How to Set Up Your Blog to Post Automatically to Your Twitter Feed

There are many ways to automate the process of sharing your posts on Twitter. This is a great way to share your content and get some interaction with your Twitter followers on both Twitter and your website. I am going to go over a few of the tools that you can use to make this happen.

Twitterfeed.com
If you already have an RSS feed you can use the tool Twitterfeed.com. Depending on how you’ve set up set up your site you might have an RSS feed and not realize it; often you can go to yourdomain.com/feed to find your feed.

Feedburner.com
If you don’t have an RSS feed you can set one up on Feedburner.com. Feedburner also has a built in tool to publish to Twitter. Here’s how to set up Feedburner to post a tweet every time you publish a post.

Step 1
Set up a Feedburner Account

– Go to Feedburner.com and enter your Google email and password to login/create a Feedburner account.
– In the box underneath the Burn a feed right this instant. enter your blog page address.

Step 2
Input Twitter Settings

– After the feed has been created go to the Publicize Tab.
– Select Socialize from the items in the left sidebar. Click the Add a Twitter Account button. This will bring up a page to authorize Google on your Twitter.
– Back on the Feedburner page check out the available settings then click Activate.

Step 3
Test It Out

-Publish a post and make sure your Tweet is posted.

WordPress Plugin
If you have a WordPress website. You can automate the process of sharing your posts on Twitter.

Step 1
Add the Plugin WP to Twitter to your WordPress site:

– Log into WordPress on your website.
– Once you are to your WordPress Dashboard click on Plugins on the left sidebar and select Add New.
– Search for the plugin WP to Twitter. Click Install Now. Once the plug in has installed select Activate Plugin.

Step 2
Changing WP to WordPress Settings:

– In the WordPress Dashboard of your site select Settings on the left sidebar and select WP to Twitter
– Follow the directions from the Plugin to connect your Twitter account. (This part may seem overwhelming, but if you read carefully and follow the steps it is actually pretty easy.)
– After connecting Twitter take a look at the basic settings.

-It is a good idea to use a URL shortener to ensure you make good use of your Tweets 140 characters. I recommend using Bit.ly. It’s a great service that provides stats for the links clicks.
-This is where you can choose when something is automatically posted to Twitter and how the Tweet will be composed. Check mark the boxes for actions that you would like to set off a Tweet. You can edit the composition of a Tweet in the text field below each check box. For Example: If you selected to Tweet when a Post is Published the default is New post: #title# #url# This will create a Tweet that says, New Post: Automate The Process of Sharing Tweets! bit.ly/urlurlurl. If you like you can edit this so that the url is first and it says Check it out! at the end by changing the text to: #url# #title# Check it out!

*Remember 140 Characters can run out fast. Keep your formula short so you don’t cut off your Blog Post Title.

– Click Save WP->Twitter Options

* There are several settings in this menu that give you a lot of control over everything that is sent to Twitter. If you like to explore check out these settings to see what is possible with this plugin. If you just want to automate a tweet each time you publish a post then this is as far as you need to go.

Step 3
Test It Out

-Publish a post and check your twitter feed to see that it automatically tweeted.

Have you tried any of these tools? Did they work for you? Let us know! Did you get hung up somewhere? Ask us, maybe we can help.

Michael Nelson

November 21, 2012 at 5:24 pm

I love automation for small businesses! I also like the Bit.ly shortner because it let’s you track clicks to you can measure your marketing effects.
Thanks for the article!
Michael

Zeb Welborn
November 25, 2012 at 12:23 pm

Good advice on the bit.ly . . . While automation does make sense we do try to avoid automation as much as possible . . . We want to have and be an authentic voice.