South African URL shortener from SA Tourism

This is reputedly the first time that a country's tourism authority has launched its own branded tool specifically for, but not limited to, the sharing of information about the country.

“We're thrilled to be setting the pace online as far as being a leading digital destination marketing organisation,” says William Price, global manager, eMarketing at SAT. “Branding a shortened URL means that we get to take our brand into new and exciting places, where the social media platforms keep people sharing, experiencing and dreaming about those travel destinations - it is another way for us to drive our brand online.”

The tool also allows SAT to market South Africa as a destination through unobtrusive, geo-targeted advertising within the tool. All shortened URLs, using the tool, will start with mzan.si making them instantly recognisable. The objective of this tool is to reach people in an alternative way to educate and entice them into visiting South Africa. It is also aimed at enabling all South African's to ‘fly the flag' and acknowledge their homeland online with every link they create.

Choosing URLs

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In an age where sharing of online information via platforms such as Twitter and Facebook has become so prominent, the need for tools to convert long URLs into shorter, more digestible bites arose. Twitter, which only allows 140 characters to communicate, needs fewer characters devoted to the URL.

Shortened URLs are also easier to remember, look neater and stand less chance of breaking when being shared via emails or social media updates.

Mzansi means “South” (Africa) in Xhosa and is widely used amongst South Africans referring to their country. It is for this reason that it only seemed a natural progression to name the tourism focused URL shortener after the popular Xhosa word.

Go to http://mzan.si for more.