Seamlessly integrating your WordPress blog and your twitter account, all you need is a few minutes to properly setup the WP to Twitter plugin. The WP to Twitter plugin gives you plenty of options, such as Bit.ly and Cli.gs integration, different author accounts, and many other options. This post will cover what you need to do to get your WP to Twitter plugin setup, if you need help with the advanced options just leave your questions in the comments.
Last week we covered why you should use the WP to Twitter WordPress Plugin, in this weeks post we will cover the installation and setup of WP to Twitter. Before you begin you will need to make sure that you have the following:
- A WordPress powered blog
- A Twitter account
- a Bit.ly or Cli.gs account to shorten your URLs
If you are missing any of the above you need to sign up for them before proceeding. Below you will find a screen cast and instructions to help you set up the Plugin.
Step 1.) Install & Activate WP to Twitter Plugin
Login to your WordPress powered blog and then select add new from the Plugins menu. Now you should be at the Search plugins screen.
Type in “WP to Twitter” in the search box and then click on the search plugins button to proceed. The WP to Twitter plugin should be the top search result. Make sure that the author of the Plugin is Joseph Dolson and then click the install link which is located on the right side of your screen. A pop up will come up with the Plugin details, double check that this is the plugin written by Joseph Dolson and then click the big red install button on the right side of the pop out.
After WordPress installs the WP to Twitter plugin go ahead and activate it by clicking the activate link on the bottom left of the screen.
Step 2) Setup WP to Twitter
Now that you have WP to Twitter installed it is time to setup the plugin, to do this lets go to the settings page. There are two ways to get to the WP to Twitter settings:
- 1.) From the Plugin management page. Find the WP to Twitter plugin in the list and then click on the settings link on the left hand side of the box.
- 2.) From anywhere in the back end of WordPress. In the menu options on the left side, look for settings. Either click settings or the drop down arrow (right side of button), and then in the left side menu select the “WP -> Twitter” Link.
Update: You must now register the plugin with twitter, instructions for doing this are in the screen cast above and on the plug-in settings page.
Now that you are in the settings page of the plugin it is time to have the following ready:
- Twitter Username & Password
- URL shortening service: API Key and Username and other information.
Basic Settings
This part is pretty simple, just click the things that you want to the WP to Twitter plugin to do for you. My recommendation is to only check the “Update when a post is published” box. Your twitter followers usually wont be interested whether you just edited a post etc. Once you have made these changes click the save button!
Account Settings
Fill in your twitter user name and password and then press the save button!
Next fill in your Bit.ly or Cli.gs information, the WP to Twitter plugin now allows Yourls and a few other options so, but I haven’t had a chance to use them so I can’t make a recommendation on them. However I do know that both Bit.ly and Cli.gs work well. I am currently using Bit.ly for what its worth. After filling in the information for the appropriate url shortener press the save button!
Advanced Settings
All you need to do in this section is choose the URL shortener that you are using in the drop down menu at the bottom and click the save button.
This plugin can do much more than just post your WordPress blog posts to twitter so make sure and try some of the other options if you think that they will improve your WordPress or Twitter experience. As always if you have any questions about the setup or installation of this plugin feel free to ask in the comments below.
Resources
Plugin Author: Joseph Dolson
Plugin Page: WP to Twitter
{ 1 trackback }
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the review! I appreciate your comments and I’m glad you find the plugin worth promoting!
Joe, it is a great plugin. Though we are very early stage, any feedback or insight you can provide on our plugin, WP-MalWatch is much appreciated.
Your welcome Joe, thanks for taking the time to build a highly flexible plugin that works so well.
hi..i already activate this plug-in but why could not appear on my blog..
Thanks for this. I am finding this website to be a great resource to propagate my jerkiness on the internet.
Hey, I’m trying to use this plugin but somehow I’m having this error: 401 Unauthorized: Authentication credentials were missing or incorrect.
I don’t know if it is related to my twitter settings (api key, access token), I tested the same data in other plugin and it connected succesfully to twitter. I’m not using any shortener.
Do you have any idea of how to solve this?
Thanks in advance,
Ok I think I found the error, I set as read-only access and when I tried to change it didn’t update. So I had to create a new application.
Thanks for the post, it was really useful.
nat
Hello, I have not yet installed this because I’m looking for a plug-in that tweets when someone leaves a comment or if I answer a comment. Does this plug-in do that?
I don’t believe so. I don’t know of a plugin that does that.