Happy to say that I solved it, or at least I think so… 
Simplest solution was to add another service to the party: shareaholic
Once registered at both shareaholic and Bit.ly, we build something like this:
first column - thanks to @Darren_Murphy
Second column
Note, parameters:
apikey - free from shareaholic
url - pointing to the first column
service[token] - free from Bit.ly
Third, and last, column
And now, we have a short URL curtesy of Bit.ly and shareaholic