Would you like to post one announcement on your blog and have it sent out to (almost) all of your social networks? Using Twitter is a good way to do so without giving away the passwords to your email accounts. There are sites that advertise linking your networks as a service but they require your password to do so—I urge you to protect your passwords! This process may be a bit more time-consuming, but it will save you hours of cross-posting. (Please note that I use Blogger.com for my personal blog, I assume these directions will also work on other blogs like WordPress, but I don’t have personal experience with those.)
LINK YOUR BLOG TO YOUR TWITTER PAGE
First, sign up for Twitter. Here’s my Twitter URL: http://twitter.com/KathryneKennedy/
Just click the “Join Today” button on my page. Follow the directions for setting up a profile, it’s quick and easy.
Now go to: http://twitterfeed.com/ Click on “Sign in with OpenID” just below the Login button. A new window will open, allowing you to sign in with your Google, Yahoo, etc. accounts (sign in to those accounts first before going to TwitterFeed for quick access—your password will stay hidden either way). You can now add your blog feed to Twitter. Please note that this is different than the regular URL for your blog. Mine is: http://kathrynekennedy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default If you’re not sure how to get your blog feed URL, click the help button on Twitterfeed, and they have directions on how to get your feed (helpful hint: add the gadget “subscribe to this blog” to your blog and the atom feed icon will post for you to click to get the URL feed for your blog.)
Your blog entries will now post to your Twitter page, using the first few words and a tinyURL (which is a link back to your blog’s entire post).
LINK YOUR TWITTER POSTS TO YOUR MYSPACE & FACEBOOK PROFILE:
Both of these network sites are similar in the way they post your Twitter entries by using Applications (Apps). Sign in to your Facebook and/or Myspace Account and then:
On Facebook, look on the very bottom of the left hand side of your home page and click on Applications. Click on “Browse more applications”. In the “search apps” box, type in Twitter, hit the “enter” key on your keyboard. Click on the Twitter by Twitter app, and follow the directions to enter your blog link. When activated, your tweets will now post on the very top of your profile page and in your news feed.
On Myspace, at the top of your home page, mouse over the “More” tab, and click on “Apps Gallery” from the drop-down menu. On the right hand side there is a “Search Apps”. Type in Twitter, hit “search”. Choose the “iTwitter” app and follow the directions. A box will now appear on your Myspace profile page with your latest tweets.
OTHER NETWORK SITES:
So basically, you now have your blog feeding to your Twitter account, and your Twitter account feeding to your Myspace and Facebook sites. If you are a member of any networks on ning (BookPlace, Fans of Romance Novels, Readers & Writers of Distinction Fiction, etc.) your blog can be fed directly to your profile pages by clicking the RSS FEED on the left hand side of the page, and entering your Blogger URL. You don’t need a Twitter account for this.
I hope you found this helpful. If you’d like to share any of your own tips for linking your posts, please feel free to comment!
Until Next Time,
Kathryne
6 comments:
So I'm on Facebook and Twitter and also have a blog. I'm trying to create an internet presence, but I'm wondering how many more network sites do I have to enroll in as a writer? It feels like a second job.
Thanks, Kathryne! I've been wanting to do that for the longest time.
Hi Nikole!
I would enroll in as many as you feel comfortable with maintaining. By linking your blog posts to your social networking sites, it will make managing them much easier...which is why I'm always looking for new ways to make it less time consuming to reach out to as many readers as I can.
Wishing you all my best,
Kathryne
My pleasure, Carol! :}
I'm computer challenged and I'm sure others are as well so I'm going to add to Kathryne's wonderful directions, which I followed.
While on Facebook, I did go to Apps, then typed in Twitter as directed. Once I got to that page I was a bit lost and clicked on the link on the left that said something like "Go To Applications" and it turned out to be correct. Put in Twitter info then when it took me to that page there was a long box above where I type my updates that you click on to allow access from your Twitter account to your Facebook account. Once I clicked on that, then all of my Twitter updates now showed up on my Facebook.
Thank you so much, Kathryne!!!
Wordpress has a promote function for Twitter that, when checked, will automatically twit the URL to new blog posts. To do this, go to My Account > My Blogs.
I've been doing this for a month now, and it works as promised.
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