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Let’s get this one out of the way: It’s not ok to send every tweet into Facebook as a status update.
So how to do you update Facebook from Twitter? Should you? Let’s take a look:
Here’s What You Need To Know
1. Unless you have adjusted your privacy settings, your Facebook status updates are now public. Not only are they public, but they are being archived and indexed by search engines and other properties such as Friendfeed and Seesmic Desktop.
2. If you are piping your tweets into Facebook, you’re creating duplicate content. What is one of the golden rules of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Don’t duplicate content.
3. Facebook’s audience is older, more mature, and better educated than other social networks. They also have more disposable income and are loyal to Facebook. Full details here from Sarah Perez at RWW
In other words: The people following you on Twitter might not be the people following you on Facebook. And that means they might have little interest in your tweets.
Know your audience first.
The Good News: You CAN Take Your Tweets With You (To Facebook)
This does violate the no duplicate rule, but let’s say you have something important going on. You’re getting married. You’re knee deep in a sewer and need some help. You have the best idea ever to raise money. This message is so important, everyone must know!
Meet my favorite Facebook App: Selective Twitter Status
Selective Twitter Status Lets You …
1. Update your Facebook status from Twitter only when you add #FB at the end of your tweet. No hash tag? No Facebook update.
2. If you have a Facebook Fan Page, Selective Twitter will let you update that as well.
3. You can update the settings to let you put #FB anywhere in the message (instead of at the end where it’s supposed to go), and you can add a prefix like, “From Twitter” so people know where the post is coming from.
Issues With Selective Twitter?
I have not noticed any since using it, but if you include a link to your Twitter profile in your update, the link will not be viewable from your friends using Facebook Mobile.
Oh and, if you want to be creepy, you can use Twitter search to see other people’s Facebook updates.
In case you skimmed this tutorial. Here’s what you need to know:
1. Selective Twitter lets you … selectively update your Facebook status from Twitter. Just put #FB at the end of your tweet after installing the application.
Bonus: If you have a Facebook Fan Page, you can update that too!
2. Remember that unless you change your privacy settings, everything that you do on Facebook is now open to the public.
3. Duplicating content is annoying for people (which is bad for SEO. More on SEO and social networks later.)
4. Make sure your Facebook friends want to see your Twitter updates before sending them. They might already be following you on Twitter or have no interest in reading them.
As always if you have a social publishing (social networking, blogging, content creation) question, get in touch. I’ll answer your question here on the blog. You can find previous reader questions here.
