Twitter as Social Media Server. The Key to Automation

Who wants to?  I sure as hell don’t.

Apparently, Candice Galek doesn’t either. 

Candice’s chutzpah reminds me of my daughter’s. Coincidently, we planned to name my daughter Candice. At the moment of her birth, we changed our mind. Her name is Katrina.

She has chutzpah, too.

They both live in Southern Florida. 

Coincidence?

I'm sure it is.

I dedicate this post to Candice and Katrina/Candice. 

You guys are welcome to read it too.

Let’s get on with it.

Lucky for us all, Twitter has the best API in the business, bar none. (tweet)

An appy what?

An API is an Application Program Interface. It allows other applications to use the primary application’s functions. Usually, using an API calls for serious programming ability. I wrote my own Twitter management system. It required a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, CURL, PHP, SQL, and database design.

If an API has an IFTTT channel, you just need to know how to use a mouse. You can read about IFTTT on this post.

This post will show you how to use Twitter to automate cross-posting. The method works with LinkedIn, Facebook Company Pages, Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

Instagram and Snap Chat have APIs too, but they suck. It is not possible to use this method there. I ignore them.

Candice also asked about cross-posting to Google+. That intrigued me. There’s good news and bad on that front.

The good news is that it’s possible.

The bad news is that it’s not easy. You need to program it. IFTTT won’t do it, so let's forget about it.

Candice didn’t ask about Medium. I checked it out anyway. The IFTTT tie-in exists. It’s possible, at least in theory. Let’s also ignore it for now until I have time to study it. 

I need to understand how a 140-character Tweet can become a 1500-word+ post without Divine Intervention. 

If I ever do, it will be the subject of a future post.

A note to Javier and Fede: Medium’s image format matches closely beBee Producer’s. A “Share to Medium” button should be easy to create. Of course, the word “should” is fraught with doubt. I also hear that Medium is not very big outside North America. Remind again what market we're targeting now?

What this post does not explain

You will need some method to schedule posts. You can do it via IFTTT, but not well. I use myTweetPack.com (shameless plug: It's my Twitter scheduling and growth hacking app). Candice uses bufferapp . You can also use Twitter’s built-in scheduler.

You can even use Google or Outlook Calendar along with Twitter Web Intents. I wrote about Web Intents  in What is The Optimum Blog Post Length? How to Know #1 of 2. I expanded on it in #2 of 2.

Decide how to schedule for yourself (pick mine, pick mine, it does more than just schedule. LOL).

The Idea in a nutshell

I'll assume you have some idea of what IFTTT is and how it works. If not, please refer to the link above for more detailed explanations.

We'll use IFTTT’s Twitter Search function to find our tweets with a specific hash tag . When it finds one, it triggers the action side of the recipe. 

That action could be posting a LinkedIn Update. It could update your Facebook page or Company Page. It could add a pin to Pinterest.

I use different hash tags for each platform. You can also use the same one to cross-post to them all at the same time. Either way works. I like to control how often I post to each platform so I separate them.

It isn’t important what the hash tag is. I use #fbp for posting to my Company Page and #in for writing LinkedIn updates. They could just as easily be #1 and #2.

Going forward, hash tags won’t count towards the 140. For now, they do. Keep them short. Using #thisHashtagCrossPostsToFacebookPinterestTumblAndLinkedIn is not a good idea.

There is no need to worry about  hash tag hijacking. That's someone else using your hashtag to update your LinkedIn account. Can't happen. IFTTT will only search, and act, on your Tweets.

I’ll explain the LinkedIn auto-update recipe. (tweet) The others work the same way.

Here's how

• Start a new IFTTT recipe
• Select Twitter as the Trigger Channel
• Select “New tweet by you with hashtag” as the Trigger.
• Type in the hash tag you want to use. I’ll use my #in for the example.
• Click on the “that” link.
• Select LinkedIn as the Action Channel.
• Select “Share an Update”
• Delete the generic {{Text}} part.
• Click on the flask image.
• From Select Ingredient, choose “Text no Hashtag.” Click “Add Ingredient.”
• Click on the flask image again
• This time, add “LinkToTweet," and add that ingredient.
• Save the recipe.

I saved it for sharing here.

You can repeat the process using Facebook Pages, Facebook, and Pinterest as the Actions. If you use the same hash tag on them all, one tweet will populate all platforms. That may sound like a good idea, but I would hesitate to do it.

A caveat

It’s okay to Tweet 4 of five times a day. It is not okay to do the same LinkedIn update that often. Mix up your tweets. I try to limit LinkedIn updates to every day and a half to two days (MAX).

I embed image links directly in my Tweet text. Using the LinkedIn “Share a Link” action may work better for you. Try them both.

As always, you can add any questions in the comments.

Cheers