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Automate your social media efforts

08 January 2010 | social-media | 5 Comments Automate your social media efforts

We often speak about cross-pollinating your social networking efforts meaning syndicating your updates in a way that when you update one network, it automatically sends the same update to other networks, saving you time. The other benefit of syndication is to promote the content you produce on one site by featuring it on another site in an automated way. Although being inhuman and “automated” is typically frowned on, this is an exception as it is your work you are automating and is your opportunity to increase exposure for what you are working on.

Although there is no magic pill to automate all of your efforts, there are select tools to point each social network at the other but we want to warn you that you should not use every single one of these tools or all of your efforts will be repetitive of each other, so if your Twitter updates end up going to your Facebook, don’t make your Facebook updates go to Twitter or else you’ll have an echo going on.

Click on the links in orange below to be directed to the service that will link each network.

Syndicate your blog posts

1. To Twitter with Twitterfeed. It will ask you for your Twitter permission and information about your blog. You can set up an account or log in with Open ID.

2. To Facebook by clicking “import blog” in the upper right portion of the “Notes” page.

3. To Linked-In with the “Blog Link” application that pulls your blog automatically on to your Linked-In profile, viewable by your contacts.

Syndicate your Facebook updates

1. To Twitter directly through Facebook (however, this only works for Facebook Pages).

2. To Linked-In which currently only works by linking your Facebook updates to go to Twitter which can then be linked to go to Linked-In (see “syndicate your Twitter updates” below). Linked-In and Facebook don’t play together yet but we suspect syndication will eventually be linked.

3. To your blog with a badge that adds your profile information to the sidebar of your blog (you can also add a badge for your Facebook business page). Badges direct people to your profile rather than share updates.

Syndicate your Linked-In updates

1. To Twitter directly through Linked-In settings.

2. To Facebook which currently only works by first syndicating your Linked-In updates to Twitter then from Twitter to Facebook. Linked-In and Facebook don’t play together yet but we suspect syndication will eventually be linked.

3. To your blog by creating a custom Linked-In button (badge) for your site. When signed in, on the top of the page, hover over “Profile,” select “Edit Profile” then click “Promote your profile with customized buttons” and embed a badge in your blog’s sidebar. Badges direct people to your profile rather than share updates.

Syndicate your Twitter updates

1. To Facebook with the Twitter application, simply give it permission to put your Twitter updates on your Facebook wall.

2. To Linked-In directly through your Linked-In settings.

3. To your blog with a Twitter profile widget that shows your blog readers what you’re saying on Twitter in real time.

If you have any questions or need help walking through any of these processes, leave a comment below or contact us directly, we’ll help- no question is a stupid question, we all started somewhere!

CC Licensed image courtesy of Gerry Thomasen via Flickr.com.

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5 Comments for this entry

  • John Peltier
    January 8th, 2010 on 8:11 pm

    I have about 5 people I am linked to on multiple platforms for whom I see the same content two or three times. I find myself hiding them on one or more, based on where I want the primary contact to be.

    As an individual rather than a business, I choose NOT to propagate content, but instead segment the audiences – cross posting where appropriate only. Do you advocate this mainly for those who link to each real person using only one tool?

  • Lani Rosales
    January 8th, 2010 on 8:33 pm

    Great question, John. I personally advocate minimizing syndication and choosing one or two ways to syndicate, as well as adding badges to a blog sidebar. For example, I mostly just syndicate my blog to all of my networks, but I don’t syndicate the networks to each other because I do share contacts on all of the major sites.

    I would also remind readers that we’ve talked before about having a single landing spot for all of your networks that feature all of your efforts in one spot, be that a page on your own site or something like http://card.ly.

    Thanks for coming by, John! :)

  • Dale Newberger
    February 16th, 2010 on 5:35 am

    Can I use TweetDeck to syndicate to Facebook and Linked–In? I’ll post something on TweetDeck and it shows up on Twitter, but I can’t see the post on my Facebook account or my Linked–In account. Or, do I have to use Twitter (first) to syndicate to Facebook, Linked–In, and TweetDeck?

  • Lani Rosales
    February 16th, 2010 on 9:48 am

    Hey Dale,

    TweetDeck integrates with Facebook but not LinkedIn, and you have to set it up in TweetDeck to do so. Click the wrench button on the top right of your TweetDeck (“settings”) and on the left hand column in the pop up, select “accounts” and add your Facebook account. Then, simply write an update and make sure your Facebook button is selected and press enter. Your status on Twitter and Facebook will be simultaneously updated, voila! :)

    Does this help?

  • Trish Beach
    August 1st, 2010 on 4:06 pm

    Thank you Lani!! This was exactly what I was looking for. I vow to never spend an afternoon looking for the information myself, I’ll go right to the expert! You make what seems impossible very doable. Thank you!

    Trish Beach
    Trish Beach Marketing

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