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WordPress Users: Forget Twitterfeed, Try "WP to Twitter" and WordBooker

7/23/2010

4 Comments

 
Twitterfeed is a handy RSS to Twitter service that reads your blog's RSS feed and submits it to Twitter and Facebook.  We were using it on OverclockersClub to sync up our news with our Facebook fanpage and Twitter account, but I was less than thrilled with its performance.

If you have a Wordpress blog and use Twitterfeed Stop Now! Here's Why:

Reliability

Several times over the summer we had "feed" outtages where users complained that Twitter and/or the Facebook updates stopped.  Both times turned out to be Twitterfeed related.  The problem with Twitterfeed is that if you're not watching your feeds you won't know you had any problems until someone tells you.  Twitterfeed may have solved these outtages, but if it does strike again when will you know?  It only checks every 30 minutes at best for your feeds so you won't know for up to 30 minutes whether the updates will even happen.

Speed

Twitterfeed's highest speed setting is to check your feeds every 30 minutes.  If you're competing against other bloggers and sites,  30 minutes is a huge lag between when you write something and when your Twitter followers and Facebook fans get the news. 

Alternatives:

On TalkAndroid we never used Twitterfeed at all, instead we opted to go with a plugin called WP to Twitter for our tweets.  WP to Twitter sends the tweets the moment you publish a post, and also supports your Twitter API key if you've got one.  If it fails to tweet you'll also know right away because you get an error box in your Wordpress admin interface.  That solves both of the problems I have with Twitterfeed right there.

For our Facebook page we're using Steve Atty's excellent Wordbooker plugin.  It too posts instantly to your Facebook page or Facebook Wall.  It's a bit tricky to setup and might take some patience, but Steve is amazingly responsive on his support forum on Facebook.


If you run a Wordpress site and are using Twitterfeed, dlvr.it or another such service try the above two alternatives.  If you're running custom blog software I strongly suggest rolling your own API calls to Twitter and Facebook, which lets you brand yourself too by linking to your site instead of another service with each Tweet/FB post.


Addendum:

OverclockersClub is a custom CMS so we can't use these plugins.  We do use dlvr.it now, but ultimately a custom system to send the tweets and FB page shares via official APIs would be the "ideal" solution.
4 Comments
d3bruts1d link
7/27/2010 10:29:52 am

dlvr.it checks the RSS feed every 15 minuets, which gives you a bit of breathing room in case you spot a typo in the page title. It also has some logging information if something doesn't get posted, but you actually have to log into the dlvr.it site to see the errors.

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Howard
7/29/2010 03:46:20 am

Is that why we switched OCC over to dlivr.it? Faster turnaround? I still feel that direct to FB/Twitter is superior. In the off chance the headlines are no good its often not noticed until far later anyway, usually by someone aside from the author. Perhaps if a service were to come along offering 1min, 3min, and 5 min intervals that would satisfy me :D (*hint* *hint* to current services)

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d3bruts1d link
8/2/2010 07:30:09 am

Faster turn around was part of it, but I was getting tired of all the issue we kept having with Twitterfeed. ;) I think the reasons they don't check the feeds more than 15/30 min is to keep from overloading the server they are requesting from. Some sites might see it as an attack. :p

I agree direct is certainly better, but we don't have that option on OCC right now. *hint hint*

Reply
Howard
8/29/2010 02:31:44 am

Ironically I'm not using dlvr.it more and more since the practicality of building your own API calls each time isn't always practical.

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    I'm a web entrepreneur based out of Vancouver, BC, Canada.

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