One of my biggest bugbears used to be releasing my new WordPress posts into the social media world.
I live in the UK, but the majority of my blog’s readers are based in the USA. As such, I schedule my posts to be published at 17:00GMT, so that I get maximum exposure across the different time zones. Ideally, I would promote each post through my social media networks at the exact time that it is published. But sometimes that isn’t possible – I might be away from my computer, or I might simply forget.
Thankfully, my social headache is no more – two plugins have me covered.
1. Add Link to Facebook
This imaginatively-titled plugin does exactly what it says on the tin. Once you have it up and running (via a fully-documented setup process), every new WordPress post you publish will be automatically linked to in your Facebook feed at the time of publication.
The plugin is actually pretty powerful in terms of features and customization options, so make sure to explore the settings screen fully.
2. WP to Twitter
This plugin’s best feature is its ability to tweet out new posts, but it can actually do much more (including tweeting pages and edited posts). You also have the option to choose from several URL shortening services (bit.ly is my favorite).
As with Add Link to Facebook, the setup procedure is slightly fiddly but well-documented – this time in the settings screen of the plugin itself. As long as you read the instructions slowly and carefully, you will be up and running in a couple of minutes.
You can exercise full control over the way in which your tweets are put together using these shortcodes:
You can also create your own shortcodes based upon custom WordPress fields. Check out the settings screen of the plugin for more information.
Future Proofing
Both of these plugins were last updated in October and November of this year. WP to Twitter claims to be compatible with version 3.2.1 of WordPress, but the repository has not seen enough positive votes to give it the seal of approval. However, I experienced no issues with it during my testing. Add Link to Facebook is fully compatible with version 3.2.1.
Both plugins are highly popular, and as such, you can expect them to be well-supported in the future.
Creative Commons images courtesy of YOOTheme
YOURLS is another great option for posting to Twitter and can be used to shorten the links via Bit.ly or if you have rolled your own YOURLS URL shortner.
Two interesting suggestions, both of which look better than my current solution, so I’ll give them a try soon.
I’m looking for something similar for Google+ if you can recommend anything?
Hello,
I had a good rummage around for a Google+ plugin but could not find one…stay tuned and I’ll see what I can do!
Cheers,
Tom
Hi,
I have the problem, that Add Link to Facebook seems to be not supporting scheduled posts.
Do you have any workaround to make that happen?
Thanks in advance.
David
Not personally…sorry!
same problem here, any solution?
I found the WPBook plugin much easier to set up than the Add Link to Facebook plugin. It does the exact same thing, but the instructions are much easier to understand and follow. You can take a look at it at http://wpbook.net/
I like the idea of using plugins to help automate your social media but sometimes plugins get real confusing. There are some great free services out there that allow you to schedule posts to several social media sites. It’s in my blog. I didn’t know there were anyways to automate your social media through plugins though! Thanks!