I knew when I did my first post on Twitter plugins that there were more of them out there and I would have to do another post. And in the last two weeks, that it looks like the number of them has exploded. So with the knowledge that keeping up with the writers, here are a few more plugins that will help you integrate your blog and Twitter.
Twitbar Widget grabs your latest pearls of wisdom from Twitter and put them up in your sidebar. The only options are where you want it in your sidebar, the widget title, the words for the link to follow you, and the number of tweets that will be shown. You just need to put in your ID, no password required, and it grabs your tweets.
This plugin is pretty much the definition of plug and play. The only thing that can be a problem is the fact it shares your blogs styling. This is usually a good thing, but with some themes, like the one I am using, the look is less than pleasing. But this is not the fault of the plugin, which does everything it is supposed to. If you want to put your tweets on your blog, this is a nice way to do it.
Easy Twitter Links makes it easier to blog about Twitter. It automatically goes through your posts and changes any #tagname or @username to links, either for searches or the users Twitter home page. It does a pretty good job at this, it doesn’t grab email addresses that someone is silly enough to post. And the hashtags need to have other words around them to be linked. There are no options available, just install and activate and you are good to go. Not a big thing, but if you do much posting about Twitter and the people there, a very nice plugin to have.
Fishy Tweet places a text link at the end of your posts that allows your readers to submit your post to Twitter. You can set the text of the link, the title of the link, and you can choose to add html and CSS to the link. The plugin automatically shortens the url of your post (using 1 of 3 shortening services) and places it in the text field at Twitter.
A nice plugin for helping get your posts send to Twitter. No options about placement of the link, which would be nice, and only the three URL services, but all in all a good setup.
TwitPlusNNNF is a plugin for twittering your post automatically. When activated, it places a small window on your post editing page, where you control the tweet. It is very unobtrusive, using javascript to hide the sections for adding your Twitter info and the codes you can use in the tweet to replace the post title and URL. It can automatically use the nn.nf URL shortening service, with the option of just using www or including the http://. And there is a check box you need to click to have the post sent to Twitter.
This is a nice plugin. It gives you complete control over how your post goes out to Twitter, with enough options to avoid having your tweets looking identical. The only thing that it really needs it the ability to change the URL shortening service for people that have accounts or prefer other sites.
Bird Feeder also tweets your posts automatically. You save your message on the option page, and it is used for all your post tweets. You can choose to use the URL of your blog rather than the post itself, and you can allow the shortened URL to give a preview.
You don’t have the option to not tweet about a post, and you are limited in the options you do have. The shortening service is coded into the plugin, so you can not make any changes for that unless you want to do some PHP editing. Easy to set up and use, but limited. If it covers what you want done, not a bad choice.
WordTwit is another plugin for tweeting your posts. It has the same kind of options as Bird Feeder, all on the option page: a hard coded URL service, one message for all posts. You do not have the options of using the blog URL instead of the post permalink, and you can not use a preview link. It does use meta-data so that it will not tweet a post that it has already sent to Twitter. This is useful if you do not want updates on old posts going out.
What goes for Bird Feeder fits for WordTwit also. Limited options, but if it covers what you want, a solid choice.
Final Words
And there are 6 more plugins you can use to make your blog more Twitter friendly. They are all very focused in what they cover, not trying to be the one tool for all things WordPress-Twitter. This means more plugins, but it also makes each of them pretty simple to set up.
I will probably have to once again look at Twitter plugins, it is just too popular an area to cover easily. But I will try and wait for a bit before doing so. There are a few other areas in the plugin depository that are also worth covering.
