A website is useless without visitors. Though a little better, it is also kind of sad to have a website where users only read one article, then leave without exploring or commenting. Engagement and reach are important in promoting a website and individual content, and the best tools for this are social media platforms. This is because after a post is seen by people on social media there is a large possibility of them sharing it on their own networks, who may not yet know about your website.
Twitter is a good platform to use. Aside from posts being easily accessible and shareable, many people follow accounts on the microblogging site specifically to find new content and get updates.
In addition, many influencers have accounts on Twitter. These people often have a wide reach that can be leveraged to amplify a post, maximizing the amount of eyes that will likely see it. In order to ensure that you will not forget to post updates to your Twitter account, it is best to automate this task. While it is not advisable to post only automated tweets, you can mix up the copy in later posts.
Automation of posts to Twitter is easy, and relies on your site’s WordPress feeds to post updates to social. There are third-party applications that can be harnessed for this purpose.
ATOM/RSS feeders
Twitterfeed
This tool allows you to post updates from several RSS feeds to multiple Twitter accounts. After signing up for an account, you will be asked to input feeds and specify to which accounts you would like the updates to be posted.
The links can be shortened using bit.ly or other link shorteners. It is highly customizable, and can be used for free. Aside from Twitter, Twitterfeed can also post to other social media accounts, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Twibble
Twibble also allows you to post updates from different RSS feeds to your Twitter accounts. You sign up for the service using your Twitter account. After you create your account, you can schedule posts from your RSS feed. The beauty of it is that it can fetch images to make your posts more engaging.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is an excellent console which has both a paid and free version. The free version is good enough if you have only a few accounts and feeds you need to manage. If you need to manage more than four accounts, however, you will have to subscribe to the pro version of Hootsuite.
Hootsuite is a useful, all-in-one tool that allows you to post not only to Twitter, but also Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, FourSquare, WordPress, and Mixi.
You can link an RSS or Atom feed to Hootsuite, which will then shorten the links using its own shortening service, then post to your specified account. To be able to link an unlimited number of feeds, an upgrade to a paid account is required.
IFTTT (If This Then That)
If you only have one Twitter account to manage, IFTTT—short for If This Then That, can be a good tool for posting RSS feeds to Twitter.
IFTTT uses recipes to post to “channels” or platforms. For example, RSS+Twitter=posts. All you have to do is set up an account and then activate the channels or platforms you wish to use. You can either use a pre-made recipe or create your own to ensure that the latest updates on your blog are posted to Twitter.
Dlvr.it
Just like Twitterfeed, Dlvr.it queues RSS updates for posting to Twitter. It manages multiple social media accounts and feeds, and can also post to Facebook and Google+.
If I’ve missed any great ones or if you need more help please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!