You know Twitter, that lovely microblogging service that Gapingvoid just left because he didn’t do much more than, well twittered? The same service that Robert Scoble heralds, and Jason Calacanis is aiming to dominate? Yes, that Twitter, the same Twitter that I’m on, and sharing space with the British government.
Since Twitter is addictive, lots of bloggers have decided to start importing Twitter content into their blogs. It’s nothing new, with several plugins available, the most popular one might be Alex King’s Twitter Tools, but I don’t know for sure. Either way, it’s a sure way to make your blog totally uninteresting, ugly, and boring. Think about it, who wants to read your tweets in a bullet list, hours after they happened? Chances are, most people don’t want to read them at all, especially when you’re offering a discussion with some friends, interesting only to those involved, but nevertheless cluttering your blog in a most hideous manner. Don’t take that last link to seriously by the way, Jeremy came to his senses…
Still, your tweets are content, and maybe you want to attract the people who actually do care about what you have to say on Twitter to your account. Then integrate it smoothly, like Twisted Intellect, the most beautiful example of displaying tweets on a site to date:
Pretty huh? I’m sure there are several others who’s doing this right as well, but I was actually quite blown away by this today. I’m a fan of serifs though, especially classy work with italics, so the site pretty much appeals to me.
The Rules of Twitter on Your Blog
Follow these rules when integrating Twitter on your blog or site, and you’ll be fine.
- Don’t treat tweets as regular content! Put them someplace to the side, by themselves. Posts are content, tweets are, well, tweets.
- Don’t give your tweets too much space! Think about it, does they really add that much to your blog to begin with? Shouldn’t you push your real content with that space instead?
- Don’t show too many tweets! Really, how interesting are they after a while? Better to show just a handful, than to push out a RSS feed from your Twitter account containing 10 tweets, where 7 are from days past.
- Don’t integrate Twitter unless you use it! What’s the point of displaying your tweets if they are not up to date? I’ll tell you right now, there is none.
Ready to follow that? OK, then please, please, please ask yourself yet again if your tweets actually add value to your blog. Maybe a link to your account is good enough? Chances are, for most of us, it is.
Have you seen other great integrations of Twitter content on sites and blogs? What’s your take on all this? Tell us in the comments, I know I’m dying to know.
