Being able to post on both Twitter and a Facebook page at the same time can be a great time-saver for the small business owner. So instead of logging onto each social media platform to post your latest special offer, useful link or snippet of news, there are tools that allow you to post to one, and the other updates automatically.
There are two ways to approach this:
Post to Facebook page and Twitter updates too
This can be achieved by adding an app that links your Twitter account to Facebook. Once this app is installed (you’ll need to provide your Twitter login details) your Facebook updates will also run through your Twitter account. This can be customised, so you tell the app whether you want everything posted or just certain types of update.
Post to Twitter and Facebook page updates too
One way to do this is to plug your Facebook page’s RSS feed into Twitter. Firstly, get the URL of your Facebook page by clicking on the ‘Get updates via RSS’ link at the end of the left-hand column of the page. Next, register for a site such as Twitterfeed which allows you to plug RSS feeds into Twitter. Once you add your page RSS feed into Twitterfeed, link it to your Twitter account and every time you update your Facebook page, it will appear in 140-character land too.
Using a third-party program like HootSuite can also make life easier, as you can use this to post to Twitter and Facebook within the same application (rather than logging into to the platforms each time). So that’s how you can do it. But should you? In my opinion, no. Twitter and Facebook work differently, and the language, tone and style of updates are unique to each.
Twitter of course makes use of hashtags and @ mentions, so if your tweet contains these they will appear on Facebook too. And if you post on Facebook and update Twitter automatically, go over 140 characters the rest will get chopped off. The link will go to a page containing just your update too, so not ideal. Basically, people will be able to tell one is being updated via the other, which is not ideal. However, if you only have time enough to devote to one of two, it’s a decent, low-touch workaround.
