Recently I am seeing a lot of people making progress in using Social Media to communicate more effectively. How do you get your resources to “talk to each other” is a minor nightmare. Below I am going to walk thru integrating a FaceBook Fan Page with Twitter, YouTube with Twitter and Your Blog with a FaceBook Fan Page (or your personal Page). This post assumes you have a Twitter account, FaceBook Account and YouTube account!
Connecting your FaceBook Fan Page to Twitter
Why do you want to do this? Because every time you Post to your FaceBook Fan Page Wall as an Administrator, a Tweet will be sent out automatically with a shortened version of the Post and a Link to your Fan Page. This helps grow your Fan base and reduces the need to Tweet the same update, creating efficiency in your process.
The process is very easy, navigate to http://www.facebook.com/twitter and you will be given the option to link your Fan Page to your Twitter Account.
You must allow access on Twitter as part of the process. I find it easiest to be logged into Twitter when I do this process on FaceBook. Easy right? Are you wondering why you did not do this before? This Blog Post was automatically Tweeted because I use Twitter Tools as a Plugin on WordPress, same idea. Let’s try YouTube, almost as easy with one painful step.
Connecting your YouTube Account to Twitter
Before you start this process, you MUST have a Gmail account attached to your YouTube account. If you signed up for YouTube with a different email address, take the time to get a Gmail address and attach it to your YouTube Account. This is annoying but you can not attach your Twitter account unless you have a Gmail account.
Log into YouTube and navigate to your account settings. Select SHARING and take a look at your AutoShare options. I could not handle all of my YouTube activity being posted to FaceBook, so after attaching this I promptly unattached it. Selecting Twitter, confirming your Gmail address, allow access on Twitter and you are done. Quick and easy, your YouTube Videos will now automatically send a Tweet with a Link when you upload them. Holy Powerful Batman!
FaceBook Notes Syncing with your Blog
This is a little confusing to set-up, but a great way to keep your FaceBook friends in the loop with what you post on your Blog. The process is basically the same for Fan Pages as well as your personal FaceBook account. Navigate to your Fan Page on FaceBook, you must be an Administrator. Select Notes on the Tab, you may have to click on the + sign and select Notes (you can also move these tabs around, I like to put the Photos, Videos, Notes after Info). This is where things get confusing. I select write a new note in the top right corner, then in the top right corner I select the little Note icon, that takes me out of Write a Note and let’s me Import an RSS Feed.
The Feed for your Blog will depend on what service you use and how your blog is configured. This is a little confusing and I am not much help here. You can figure out what your Feed is by subscribing to your Blog, then pasting that address in to your Settings here. Now, a few minutes after you post to your Blog that post will filter in to your fan page as a Note. This may reduce traffic to your Blog, but that should only bruise your ego slightly. The real goal is to keep your Fans and audience engaged with your material. Now you can post your Blog on FaceBook occasionally to remind people you have a Blog, but you do not have to do that for every post, your Fans will stay in the loop because your Blog and Fan Page are part of your circle of communication.
The above techniques are easy ways to get your social media working together. This will evolve with time but the general idea will remain the same. Enable your social networks to talk with each other and truly harness the power of social media. Feel free to post any hints or improvements to the process in the comments section.
Link To Me