When you’re writing content with WordPress, you want that content to reach as many eyes as possible. And with so many people moving to social media networks, it’s an absolute must to be active in posting your new content to networks like Twitter. However, posting each individual new post manually to Twitter can be a big pain, especially if you’re running a multi-author blog. After doing some research, I’ve found two great tools/plugins to send content to Twitter automatically – Twitter Tools and TweetMeme Button.

Twitter Tools

This plugin has some great functionality. When you publish a post, Twitter Tools will automatically generate a tweet with a custom prefix, the title of the post, and the URL. For example, when I publish this post, the tweet will say “New Blog Post: Updating Twitter via WordPress” with a link attached at the end. The “New Blog Post:” is the custom part that I specified.

With this plugin installed, you’ll see a new option on your post editing page, asking you if you want to send the post to Twitter. By default that box says Yes, but you can turn it off for individual posts if you don’t want them tweeted.

You also have the option of importing your regular tweets as posts on your WordPress site and assigning them a specific category, like Twitter. I’m still contemplating the best way to use this, so for now I have it disabled on my own blog.

TweetMeme Button

You can see the TweetMeme Button in live action to the right of the title on this post at the top of the page. It’s the box that counts the number of retweets from this blog, and the link for readers to retweet themselves. When clicked, the box takes the user to Twitter and asks them to log in (and if they’re never used TweetMeme before, it’ll ask them to allow TweetMeme access to their tweet stream). Once logged in, they’ll see a pre-scripted message in their tweet box, ready to be tweeted. Get a few retweets, and all of a sudden your content is reaching far beyond what you could’ve done yourself.

In the TweetMeme Button settings, you can specify where on the page you’d like the button to be, how big, what the RT source is (usually your own Twitter username), and if you’re signed up with Bit.ly, you can even make Bit.ly your default URL shortener for this service and enter your API key. That way you can track your clicks.

Playing support technician for your friends and family members is not always fun, especially when you can’t see their screen. You find yourself describing tiny little buttons in really obscure places that you’re almost positive they won’t find. It’s in these types of situations that I bust out Jing.

Jing is free software that lets you record the action on your screen (up to five minutes) and share it instantly. Works on both Mac and PC.

Here are some of the more specific selling points:

1. Narration. Need to talk out loud as you record? No problem. As long as you’ve got a microphone, you can narrate the video in real time.
2. Custom Recording Size. Jing lets you specify the area you’d like to record. It could be just the program you’re using, a specific part of that program, or even full screen.
3. Five Minutes. Some people might see this as a limitation, but I see it as motivation to keep my comments and directions concise and to the point. When you know you’ve only got five minutes, it often forces you to script out what you’re going to say.
4. Screencast.com. When you sign up with Jing, you automatically get 2GB of online storage with Screencast.com (same company). When you’re finished with your Jing video, you can easily upload it to your Screencast account and share it instantly.
5. Publishing. Once your video is on Screencast, you can share it via URL or even embed it into a webpage. If you’ve got server space elsewhere, you can also publish to FTP. But if you’d rather keep things local, the option is available to save it locally to your hard drive as a .swf file.
6. Twitter. Jing also has the option to share your video via Twitter. From the Jing dashboard, you’re able to use your 140 characters and send out a URL to your video.



7. Lightweight. It’s a small install, and runs inconspicuously in the corner. When you need it, it’s there; when you’re done, it disappears.

Check it out at JingProject.com.

I’ve always been a fan of linking things together and consolidating as much as possible. For example, ever since I got a phone that could handle playing MP3s, my Zune player has found considerably less use. Efficiency is the name of the game, people.

Which is exactly why I’ve started using Smart Twitter on Facebook. Because I do most of my social media-ing on Twitter, I went on a quest to find out how I could make my tweets become my Facebook updates, my LinkedIn updates, and my Google Buzz updates. LinkedIn and Google Buzz were easy; it was Facebook that gave me issues.

I’m an anti-application Facebook user. I think they’re pointless and annoying. So when I learned that an easy way to get Twitter updates to Facebook was through an application, I was immediately skeptical. I started searching out applications, thinking it would be an easy find. Instead, I was confronted with several Twitter-related applications, most of which were misleading. Some of them created new tabs on your Facebook profile page for your tweets, others did other things, but it didn’t seem as though any of them actually would update my Facebook status using my tweets.

Then I found Smart Twitter, the application that would finally do it for me. I installed it and waited for the magic, which apparently doesn’t happen right away with a Facebook app. After a while, I got bored and went to do something else. But when I came back — there it was! My latest tweet had become my Facebook update, with hardly any effort on my part.

Now whenever I tweet, those 140 characters get sent out to three other places online, giving me the power to effectively control my social media sites and produce dynamic content on all of them simultaneously and regularly. All in a day’s work, and pretty efficient, I’d say.