A few months ago I wrote about Integrating WordPress with twitter, today I want to expand on that and tell you how you can integrate WordPress, Twitter and Facebook in one seemless operation.

OutPosts and Home Base

I am a firm believer in Darren Rowse’s idea of home bases and outposts. My home base is here at wpdude.com where I bring you my blog posts and hopefully interest you in some WordPress Technical Support.  I own this property and I can do whatever I want here.  The content is mine.

The outposts I use are Twitter, Facebook and Stumbleupon. I don’t own the content I create on twitter et al and I could be thrown off the site if I contravene any of their rules or regulations, so the activity I do there and the content I create, whilst still important, is expendable if I choose not to continue tweeting or stumbling.

What I hope to accomplish at the outposts is to meet other people build relationships and if they care,for them to visit my home base site.

The problem is social media is that it can be a huge time suck.  I want to concentrate on my home base and update my outposts as easily as possible.

Create Quality Content And Syndicate

What I want is to create quality content then syndicate it to as wide an audience as possible as easily as possible.  To do that I do the following:

• Create blog posts here at wpdude.com
• Syndicate news of the bl0g post via twitter tools see Integrating WordPress with Twitter
• Integrate my twitter updates with Facebook using the twitter Facebook Application.
• Concentrate all of my social media efforts on Twitter using Tweetdeck, knowing it will be replicated on Facebook.

Twitter Facebook Application

The twitter Facebook application takes your tweets and adds them as an update on your Facebook profile.  The twitter FB application is available at http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543

Once you have added the application to your FB profile, you are asked to enter your Twitter ID and password.  Then any updates you make on twitter will add an entry on your profile.  This is a one way integration.

Are You Ingoring Your FB friends?

In a word yes, I’m not a big fan of Facebook,  let me explain why through an analogy.

I think of social media as a trip to the pub.  When I go to the pub I want to meet up with my friends, have a chat exchange ideas, tell jokes and have a good time.  I might ask my friends if they can recommend a good plumber, they may ask me if I can fix their brothers computer.  It’s an adult space.

Twitter feels like a pub with real ale and comfy leather sofas.  Witty and urbane conversation about a variety of interesting topics flows, there is an exchange of ideas.

When I go to the Facebook pub next door it is a different kid of establishment.  Kids are running riot, their parents aren’t paying attention they are crawling on the floor shouting and coming up to me and my friends asking if we want to play with their toys.

Integrating Twitter and Facebook is like me popping into the pub with the kids and putting up a poster asking if anyone want to join the pub’s darts team.  They can come if they want but they can stay in the Facebook Arms if they choose.

I haven’t quite worked through my analogy to work out how, after six pints, you put your beer goggles on and do something you regret in the morning.

Apologies if you don’t understand the concept of a British pub, it’s an ancient and noble institution sadly dying due to beer tax.

Am I Missing the Facebook Party?

There is a big chance that I am missing out by not actively using FB, my passive way of using this outpost is there worst type of social interaction.  I am a solopreneur writing blog posts, interacting with clients, I only have so mucb time, so I concentrate my social media efforts on Twitter.  I go to the pub where my friends are, the pub where the same type of poeople hang out.  Going to Facebook feels like I’m in the youth club.

This is purely my standpoint on Facebook from a professional point of view, I use FB to share photos with friends and I will happily become the zombie, werewolf or mafia hit man of my real world friends choosing.

Want To Connect At an Outpost?

You can cyber stalk me at the following locations:

• Twitter
• Facebook – yeah right!
• Stumble Upon

UPDATE: I’m running a webianr on integrating twitter and wordpress check out http://wpdude.com/wordpress-webinar-integrating-wordpress-twitter/