This could be for a few reasons, actually. The service you’re using may create a secondary (shortened) URL to fit their service model. In so doing, they may call back out to your link, causing additional hits. Many people use auto-retweeting services. If your Twitter account happens to be in their retweet network, you’ll get a bunch of instant tweets, each of which will register as a hit since Twitter will very the link via a server check. There are also services that use server-side “robots” to check links. This may range from one click to many clicks over the initial release of your link. The good news is that you’ll see these only at the launch of your link. After that it will settle down into a normal pattern of data collection.

updated 2/2023