Twitter’s 140 character limit brought URL shorteners (like bit.ly, ow,ly, etc.) into the limelight. Now, URL shorteners are commonplace – many services and applications embed their functionality (TweetDeck, for example), and even Google & Facebook have come out with their own shorteners (goo.gl and fb.me). A lot of websites and analytics programs rely on variables included in the URL to know more information about where a person came from (what site referred them). When an URL is shortened and then shared across social media sites, does that mess up the statistics? Does Google Analytics, for example, know where someone came from when a URL which includes extra information is shared on Twitter?
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As more and more consumers start using social media to talk about companies, it becomes even more important for those companies to try to keep track of what is being said. Social media has increased the use of the web in terms of having real-time conversations (which used to happen mostly via instant messaging). Now customers can start talking about something immediately and companies often need to respond quickly to preserve their brand. 
There is always a tendency on the part of business owners and stakeholders in the design and development process of a website to simply go ahead and implement what they like or think makes sense to themselves. Of course when you implicitely understand your own business everything to do with it just makes sense, but what about to the outsider?