*** UPDATE 2/10/2010 ***
RSS Graffiti just updated their Facebook application so that you can customize the Twitter RSS feed directly from the RSS Graffiti app. This is a powerful update because you no longer need to deal with Yahoo Pipes to customize your Twitter RSS feed – RSS Graffiti now has the options that you need like stripping the Twitter username from the front of the Twitter updates, including or excluding retweets and @ replies.
I’ve written a couple of articles before on how to automatically send Twitter updates to Facebook Fan Pages here, here, and here. These previous ways used TwitterFeed.com, Ping.fm, and your Notes. But with Ping.fm, people are finding the process long, cumbersome and confusing. With TwitterFeed.com, the tweets hitting the Fan Page aren’t triggering Facebook’s new “via” share function – the retweet on Facebook. And having the “share” link appear on your Facebook Fan Page updates is very important for viral marketing purposes.
Some other things that have been problems up to this point has been:
a. The tweets hitting your Facebook Fan Page has your Twitter profile username showing before the tweet update – and that’s annoying to have.
b. With TwitterFeed.com, unless you know how to properly set your feed settings, you’ll get a double posting of your tweet – it will post both as a title and as a description – and that just looks terrible on your Facebook Fan Page.
But most importantly now, more than anything else is that Facebook now has a “share” link showing on any updates that have links in them. This is Facebook’s equivalent of Twitter’s retweet function. But with TwitterFeed.com just will not generate that “share” link in Facebook – and I’ve tried everything I can think of to make it happen.
And Facebook’s “share” (or retweet) function is important because people can now reshare your updates, and your Fan Page will benefit with excellent viral marketing exposure.
So I think I’ve found the best solution for automatically sending your Twitter updates to your Facebook Fan Pages!
The solution I will explain below will remove your username from the beginning of your tweets, it will eliminate any double postings of your tweets, it removes any @ replies in your Twitter stream, and… if your tweet has a URL or a shortened URL (or link such as a photo, video, etc…) it will trigger the “share” link in Facebook so that people can reshare (retweet) your updates! And the more people that reshare your Facebook Fan Page updates, the more viral marketing and exposure your Facebook Fan Page receives!
Before we do anything, you need to grab your Twitter’s RSS feed:
To get your Twitter RSS Feed, go to your Twitter Profile page.
If you are using Firefox, then in the URL area there is an orange RSS icon. Click on it. Drop down box will reveal two options. Select ‘Subscribe to “my Tweets”…
You will then see the link: https://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/###########
Click on it to open in it’s on page. Copy URL from your address bar.
If you aren’t using Firefox, then click on your “Profile” link (upper right hand corner of Twitter page) > then scroll down and look just below the group of images of people you are following > click the link that says “RSS Feed of ……..” Then just copy the URL of the page that opens (which is your Twitter’s RSS feed).
Next stop…. Yahoo Pipes
Now save your Twitter’s RSS feed either in a new tab, window, or somewhere where you can get it – because you are going to need to paste your Twitter’s RSS feed in the following steps.
Now, we need to take your Twitter RSS feed and reconfigure it so that it now longer has the username posting at the beginning of each update, and so that the feed doesn’t double post your tweet in your Facebook Fan Page.
Click this link here >> (opens new window)
This link will take you to Yahoo Pipes – an RSS feed configuration tool.
The steps you need to take will require you to create a free Yahoo account. It’s fast, simple, and free to create – and believe, it will be worth it once your Twitter feed looks clean and great!
Once you’ve created your free Yahoo account, go ahead and click the Yahoo Pipe link above, or just click here.
If you’re logged into your Yahoo account, and you’ve clicked the Yahoo Pipe link above, follow these steps to generate a new, clean Twitter RSS feed that you’ll use to auto feed your Facebook Fan Page:
1) Click on “Clone”
2) Click “edit source”
3) Put your Twitter RSS feed in the URL box
4) Put your Twitter username in place of mine “bulldogvoices” in the [item.title] line
5) Make sure you have the : (colon) symbol after your username
6) Click “Pipe Output” and you should see a sampling of your Twitter feed below
7) Click “Save A Copy”
8) Now find the text link at the top of the screen that says “Run Pipe” and click that
9) Once your pipe runs, click “Get as RSS”
**SIDE NOTE** >> If you WANT to include retweets and @ replies in your RSS feed then alter the Yahoo Pipe by doing this:
Remove the following attribute from the Yahoo Pipe settings:
“Filter” > item:.y:title > contains > @
Hit the minus sign (the one with the circle around it) that’s to the left of that line attribute to delete that line entirely.
That particular line attribute, because it has the “@” in it, actually filters out any updates with the “@” in it – so as to prevent the retweets from posting in the feed.
If you want the retweets TO SHOW IN YOUR FEED, then just delete that line attribute as I just described, and your feed will now be posting retweets.
Continuing on…
You will now be looking at the new RSS feed of your Twitter updates that no longer shows your username at the beginning of tweets, and duplicates and @ replies are removed. So copy and save your new Twitter RSS feed so that it’s handy.
Moving on…. (stay with me, trust me – it’s worth it!)
Next, we are going to add the RSS Graffiti App to your personal Facebook profile. So make sure you are logged into your Facebook account, and click the link above of copy / paste this URL into your address bar:
When RSS Graffit app opens, click the link called “Add to my page” that’s right underneath their profile picture.
This will open a new window with a list of your Facebook Fan Pages that you admin > go ahead and find your desired Facebook Fan Page and click “Add To Page” button to the right.
You will then be taken to the dashboard of RSS Graffiti. You need to go through the process of adding RSS Graffiti to your personal Facebook profile because that’s how they can tell what Facebook Fan Pages you admin.
So go through the process of adding RSS Graffiti application to your Facebook profile – it’s going to be several steps of adding and accepting different links > it’s pretty easy to get through!
Once you’re finished adding the RSS Graffiti application, you should now see a list of all the Facebook Fan Pages you admin on the left hand side of RSS Graffit.
Go ahead and select your desired Facebook Fan Page – the one you want your Twitter profile to auto update with tweets.
Click “Add Feed”
Now take the your new and improved Twitter RSS feed – the one you created in Yahoo Pipes – and paste that into the Feed URL box.
Once you’ve pasted in your new Twitter RSS feed, you can go ahead and click the link called “Click here to generate a preview” > this will generate a preview of what your tweets will look like in your Facebook Fan Page.
In the “Feed Name” box, go ahead and give your feed a custom name – like your Twitter profile name or something short and sweet.
Under “Style” click the center option called “Compact” – this is the optimal settings for sending your tweets to your Facebook Fan Page. If you select “Standard” you’ll get a double posting of your tweets – and if you select “Status updates” you won’t generate the critical “Share” link that Facebook now provides.
So make sure you select “Compact”!
Now click “Save” – and you’re all set to start sending your Twitter updates automatically to your Facebook Fan Page. Any new tweets you create after you save will show up in your Facebook Fan Page.
The updates to your Facebook Fan Page do not happen instantly – I think RSS Graffiti scans feeds on the standard every 20 – 30 minutes and posts anything that’s new.
Below is a Twitter profile I own along with it’s associated Facebook Fan Page. Everything tweet I update in Twitter is posting to my Facebook Fan Page – and as you can see, my username is not showing at the beginning of the feed, there is no duplicate postings of the tweet, and for the tweets that have links (URL’s, shortened URL’s, or other links like videos, photos, etc…) you can see Facebook’s new “share” link is available – so people click the “share” link and reshare (or retweet) that update, which like I said brings a lot of viral marketing to your Facebook Fan Page.
Here’s my Twitter profile >> https://twitter.com/bulldogvoices
Here’s my Facebook Fan Page >>
Any Questions:
As always, if you have any questions, comments, etc… feel free to contact me anytime!
View Comments
Nice Trick, I did not even know the probs that could occur through twitterfeed while posting at facebook. I am glad I read this article. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Raj... thanks so much for visiting and commenting! let me know if you have any questions
It worked fine posting this to my wall -
but it didn't update my status of the fan page. did i miss one setting?
Other than that: GREAT feature
tnx
Hi Ferdi - yes, you need to go back to RSS Graffiti and you should see, along the left hand side, a list of your Facebook Fan Page(s) that you admin. Click on the Facebook Fan Page you desire to update with your tweets and proceed from there.
Thanks for commenting and let me know if you have any questions!
Hey, Robert
Well, I tried to do the simple version of what you wrote about (that is, without using yahoo pipes because you mentioned there were some issues) and somehow the rss graffiti thing didn't work. However, now that you've updated the article with additional steps, maybe i'll give it one more shot although I can't keep spending hours messing with this. Seems as if there should be a simple, well-supported way to do this without worrying about my personal facebook and coporate fan page stuff getting mixed up or ending up on the corporate twitter id. I also get worried about how fragile some of these solutions are since if i get run over by a bus, who will be able to pick itup and figure out what's going on? Do I worry a lot? Yes.
Hi KathyZ - thanks for replying with your comment. I understand... it can be a bit of a cumbersome process. However, I and others can confirm that it does work.
Here's one key point - the tweets won't post on your Facebook Fan Page instantly once you update Twitter - most feeds are checked once or twice per hour.
Let me know if you get it working - and if not, what problems you are having. I will help as much as I can!
Thanks again...
Robert,
Smooth instructions. Smooth operation. Got it up and running. Thanks a bunch.
Much nicer than the TwitterFeed + Ping.fm scenario.
Concerns:
Once the Tweets show up on the Facebook Fan Page, I don't mind the "via RSS Graffiti" at all, but the source link back to the new Pipes RSS feed seems unnecessary. Any way around that?
Also, it'd be nice to eliminate the published date and time redundancy since it's already down there with the RSS Graffiti credit. At the very least it'd be nice to get it out of GMT.
Great stuff though. Nice to have it running with no repeats and no Twitter user name a the front.
My humble thanks again.
Kevin
Robert,
Smooth instructions. Smooth operation. Got it up and running. Thanks a bunch.
Much nicer than the TwitterFeed + Ping.fm scenario.
Concerns:
Once the Tweets show up on the Facebook Fan Page, I don't mind the "via RSS Graffiti" at all, but the source link back to the new Pipes RSS feed seems unnecessary. Any way around that?
Also, it'd be nice to eliminate the published date and time redundancy since it's already down there with the RSS Graffiti credit. At the very least it'd be nice to get it out of GMT.
Great stuff though. Nice to have it running with no repeats and no Twitter user name a the front.
My humble thanks again.
Kevin
Hi Kevin - thanks for commenting! This is still a process for me figuring out how different platforms interact with the Twitter RSS feeds. I will definitely look into how the feed can be customized to achieve that things you described.
Robert,
Twitter posts seem to get to Facebook fan pages quicker in the wee hours than the peak traffic hours. Just an observation. Also ... Dear Santa, Hoping someday for an instant connection similar to the Twitter > Facebook Friends connection. P.S. I've been good.
Request: A quick-and-dirty instructional on how to address Josh's issue with retweets? I and others would be interested.
Gracias.
Kevin
Hi Kevin - I think that I can just alter the Yahoo Pipes attributes so that the retweets are included in the feed. I will try to tweek that today and I will post the results here - so stay turned... thanks so much for commenting!
Hi Kevin - here's how to include the retweets in your feed updates.
In the Yahoo Pipe settings (see the steps above in the article), you will remove the following attribute:
"Filter" > item:.y:title > contains > @
Hit the minute sign (the one with the circle around it) that's to the left of that line attribute to delete that line entirely.
That particular line attribute, because it has the "@" in it, actually filters out any updates with the "@" in it - so as to prevent the retweets from posting in the feed.
If you want the retweets TO SHOW IN YOUR FEED, then just delete that line attribute as I just described, and your feed will now be posting retweets.
Hope this helps, and thanks again...
Again. Thanks again for going above and beyond on this fix-up.
Unfortunately, I was unable to make this latest tweak (getting Twitter retweets and @ replies to show up as Facebook Fan posts) without running into some problems ... namely, double posts.
Could be user error, but I ran through it a few times with the same result.
I've since gone back to the original gangster fix and everything seems to be working fine, just without retweets.
Any advice?
Thanks.
Kev
Hi Kevin - thanks for giving your feedback. I'm going to have to play around with the Yahoo Pipe and see if I can get an accurate configuration to include the @ replies and retweets.
Sorry my friend - it's a work in progress! I appreciate your feedback though and I'll keep you posted.
Hi again Kevin - I contacted Graffiti RSS directly about your questions and here's their response - which in turn, is a response to your questions and suggestions:
From RSS Graffiti regarding Kevin's comments above:
"We had heard similar views on the subject before. We plan to make these optional at some point. No plans though for that yet.
To make the case for them, I have to say that that the "Published" date field is not the same as the one Facebook adds at the bottom of the entry. Their difference indicates the time elapsed between the time the entry was created in the source and the time the story was published on your wall. Although these two times usually are very close to each other they indicate two different things. I agree many people would find it as redundant so we plan to make it optional.
The "via RSS Graffiti" credit, is placed there by Facebook to indicate that this has not been posted by the user in person, but instead, it was created by an application for them. All applications have it apart from the ones created by Facebook itself.
The source link is there to ensure that credit to the Source of the story is attributed in some way. Otherwise anyone could get anyone's feed and by hiding the source and the links to it, present themselves as the source of other peoples publications. I agree that this does not guarantee that the publisher is not violating the terms of service of Facebook or the rights of someone else but it does ensure for us that the user feels more accountable for their use of the RSS Graffiti and that we are not promoting a tool that is a paradise for people that want to get away with copyright infringement. Nevertheless we are considering of making this field optional too, but some restrictions may apply on the conditions under which this field can be hidden in the future."
Thanks, everyone.
Thanks Robert, works a dream. I have been trying to do this for a while now!
However, I do have one question - I noticed that retweets are not updated. Is there any way to do this through Yahoo Pipes and RSS Graffiti?
Hi Josh - thanks for commenting. The Yahoo Pipe was created to eliminate all "@" replies (retweets).
If you want to show the "@" replies (retweets) in your feed, then try removing the "@" attribute from the filter element.
There is a minus sign to the left of that attribute - just click it to delete that line.
Let me know if that works for you! And thanks again...
Hi Josh - here's how to get the retweets to be included in the tweet updates.
In the Yahoo Pipe settings (see the steps above in the article), you will remove the following attribute:
"Filter" > item:.y:title > contains > @
Hit the minute sign (the one with the circle around it) that's to the left of that line attribute to delete that line entirely.
That particular line attribute, because it has the "@" in it, actually filters out any updates with the "@" in it - so as to prevent the retweets from posting in the feed.
If you want the retweets TO SHOW IN YOUR FEED, then just delete that line attribute as I just described, and your feed will now be posting retweets.
Hope this helps, and thanks again...
It took about an hour to post, but it worked! Thanks for doing all the dirty work and sharing the details!
Hi Rick - yeah, I was actually reading some content from RSS Graffiti yesterday and they said their servers scan feeds about every 30 - minutes to 1 hour. As Kevin mentioned, the feeds seem to be posting faster during off peak hours - very early morning / late night - while most Americans are asleep.
Thank you - you are an absolute lifesaver - editing Fan pages really is a nightmare! One thing I noticed is that the urls being tweeted are not showing up. User error?
and also the 'share' option mysteriously disappears on tweets....?
Hi @sallyhems - thanks so much for commenting! No, it is not a user error that the URL to the tweets are not showing up. Since the tweets are being feed to Facebook via the Twitter RSS feed - and that which is being customized via Yahoo Pipes - if you were to have the URL show, it would actually link back to the Yahoo Pipe. This is because, in essence, the content is coming from the Yahoo Pipe RSS generated feed into Facebook - not directly from your Twitter profile itself.
If you simply took your Twitter profile RSS feed - the one that's available below your Twitter follower box on your profile, and you used that RSS feed in the RSS Graffiti App, then you would get the URL's linking back to your tweets - it would then link to the individual page that specific tweet (not back to your main profile).
The trade off with that is you'd then have your username showing up at the beginning of each of your tweet updates on your Facebook Fan Page.
thanks so much again for commenting and visiting - we all appreciate you contributing to this on-going conversation in a quest to find the most efficient ways of sending Twitter updates to Facebook Fan Pages.