Many mainstream media outlets have started to embrace social networks like Facebook and Twitter, openly promoting their corresponding accounts on programs, print media, and other locations. For instance, some news broadcasts may have the anchors’ Twitter handles displayed beneath their names at the beginning of the show.

By doing so, Twitter is effectively getting free advertising. However, it is important to use these core domain names, because the general public is generally more trusting of a large brand like Facebook or Twitter. If you are a smaller company, it may be better to promote yourself as twitter.com/accountname, since people know and understand Twitter.

On the flip side, what if you want to harness some of that branding and marketing muscle for yourself. If this is the case, you may opt to use a redirect URL of some kind. For instance, instead of the above example, you may use yourdomain.com/twitter. This uses your own domain and reinforces your own brand. However, there may be trust issues here.

A random Internet user may not be familiar with your brand and, as such, may become suspicious of that redirect URL. Who knows if it actually leads to your Twitter profile page? That’s why it’s critical to establish trust in your brand. This way, people won’t second guess when you use a more convenient and easier to remember redirect URL.