Having a busy schedule means I find it hard to update Twitter often so I am always looking at ways to help. Although it is recommended to write and post the tweets yourself to provide a human interaction, there are a number of automated tweeting systems that can compliment your usual tweeting schedule and make life easier. One such system is Twitter Feed.
Why Should I Use Twitter Feed?
If you write a blog and/or have a Latest News listing on your website, then it is very likely your website can export the blog or news content as an RSS Feed. Twitter Feed can read your RSS Feed and post any new content onto Twitter for you, providing a title and link back to the original content. It is a fantastic way to not only ensure you tweet more often but to increase visitors to your blog or news pages.
How Do I Get Twitter Feed?
Just visit http://twitterfeed.com/, and register for an account. Twitter Feed even allows you sign in using other accounts you have such as your Google or Yahoo account. So no need to register yet again on another system, just use your credentials from other accounts you have.
How Do I Use Twitter Feed?
Once you have signed into Twitter Feed you should be on the dashboard page where you can manage your account. To add a new feed:-
- Click “Create New Feed”.
- Enter a friendly name to identify the feed, and the RSS Feed URL.
- Click Continue to Step 2.
- Choose the service you want to post updates too, it is not just Twitter you can post to but other networks like Laconica, Ping.fm, Facebook, and Hellotxt.
- Click All Done to create the Twitter Feed
At Step 2 above, you can also click Advanced Settings to control more settings such as:-
- The frequency Twitter Feed should check your RSS Feeds
- The number of new posts to make (up to 5)
- If you want a pre or post fix some text to the post message, for example, I pre fix my blog posts with “New Blog: ” and news “New News: ” .
- Whether you want to include the title and/or description of the post.
- If you want to filter out posts based on keywords
Any Disadvantages of Using Twitter Feed?
The only disadvantage of using something like Twitter Feed or any automated posting system, is that the post will probably look like it is automated to your followers. Many people use Twitter for human to human interaction and may not like to follow automated posts all the time. It of course depends on the interest people have in your post, so as any tweet, make sure its topical to your follows and captures their interest. Also make sure to still manually tweet in between your automated tweets to show that there still is a human person there that followers can engage with.