What service do you use?
One of the neat tricks that I use to auto-tweet out blog posts using a custom URL shortener (I use Bit.ly Pro, read more here) is using a simple service called TwitterFeed.
Here are some reasons I really like this service:
- It integrates with Twitter really well.
- It uses my customer url shortener (duh!).
- It provides native statistics/metrics for the amount of clicks through the link. I like that.
- It allows you to customize some of the tweet settings and copy used in the tweet.
- You can use it for multiple blogs and feeds.
- It just works. For me, using it and having it not break for the last 2 years has been one of the biggest selling points. I simply don’t have time to work with systems that don’t work, right?
Setting it up is actually really simple and in a few minutes you’ll be auto-tweeting your new blog posts via Twitter (and your custom URL shortener) in no time!
Check it out:
1. Sign up to TwitterFeed
Just head over to TwitterFeed.com and sign up! Once you’re done you’ll see your big dashboard:
As you can see I use TwitterFeed for more than just one of the blogs that I manage!
2. Sign up For Bit.ly (and then Pro)
If you haven’t already you’ll want to sign up for Bit.ly and then setup your Bit.ly Pro Custom URL next.
It’s simple and you can follow my steps here.
3. Setup Your First Feed
Alright! Go for it and create your first feed. Input the “Feed Name” and then insert your RSS Feed URL. Try to use your FeedBurner URL if you can. If you don’t have FeedBurner you’re going to want to get that as well.
Then hit the “Advanced Settings” in the bottom left.
4. Add Advanced Settings for Bit.ly Pro
In the advanced settings you’ll be able to adjust some of the settings of TwitterFeed including the update frequency, whether it’ll tweet the title and/or description, as well as the service you want to shorten the link with.
Choose Bit.ly and then put in your API Login and API Key. You can find these in your Bit.ly account seen here:
Put those in and hit next!
5. Setup Twitter to Tweet and Authenticate
Next you’ll want to choose Twitter from the available services and then walk through the authentication process:
And then that’s it!
So What Happens Next?
What this service will do is check your RSS Feed for new content as determined by your settings in TwitterFeed. When it does detect it’ll auto tweet out that link with your chosen URL Shortener.
It’ll look like this (as you can see, I’m using TentBlo.gs as my customer URL):
All those links... with my sweet custom URL!
And that’s it!
Of course, there are many other options for auto-tweeting out your content to Twitter, Facebook, and the many other social web services that you might use. This is just one implementation that has worked really well for me.
Finally, I do not use TwitterFeed for TentBlogger currently because have a unique system I’ve created here that I’m working to integrate better with TwitterFeed. It’s not ready yet, so that’s fine, but wanted you to know that for full disclosure! But, I use it on 11 other blogs!
I’ve been using Twitterfeed for a couple of years as well and really like it.
sweet! i dig it.
Thanks for writing this John! I think I’m nearly ready to launch my wordpressed powered blog this week!
great! you asked this question and you got an answer!
Sweetness! I had no idea this existed! Thanks!
I just use the Twitter service built into Feedburner. Works fine for me!
did you see my thoughts about why i don’t use it?
http://tentblogger.com/feedburner
Any thoughts on dlvr.it? (I’ve used both, just curious)
instability. tried it but didn’t like it.
Hey John,
How did you get the twitter + feedburner count on your blog? I’m trying to do that on my blog but I just don’t know what to do.
It’s a Standard Theme Widget, so if you have the Standard Theme, it’s going to be in your Widgets section.
Thanks Kevin. Is there any way to get that for us non-standard theme users?
I’m not entirely sure. There might be a plugin out there. Hit up Google for something like “twitter follow count + WordPress” or something like that.
…or maybe…just maybe…John (or Tom) could use his ninja like developer skills and roll that into a plugin!
we are releasing it at some point. yes.
I used to have a wordpress.com blog and it has a publisize feature within the edit post page (where you can schedule your post). This was pretty handy, but it seems that wordpress.org doesn’t offer this feature. Although it took awhile to set up, this seems to be a similar solution. Thanks for the detailed tutorials, you make it easy on a guy like me (newbie).
you can still schedule posts in wordpress.org…
Yes, I do this regularly. Sorry for the confusion. I was referring to the publicize feature on wordpress.com where you can schedule it to tweet and post to facebook too.
ah. i see. yeah, you can do that with jetpack for self-hosted..!
http://tentblogger.com/jetpack/
Excellent, this is just what I’ve been looking for.
sweet!
Yes, twitterfeed is great. I now use it with my custom bit.ly account and it seems to be working out just fine. Thanks for the tips.
i used twitter feed to add my rss and it’s great but i have one proplem that feeds don’t have my tracking id for affiliate,can i use normal link or all links are bitly
I’m trying to set up twitterfeed with my custom url shortener (which is working fine in bitly) however I keep getting the error after I put in my API key that says, sorry api info not correct. I am copying and pasting the legacy api key – as I don’t see another option. Do you know what’s up?