One of the features I’ve found most convenient about Twitter is that I can use it to update my Facebook status instantly to match my most recent Twitter posts. (FYI, for the nine of you who still use MySpace, you can use Twitter to update your status too. Maybe I’ll eventually post a blog about this as well.) I like that I don’t have to post the same thing two or three times in two or three places. It’s also useful that:
1. Facebook doesn’t grab posts that begin with @tags, so your personal correspondence with other Twitterers won’t become your new status on FB
2. Facebook will never grab direct messages and post them.
If those two exceptions aren’t good enough for you, then check out “Selective Twitter Status.” By using this you can designate which tweets you want to appear on Facebook by attaching the hashtag “#fb” to the end of your tweet. Only those tweets with the hash tag at the end will be posted on Facebook.
If you already have a registered account with both Twitter and Facebook, setting this up is a fairly simple process. Here’s how you can very quickly and simply link your Twitter account to Facebook:
Log into your Facebook account. Click on over to the Facebook’s Twitter application page. On the left-hand side and toward the top of the page, you’ll see a “Go to Application” button similar to this one:
Once you’ve clicked through step one, you’ll be asked to confirm that Twitter has permission to access our Facebook information. It’s ok, Twitter is trustworthy. Click the “Allow” button.
Log into your Twitter account by entering your Twitter username and password on the login screen that appears.
Now you’re able to post to Twitter from within your Facebook account if you want. However, what we’re going for here is the opposite. Not updating Twitter from Facebook, but updating Facebook from Twitter. See the button that says “Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status” in the upper-right of the screen? Click that.
You should get a confirmation screen that looks like this:
Now confirm that you are willing to let Twitter update your Facebook status by clicking the “Allow Status Updates” button.
After you click this button, you will go to the Twitter application. Don’t Twitter anything from here. Go to your Twitter application or the Twitter webpage and try posting something. Then go to your Facebook profile and see if it’s been updated to match your Twitter test-post. You might have to wait a minute or two, and maybe even refresh the page.
That’s it! Now every time you Twitter something (with the exceptions of the two things I mentioned at the beginning of this post), your Facebook status will be automatically updated.
