Experience Report. But if you're not one of those large sites, it's not even going to measure your actual page speed. It's going to look at how your site is configured and provide feedback according to that and score it. Just something good to be aware of. It still provides good value.

Test your mobile website speed and performance

I don't know what the title of this is. If you do, please comment down below. But it's located on testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com. This one is really cool because it tests the mobile speed of your site. If you scroll down, it directly ties it into ROI for your business or your website. We see Google leveraging real-world metrics, tying it back to what's the percentage of people you're losing because your site is this slow. It's a brilliant way to sort of get us all on board and fighting for some of these improvements.

Pingdom and GTmetrix are non-Google products or non-Google tools, but super helpful as well.

Site speed metrics

So what are some of the metrics?

First paint

We're going to go over first paint, which is basically just the first non-blank paint on a screen. It could be just the first pixel change. That initial change is first paint.

First contentful paint

First contentful paint is when the first content appears. This might be part of the nav or the search bar or whatever it might be. That's the first contentful paint.

First meaningful paint

First meaningful paint is when primary content is visible. When you sort of get that reaction of, "Oh, yeah, this is what I came to this page for," that's first meaningful paint.

Time to interactive

Time to interactive is when it's visually usable and engage-able. So we've all gone to a web page and it looks like it's done, but we can't quite use it yet. That's where this metric comes in. So when is it usable for the user? Again, notice how user-centric even these metrics are. Really, really neat.

DOM content loaded

The DOM content loaded, this is when the HTML is completely loaded and parsed. So some really good ones to keep an eye on and just to be aware of in general.

Ways to improve your page speed

HTTP/2

HTTP/2 can definitely speed things up. As to what extent, you have to sort of research that and test.

Preconnect, prefetch, preload

Preconnect, prefetch, and preload really interesting and important in speeding up a site. We see Google doing this on their SERPs. If you inspect an element, you can see Google prefetching some of the URLs so that it has it faster for you if you were to click on some of those results. You can similarly do this on your site. It helps to load and speed up that process.

Enable caching & use a content delivery network (CDN)

Caching is so, so important. Definitely do your research and make sure that's set up properly. Same with CDNs, so valuable in speeding up a site, but you want to make sure that your CDN is set up properly.

Compress images

The easiest and probably quickest way for you to speed up your site today is really just to compress those images. It's such an easy thing to do. There are all sorts of free tools available for you to compress them. Optimizilla is one. You can even use free tools on your computer, Save for Web, and compress properly.

Minify resources

You can also minify resources. So it's really good to be aware of what minification, bundling, and compression do so you can have some of these more technical conversations with developers or with anyone else working on the site.

So this is sort of a high-level overview of page speed. There's a ton more to cover, but I would love to hear your input and your questions and comments down below in the comment section.

I really appreciate you checking out this edition of Whiteboard Friday, and I will see you all again soon. Thanks so much. See you.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

Static site generation and SEO

As you’re probably aware, at Yoast we’re all about WordPress. But of course, there are other ways to build a website, like with another content management system, or even by static site generation. If you’ve only ever used a Content Management System (CMS), like WordPress, to build your website, you may wonder what static site generation is. In a nutshell, it’s a ‘simpler’ way to generate an HTML-based site that is completely static and doesn’t require a database or server-side processes. This means that content is pulled directly from a file, when users visit the page, without requiring any more compilation or generation before showing up in the browser.

Most of the general rules of SEO still apply, regardless of whether you use WordPress or not to build a website. You need quality content and a proper site structure. To improve these aspects, using WordPress (or TYPO3 or Magento 2, for that matter) gives you the great advantage of being able to use the Yoast SEO plugin ;-).

But what about site speed, one of the pillars of good SEO? Does static site generation have the edge on using a CMS when it comes to speed? Here’s some thoughts!

Erwin emailed us about static site generation and SEO:

Static site generation results in faster load than using a dynamic platform such as WordPress. But the ecosystem for static site generators doesn’t include a good SEO tool, so optimization must be done manually. Which aspects should I pay attention to, to optimize such a website?”

Watch the video or read the transcript for my answer!

Static site generation vs WordPress

“Well, to be honest Erwin, I disagree with your premise. Static site generation is bullshit. It’s literally the case that any WordPress site can be made as fast as any static website.

Look at Yoast.com, it loads in under half a second, every single page. It’s WordPress, it’s a full-blown WordPress in fact, but it’s just cached properly.
There’s really no reason why you would not use WordPress, but use a “modern” static site generator… it really doesn’t work like that. Good luck!”

The post Static site generation and SEO appeared first on Yoast.

5 Link Shorteners to Try Besides Google URL Shortener

Trying to convince people to click on a long, jumbled link is almost as bad as a door-to-door salesman trying to sell people financial services. Needless to say, if your audience sees a link they perceive to be spammy in one of your social media posts, they’ll do the digital equivalent of slamming the door in your face -- scroll past it

To avoid being perceived as spammy or sloppy when you have a legitimate link to share, check out our list of the five best link shorteners that’ll clip your links into clean, consistent, and clickable URLs.

URL Shortener

URL shorteners not only trim your links into polished URLs, but they also let you track the performance of your individual links. Some URL shorteners even offer branded link options. For example, a branded link for this blog post would look something like “hubs.ly/url-shorterner”.

What are the benefits of using link shorteners?

Using link shorteners can benefit your brand in three main ways:

1. When you post long links on social media, it can look like spam or deter users from clicking on something they don't recognize. In particular, adding tracking parameters to your links can result in URLs that look long and confusing to someone who's unfamiliar with typical link tracking practices. Link shorteners can prune spammy-looking links into clear and concise links.

2. Many link shorteners also let you track each of your link’s performance and analytics, which can help you understand which pieces of content perform best on specific platforms.

3. Every social media network limits the amount of characters you can include in your posts. Twitter and LinkedIn have the shortest character limits at 280 and 600 characters, respectively, so if you need to squeeze a link or an extra hashtag in one of your posts, link shorteners can help you stay within the limit.

5 of the Best Link Shorteners Besides Google URL Shortener

1. Bit.ly

Image Credit: Rewind & Capture

Bit.ly is a link shortener platform that features a comprehensive dashboard that displays your links’ performance metrics, such as click-through rates, channel stats, and geographic information of the people clicking on your links. They also offer branded links and have integrations with social media management software, like Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite, and HubSpot to help you seamlessly distribute your shortened links through your social media profiles.

Bit.ly’s free account offers up to 500 branded links, 10,000 unbranded links, and reporting data about your top referrers, which is ideal for small businesses. Their enterprise plan lets you brand as many links as you’d like and provides all the data and metrics mentioned above, which is best for large businesses who want to brand and track every link in their marketing campaigns.

2. Bl.ink

Image Credit: Bl.ink

As one of the more robust link shorteners out there, Bl.ink offers smart branded links that allow you to create custom links that contain relevant words and not just a random string of characters. They also provide analytic reports that can track clicks by date, time, language, referrers, device, and location and integrate with web analytic tools like Google Analytics, Adobe, and others.

Bl.ink offers four subscriptions tiers: a free plan, a plan for individuals and small teams with up to 15 users, a plan for teams and businesses with up to 50 users, and a plan for large organizations with over 50 users. Starting at $12 per month, they price their plans based off the amount of links you’d like create and track. For example, free users can create up to 1,000 links and track up to 1,000 clicks per link. After that, you’ll pay according to how many links you create and track.

3. Rebrand.ly

Image Credit: Rebrand.ly

Trusted by over 250,000 customers, Rebrand.ly is a link shortener platform that can brand your links, track their performance metrics, or integrate with over 50 other platforms to seamlessly distribute your links.

With two plans for individuals and two plans for teams, Rebrand.ly offers link shortening solutions for both small business and enterprise companies. For instance, their starter plan offers 50,000 tracked clicks, 5,000 branded links, and 5 custom domain names for $29 per month, while their premium plan offers 2,000,000 tracked clicks, 200,000 branded links, and 20 custom domain names for $449 per month.

4. Ow.ly

Image Credit: TutorialDeep

Developed by the social media management platform, Hootsuite, Ow.ly is a link shortener that’s included in every free Hootsuite account. With Ow.ly, you can distribute your links and track their performance metrics directly in the Hootsuite platform, which allows you to shorten every single link you post to all your social media profiles. Ow.ly is best for anyone who already uses Hootsuite as their social media management platform.

5. Buff.ly

Image Credit: Buffer

Similar to Hootsuite’s link shortener tool, Buff.ly is integrated in Buffer, another social media management platform. With Buff.ly, you can shorten your links, customize them, distribute them to all your social media profiles, and track their performance metrics right in the Buffer platform. Buff.ly is perfect for anyone who uses Buffer as their social media management platform.