I’m not going to build a business case for doing this, I’m sure you can conjure up all sorts of reasons why you might want to automatically inject content into your Twitter feed. I’m just going to show you how to do it. First thing you need to know is that in order to inject content into your Twitter feed, the content has to be contained in a valid RSS or Atom feed. So, for example you could inject new posts from your blog by injecting it’s feed into your Twitter feed.
To do this you need a source feed, like your blog, or a generated feed, say from Google Alerts, you’ll also need an account with a URL shortening service like Bit.ly, and an account with TwitterFeed. You need the URL shortener because many links these days are way too long to fit in the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter, and you’ll want a comment or title to go along with the link in your tweet.
So the first thing you need to do is register accounts with Google, Bit.ly and Twitterfeed. Now, if you get really ambitious after this how-to, and decide that you want to go auto-injector crazy, with multiple Twitter accounts, then I recommend you create separate accounts in the three tools we’re going to use, that will align to each Twitter account you want to auto-inject content. Also, use your Twitter credentials when you register with these tools, just to keep things straight. Who wants to keep track of four or five sets of usernames and password? Not me!
Generate a Feed from a Google Search
Using Google Alerts, you can create as many feeds or email alerts as you like. Simply create feeds using search terms, in the Alerts service. You can use all the same syntax you use for basic Google searches, as well as advanced searches. You can also limit your search to news items or blogs, or you can create a Comprehensive search that will retrieve stories from the widest possible content that Google has indexed.
Inject the Feed into Your Twitter Account
TwitterFeed uses OpenID technology, this means it will share your Google account credentials. So make sure your Google account is open before logging into TwitterFeed. Also, TwitterFeed will need to register with your Twitter account too, so make sure your Twitter account is open and logged in.
Create a new feed in TwitterFeed, authenticate with your twitter account, then copy the feed link you created in Google alerts, and use it in the TwitterFeed create feed form. You’ll also need to select the URL shortener in the form. TwitterFeed currently supports nearly 25 different URL shortening services. We’re using Bit.ly because it has excellent statistical tracking of click throughs on the link it generates. So, you’ll be able to track, in near-realtime how many people clicked the link in your auto-generated tweet.
Once you configured the feed and the URL shortener, you can also configure the frequency on which TwitterFeed check the original source for new content. You can configure as many of these feed injectors as you please. But don’t go too crazy, because if you generate too much content, people may complain about it and un-follow if it becomes an annoyance.
Well, that’s it! If you sit back and consider the types of services you could potentially create with such a capability, your head might explode. If you want some ideas, then I suggest you subscribe to the TwitLinker newsletter, which is published weekly.
