Yesterday, the Ow.ly URL shortening service crashed leaving thousands of broken URLs across the internet. Used by many to shorten URLS for social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+, the crash caused numerous postings to have links that lead nowhere. Ow.ly is most notably used by Hootsuite, a social media deck used to post to multiple social media sites at once.
While the crash lasted only a matter of hours, its should have those using the system on alert. Be sure to check your social media posts to make sure they are working properly. If you are using a third party service to post to all of your social media sites, be sure to check their work as you would check your own. While there was not much you could do about correcting these broken links, being aware of the issue will help you understand if you are not seeing the return from social media that you are used to.
By Matthew Wilkos