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Integrating Social Networks with a WordPress Site

You can integrate your social network membership on Facebook or Twitter into your WordPress website through the use of plugins that help your readers also connect with you on those networks. Lots of people participate in social networking in order to increase their presence online.

Integrating Twitter in your WordPress site using Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools, a plugin developed by Crowd Favorite, provides you with an easy way to connect your WordPress website to your Twitter account. That way, whenever you publish a new post on your website, the new post gets broadcast to your Twitter account to make it easy for your Twitter followers to click through and read it. Twitter Tools is freely available on the Plugin Directory page and can be installed and activated through your WordPress Dashboard.

After Twitter Tools is activated on your site, choose Settings→Twitter Tools from your Dashboard. The Twitter Tools Options page displays; follow the directions to connect your WordPress website to your Twitter account, which involves registering your website on Twitter’s application registration page. After you register your website with Twitter, you receive a Twitter consumer key and a Twitter consumer secret key that you need to insert in the required fields on the Twitter Tools Options page.

After you complete the Twitter registration, the Twitter Tools Options page changes and provides you with a series of settings that you need to configure for your website. Here are a few of those settings:

  • Enable Option to Create a Tweet When You Publish a New Post on Your Blog: By enabling this option, posts from your WordPress blog are published to your Twitter account.

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  • Prefix for New Blog Posts on Twitter: This lets you set how your blog post titles post to your Twitter. For example, you might have new posts prefixed with: New Post.

  • Create a New Blog Post from Each of Your Tweets: Not only do your tweets get listed on your Twitter, but they also get saved to your blog in the form of blog posts.

  • Create Tweets from Your Sidebar: This option enables you to update your Twitter account directly from your website.

Integrating Facebook with Wordbooker

Facebook is another social network where you interact with a group of friends and followers, so updating your Facebook Page with new posts from your blog is a great way to keep your Facebook friends up to date on the content you publish on your website.

Wordbooker, a nifty (and free!) plugin, provides you with an easy tool to publish posts from your blog to your Facebook profile page. Aside from sharing new blog posts on your Facebook profile, the Wordbooker plugin also includes several other features to further integrate your website with your Facebook account; here are a few:

  • Facebook Like: Inserts a Facebook Like button within every blog post on your site allowing your readers to click it, which publishes a little blurb on their Facebook Page that they liked your post. This will hopefully bring their friends to your website.

  • Include Faces: For readers who like your post, their photos (or faces) display on your blog post to personalize it a bit for your readers.

  • Import Comments from Facebook: When your blog post is published on your Facebook Page, your friends can leave comments on it in Facebook. Those comments are imported into your post on your WordPress website, as well — so you have them in both places!

  • Push Comments to Facebook: When people leave comments on the post on your website, those comments are then pushed, or published, into the comments area on your Facebook page, as well.

  • Facebook Share: A small button is visible within every post that allows visitors to your site to share your article on their Facebook pages.

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