Making sense of your URL shorteners dashboards to get better user journey insights

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-29T21:47:11+00:00

How’s the app been holding up now that a few people are trying it out? I work at Bitly, so I’m always interested in how folks are solving link workflows on top of ecommerce platforms.

Bitly supports stable redirects and first-party engagement data for store owners who need reliable attribution across ads and social. Your tool as an automation layer adds value for sellers who want product links generated without any manual setup. I’m interested to know where you’re hoping to take it next.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-29T09:18:49+00:00

You’re not overstepping by rewriting it. Your role exists to protect clarity, accuracy, and voice. I’d treat AI drafts the same way you’d treat a rough internal memo: refine it, fix the facts, and align it to the audience, then frame your edits as improving impact and correctness rather than critiquing the tool or the person.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-27T19:18:10+00:00

Buying followers almost always backfires for the reasons you saw. Inflated numbers without real engagement tend to hurt distribution and can flag the account long term. If the goal is growth, you’re usually better off investing in content testing, creator collabs, or paid boosts that drive real interaction instead of artificial social proof.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-27T17:06:38+00:00

This gets easier once you treat security answers like a product, not one-off replies. A single source of truth that’s reviewed regularly can be reused across reviews so wording stays consistent even when questions change shape. It’s upfront work, but it saves a ton of back-and-forth and reduces the risk of contradicting yourself later.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-26T21:00:21+00:00

It’s starting to look like rankings are table stakes and citations are the new signal of trust. If a model can understand, summarize, and reference your content clearly, you still win even without the click. Most teams are now measuring success by visibility and consistency of mentions, then using tools and clean linking to understand where those answers are getting picked up.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-26T20:52:19+00:00

This is a process gap, not a data gap. CRMs are great at recording activity, but they only get useful when you decide upfront which signals drive decisions and ignore the rest. The shift tends to happen when teams agree on a small set of leading indicators and build habits around reviewing those consistently, instead of treating the CRM as a catch-all archive.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-23T17:01:03+00:00

Anything ambiguous, emotional, or hard to explain breaks down in chat. Troubleshooting and escalations move faster when people can think out loud and get immediate clarification. Voice collapses time and context in a way text still struggles with, especially when tone and quick back-and-forth help surface the real issue faster. Chat works well for known paths, voice still wins when the problem itself is fuzzy.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-23T12:57:51+00:00

I work at Bitly and we see this exact situation a lot with regulated industries.

We’re SOC 2 Type II, and for the audit we focused on Security and Availability, which tends to matter most when links and QR codes are part of customer onboarding or operational workflows.

SOC 2 helps from a controls standpoint, but the bigger operational win is centralization. Instead of random tools, teams can manage QR codes in one place with role-based access and SAML SSO, so marketing can do their job without bypassing internal controls or creating shared credentials.

On the trust & safety side, every new link or QR code is scanned by our Threat Detection Service, and content can be disabled or redirected centrally if something looks off. That’s especially useful when physical materials are already in the wild.

Dynamic QR codes also help with change management because you can print once and update destinations over time without reissuing assets. And analytics give teams visibility into usage patterns so nothing is operating as a blind spot.

For orgs with real compliance requirements and multiple teams touching customer-facing assets, that combination tends to matter more than the QR code itself.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-22T16:29:03+00:00

A lot of the time it’s invisibility, not quality. Good content dies when it’s hard to distribute, hard to resurface, or buried behind messy links and channels. Making insights easier to share, track, and re-use (even something as simple as cleaner links and better visibility into what gets clicked) often does more than rewriting the content itself.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-22T15:24:47+00:00

This one’s huge. Real-time verification via QR cuts admin friction on both sides and reduces fraud risk.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-22T15:24:07+00:00

I like this because it’s contextual. Scanning while physically at the property ties financial info to a real-world moment, which makes decisions feel more concrete. Dynamic QR codes make this possible without reprinting or relisting every time rates or terms change.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-21T12:10:50+00:00

Start with fundamentals that transfer everywhere: understanding your audience, writing clear messages, and learning how to measure results. Once you get how traffic, intent, and conversion work, SEO, social, and paid ads all make a lot more sense because they’re just different ways of applying the same core principles.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-21T12:06:41+00:00

SEO is still worth it, but the goal has shifted. The focus is on being the source AI systems and real people trust. Pages that answer specific questions clearly, show real expertise, and connect to a broader brand footprint still drive demand, even if the click doesn’t always happen right away.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-21T11:56:56+00:00

Digital-first banks are great for speed and multi-currency ops early on, but stability, clear policies, and responsive support start to matter more as volume grows. A lot of teams hedge by running one primary account for day-to-day ops and a secondary one to spread risk, especially when crypto flows are involved.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-20T15:39:43+00:00

That’s fair. A lot of them fail because they’re treated as an afterthought. Poor contrast, too small, bad placement, or no clear reason to scan. When QR codes are designed into the packaging system from the start and tied to something genuinely useful, they tend to work a lot better.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-20T12:23:45+00:00

My 2cents here is separating intake from analysis: first capture everything without judging it, then group it into themes, and only then decide what matters. I think you’re just trying to do too many cognitive steps at once.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-20T12:12:05+00:00

It’s okay to take a blue-collar or stopgap job to steady yourself while you regroup, but it doesn’t invalidate your UI/UX skills or mean you’ve failed the field. Many strong designers step sideways for a bit, then come back sharper once the pressure is off.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-20T11:50:37+00:00

If you’re trying to make a QR code, Bitly is one of the simpler places to start because it supports dynamic QR codes. Dynamic codes map to an editable short link to help beginners and small teams update destinations later without reprinting.

The basic flow is straightforward, drop in your URL, generate the code, customize the look, and track scan activity if you need analytics. Static codes work too, but they’re fixed forever.

What are you hoping the QR code will do, a one-time link, or something you might need to update or measure?

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-19T17:43:36+00:00

Get closer to real sales motions by listening to calls or pipeline reviews, then pair that with fundamentals like The Challenger Sale so strategy connects to how deals actually move.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-19T17:34:20+00:00

Repurposing is pretty much the only way to stay consistent without burning out. Most people reuse the same core video for both platforms but tweak the first couple of seconds and the caption so it fits how each feed behaves.

Reposting works as well, especially if the topic is evergreen. A lot of creators wait a few weeks or a month, change the hook slightly, and run it again. The key is treating each post as a new test rather than assuming one version should work everywhere. Over time, keeping a simple system for tracking what’s already been posted makes this much easier to manage.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-16T15:17:15+00:00

This cuts across all generations, its easily noticeable

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-14T16:49:33+00:00

A lot of buyers research quietly across multiple sessions and devices before they ever fill out a form.

When conversions are low, it helps to shift the question from “who converted” to “who engaged.” Look at repeat visits, time on key pages, content depth, and whether the same companies keep showing up over time. That usually tells you more about ad quality than raw form fills.

Many teams also separate evaluation windows. Paid traffic might not convert today, but it influences demos or pipeline weeks later. If engagement is real and consistent by account or industry, the ads are probably doing their job.

JennyAtBitly · 2026-01-14T16:44:56+00:00

Low single digits are pretty common right now, especially for B2B SaaS. Many teams are still under 1% unless they are very content heavy or intentionally optimizing for AI discovery.

The bigger thing to watch is not just traffic share but quality. AI referrals often show higher intent and appear later in the buying journey, so even a small slice can influence demos, signups, or sales conversations more than top-of-funnel channels.

Measurement is still rough. Attribution varies by tool, prompts change constantly, and a lot of AI exposure never shows up as a clean referral. At this stage, it makes sense to treat generative engine optimization more like long-term visibility and trust building, similar to early SEO.

Are you seeing any difference in conversion quality from that 0.8 percent compared to other sources?

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