Twitter, the genius of a micro-blogging service, added five million members last month. With that sort of growth, it’s not surprising that people are predicting the death of “old-fashioned” blogging.
But Twitter can be a wonderful tool for those of us who already run blogs and websites. Embedding your own Twitter feed on your blog is one of the quickest ways to post updates- especially if you tweet from your mobile phone. Here are some of the best ways to put Twitter on your website:
Twitter Badges. Perhaps the easiest method is provided by Twitter themselves. These “badges” are actually widgets- they provide you with a bit of code, and tell you where to put it. Short and simple, this works on nearly every type of site, from Blogger to Typepad to static HTML pages. Visit Twitter Badges (you’ll need to login to get your badges).
Twitter Widgets. If Twitter’s own badges don’t do it for you, you can try out Widgetbox’s Twitter Widget, incorporate the photo of your choice by using SayTweet… or even have some fun with the animated widgets over at WishaFriend!
Tweets in WordPress. If you run a WordPress (.org) blog, you’ll want to use either of two plugins: Twitter for WordPress or Twitter Tools. I have used them both, both are excellent, but the former (Twitter for WP) is a little simpler. Also worth a look is Twitt-Twoo, a WordPress plugin that allows you to update your Twitter status right from your blog’s sidebar.
Get Linked to More. When posting links on Twitter, all long urls have to be shortened first. Use a service like TwitThis, which automatically shortens the urls of your posts for your visitors, to make it that much easier to link to you on their tweets.
Do you use Twitter? How have you integrated it into your existing site or blog?
