Most bloggers these days use social networks like Twitter to promote their latest blog posts. Some tweet manually, while some use a plugin, third-party app or online service to automatically do it for them. For JaypeeOnline, I use the Feedburner Socialize tool.
Tweeting your latest blog posts is a very effective way to promote not only your posts but also your blog. I know, because I’ve been doing it for a long time now and have seen how these tweets bring in extra traffic to my blog. The thing I don’t like about this setup is that when someone replies to the blog post status update or retweets it, it would only show up on Twitter and not on your blog post. You have no way of knowing about the replies or retweets unless you login to Twitter and check.
With the help of the Twitoaster WordPress plugin, you can automatically retrieve Twitter replies and/or retweets to your blog post status updates and have these “Twitter comments” displayed on your blog posts like regular comments.
Sample Twitoaster Comments:
Features:
Twitter Comments:
- Find and retrieve Twitter replies/retweets related to your Blog’s posts.
- Moderation option: Automatically display these Twitter comments on their related posts pages, or hold them in the moderation queue.
- Prune option: Delete all these Twitter Comments (might be useful if you changed your Twitter account).
Tweet Post:
- Automatically create a tweet when you post.
- Customize your Tweet message (tags like %postname% supported).
- Individual options for each posts (Tweet it? In which format?).
Twitter Charts Widget:
- Analytics charts showing how many replies you are generating, and what day of the week – or time of day – produces the most replies.
- Customization options: Chart title, type, color and size.
Twitter Comments Widget:
- Listing of your 20 most recent Twitter conversations, grouping your Twitter replies with the tweets that inspired them.
- Customization options: Title and number of conversations.
Requirements:
- WordPress (version > 2.2)
- A Twitoaster account. Simply login with your Twitter account to create one.
Installation:
1. Unzip then upload the twitoaster folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
3. Enter the Twitoaster API Key linked to your Twitter account
4. Go to the Settings -> Twitoaster to manage options (Twitter Replies, Twitter Status updates, Twitter Charts…)
The Twitoaster WordPress Plugin is ideal for blogs that have a lot of Twitter followers who reply to or retweet posts. Aside from helping the blogger automatically retrieve replies and retweets, this plugin also helps blog readers and followers to comment on posts via Twitter. This plugin comes with 2 widgets – analytics charts showing how many replies you are generating and listings of your 20 most recent Twitter conversations. The Twitoaster WordPress plugin also has an individual “tweet post” option that updates your Twitter status to your latest blog post the moment you hit the publish button.
Another plugin feature to take note of is the Reset feature. This is handy in case you change your Twitter account or simply just want to get rid of all “Twitter comments”. Just check the option and hit on the button and all “Twitter comments” will be deleted from your blog.
Visit the Twitoaster WordPress Plugin page to learn more about this plugin or download the Twitoaster WordPress Plugin from the official WordPress Plugin Repository.
What do you guys think of this plugin? Anyone else using the Twitoaster WordPress plugin on their blog? What are the features or options that you would like to see added to future release of the Twitoaster WordPress plugin? Please share your thoughts.
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June 7th, 2010 at 7:20 AM
@Daniel – You don’t have to have a lot of followers to try it. What you need are followers who are active and react (reply/retweet) to your tweets. ;)
June 7th, 2010 at 7:15 AM
That WordPress Plug-in looks amazing. I must try it when I got a lot of followers. :)
June 5th, 2010 at 3:15 PM
@sylv3rblade – I’m also using Feedburner’s Socialize tool to automatically tweet my recent blog posts. I use this plugin for it’s “Twitter comments” feature. :)
June 5th, 2010 at 3:11 PM
sounds messy :( I’ll stick with feedburner’s automated tool for now
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:35 PM
@Joie – I know. This plugin would most likely benefit only those who have a lot of Twitter followers. Yes, I’m using it here on my blog but the thing is, not too many people/followers react to my tweets. Hehe :P
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:30 PM
That’s a nice plugin. Although I don’t have many followers on my twitter but I will give this a try. @Jaypee are you going to use this on your site bai?
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:30 PM
@DiTesco – It’s good to have a different blog to test out stuff, right? Hehe
Thanks my friend! Glad you liked this post. Hope it works for you and find it useful on one of your blogs.
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:29 PM
I like this plugin and off to test it one of my blogs prior to the main one:) Just want to see in action how it works for me. Great find Jaypee. Thanks for letting us know. thumbs up.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:15 PM
@Frenchy – Yes it does. Really? Congratulations on your move to WordPress!
The number of plugins used depends on the blogger’s need or preference. Right now, I have about 38 active plugins. I only keep plugins that are important and avoid using plugins as much as possible. If I can, I hard code the functionality into my theme so I don’t have to use a plugin, an example is the social bookmarking buttons below each post.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:11 PM
This plugin sounds promising. I just moved a blog from blogger to wordpress. So far I have already 13 plugins activated on that blog. Feeling ko andami na. Ilan kaya ang ideal na plugins sa isang standard blog? Love your blog. I wonder ilan kaya plugins nito. :)
June 1st, 2010 at 3:40 PM
@Jhay – Yup, this is the plugin that Abe is using on his blog. :D
June 1st, 2010 at 3:34 PM
So this is the name of that plugin on Yugatech. Neat!