The Death Of Twitter Tools

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 18, 2012

It was a nice run, but I was finally pulled into the 21st century kicking and screaming, and I’m not all that happy about it. Since last Friday I’ve been lamenting the apparent death of one of my favorite plugins, Twitter Tools, and now I’m ready to write about it.

Sean Molin via Compfight

Truthfully, it was almost like that. I wondered why none of my posts for the day had automatically gone to Twitter, and I saw there was an update to Twitter Tools. Since the same thing popped up on all 5 of my blogs I decided to use my SEO blog to test it out. When I upgraded, it said something about having to add a plugin called Social to run the plugin. I was wondering why I had to use a different plugin to run a plugin.

I loaded Social and went to its settings, where it said I had to get an API to use it. I had an API already set up for Twitter Tools so that was disturbing. So I skipped that part and decided to see what I could do without it. Well, it seems that without that you can’t post-date your articles to go live, and the only way you can get your post up is to actually tweet it through the post itself. What the hey?

I went into Twitter Tools, where everything I’d set up before was still there, but there was no option now on a post, as I went to do a test post, where it had a place for you to tell it to automatically post to Twitter.

I was irked, as I’d used that bad boy for more than 2 years, and I’d even taken the time to write a tutorial here as to how to set it up to work on Twitter. It was one of my post popular posts. Now it’s gone, as well as a couple other posts about that plugin and every article that I’d linked to talking about it.

But I needed something new. I knew a couple of friends had me hooked up to auto-share my posts when they went live, so I asked both of them what they did. Enter Twitterfeed, which takes any RSS feed and, when something new pops up, posts it to either Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. I was hesitant at first but Holly convinced me to go through with it. I did, ran some tests, and it works pretty well. I haven’t been able to figure out how to get it to post as soon as my articles go live, but I do have it set to check every 30 minutes for something new, and I guess I can wait 30 minutes or so.

As I said, I’m coming into the world of having to use web-based services instead of controlling everything on my own kicking and screaming. I wonder what the next technological shock will be.

Tags: Blogging, post-dating articles, RSS feeds, Twitter, Twitterfeed

24 Comments »

Michael Belk @ethical behavior:

That was ridiculous a plugin would take you through all these changes. I have not had much luck with twitter.

I think it works for people who concentrate a lot of their time there, but I work on bringing quality content.

I use stumbleupon and they are the most active social media for me.
Michael Belk recently posted…A foolhardy savings plan; an overtime dependency.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 19th, 2012 at 8:13 PM

Michael, if you’re going to market or network in social media, not seeing the value of Twitter will kill you. Think of it this way; Twitter has the second most users in social media and offers you so many options of following what’s going on in your industry and talking to people in your industry, no matter what it is. For me, having all of my blog posts go to Twitter is important to me, and talking to people and networking on Twitter is pretty important to me, although in one of my industries it doesn’t do much for me because they’re not really into it yet. I’m not sure if you’ve seen some of my older posts where I talk about some of the big name people I’ve met and how I’ve had the opportunities to do certain things because of Twitter. Trust me, long term it will help you get more eyes on your quality content if you can make the right connections there.

As for the plugin, it would be nice if you’re informed ahead of time that this stuff is going to stop working. Still, I was happy to find an alternative.

October 18th, 2012 | 2:32 PM

Lisa:

Don’t you just love Twitter Mitch? I’m the opposite of Michael; I haven’t spent as much time on Stumble lately and more on Twitter. Maybe different niches work different on different platforms. Twitterfeeds sound interesting, will have to check it out.
Lisa recently posted…Do You Need a Blogging Degree to be Successful at It?

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 19th, 2012 at 8:14 PM

Lisa, I love Twitter; it’s my favorite social media platform outside of blogging. That’s why I was irked when my plugin stopped working without notice; grrr… lol

October 18th, 2012 | 8:21 PM

Alex:

Hey Mitch, I am so sorry you had to go through the terrible process of losing a loved plug0in and getting used to a new one. The whole idea is terrible. Also while we are on the subject of Twitterfeed, I’d suggest you keep a check on whether posts get updated. The thing is sometimes there is a delay or failure in your posts getting updated via Twitterfeed. I have been using this aggregation service called dlvr.it. It has worked better than Twitterfeed ever did. Hope this helps.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 19th, 2012 at 8:15 PM

Alex, so far all my posts have gone to Twitter via Twitterfeed, and that’s making me happy. It’s not quite a plugin as a service, and it’s making me have to get myself some realities that say not everything I want do I get to control so much. lol

October 18th, 2012 | 10:14 PM

Carl:

I was expecting this to happen much earlier when Twitter changed terms of service. I also met the same problem yesterday at one of my blogs, but it seems that my main project is still syndicating new posts to Twitter. I also have another blog which do the same, but haven’t publish new post yet, hope to see today. If it is working, I will come back and tell you the name of plugin.
Carl recently posted…Consistency And Flexibility Are Key For A Great SEO Reseller Program

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 19th, 2012 at 8:16 PM

Thanks Carl; I’d certainly give it a try. I remembered the thing about Twitter changes coming but when this one came, it hit without notice, which is why I was irked.

Carl Reply:
October 19th, 2012 at 10:18 PM

Here is the update, actually Twitter Tools work with Social Plugin, you just have to login with Twitter. Actually I could not do that from plugin settings page, but was able to set it from user profile page and tools are working like a charm. Everytime you publish article a new window will open and will give you option to syndicate content on Facebook or Twitter.
Carl recently posted…Consistency And Flexibility Are Key For A Great SEO Reseller Program

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 19th, 2012 at 10:35 PM

Carl, I mentioned that I tried that and I just couldn’t get it to work. You know me, if I’m irked I leave and try to find another way. lol

October 18th, 2012 | 11:14 PM

Megan:

Hi Mitch, please accept my condolences for your lost plug-in. I think Twitterfeed is a pretty good replacement option. I have been using Twitterfeed for long and haven’t encountered any problems with it yet. Good luck with the new plug-in.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 19th, 2012 at 8:16 PM

Thanks Megan. It’s not quite a plugin but I’ll take it for now since it seems to be working okay.

October 19th, 2012 | 2:19 AM

Jeevanjacobjohn:

When I saw the title, I thought you decided to abandon all your twitter tools (I did sometime ago, well almost all because I just like the normal Twitter interface).

Twitter feed is indeed a great tool. Have you tried Dlvr.it, Mitch? Same concept, but more options I think. I have used both and found Dlvr.it to be more useful, in the sense that you can automatically tweet others’ posts too (which I don’t agree with these days, because that would make as an “auto-twitter” user).

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 19th, 2012 at 8:26 PM

Jeevan, I looked at it and it looks pretty impressive I must admit. I’m not going to look into it deeper just yet but I might look at it when I have more time.

October 19th, 2012 | 8:57 AM

Raina:

Okay, so that’s just frustrating but what can you do except pick up and move on, right? A lot of people do just fine with Twitterfeed, and I’m glad it’s working well for you so far. I’m definitely interested to hear how you like dlvr.it if you do decide to give it a try.
Raina recently posted…5 Ways to Increase Email Deliverability and Improve Campaign Performance

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 20th, 2012 at 9:52 PM

We’ll see Raina. If Twitterfeed doesn’t bother me much I might not get around to it.

October 20th, 2012 | 4:49 AM

Joseph:

You know it may sound crude but this comes as a relief. I thought I was the only person having troubles with Twitter Tools. Not many people I know use it, so I had no way of checking. Thanks for that update on Twitterfeed. There are some other options mentioned in your comments as well. I guess I’ll try those out to find out what can replace Twitter tools for me. Thanks for sharing Mitch.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 22nd, 2012 at 11:42 PM

No problem Joseph. I was bothered because it came with no announcement and, well, it wasn’t all that easy to set up way back when, which is what led me to write the tutorial I did. Still, you may be right, since things do change and there might be better options.

October 22nd, 2012 | 2:35 AM

Thomas:

It is difficult to get adjusted to a new way after using something for long. But as they say ‘change is the only thing which is constant’, we have to accept change. I agree Twitter is a very huge platform and if you ignore it, you probably are missing out a big opportunity. Not to mention these technological shocks are becoming more frequent than often these days.

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 22nd, 2012 at 11:43 PM

Ain’t that the truth Thomas! You know, I’ve reached that age where something I feel like a curmudgeon for not wanting to change things and that’s a shame. Still, going with the old adage of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” works okay for a long time.

October 22nd, 2012 | 3:05 AM

Localism:

Hi Mitch, just came across this post of yours. I agree that it can be difficult to get used to another service when the one that you are already using goes kaput without any warning. As it is, we can’t do much about it as the Internet is one thing that we cannot control, even if it is a major part in our lives. Good luck with your new service. Maybe Twitterfeed will be like a breath of fresh air (or not, who knows!)

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
October 23rd, 2012 at 5:03 PM

Thanks. It’s working well so far so I’m feeling better about it all.

October 23rd, 2012 | 1:31 AM

Tonya Stephens:

Hi Mitch,
First time here. I enjoyed your blog post on Twitter and the tools you’re using. I simply share and ask other to do the same. Old fashioned right?
After a year on the internet I am learning things never stay static for long around here. ha! I’ve had several tools go kaput on me already and there’s not much in the way of customer service to help us non-techies.
I learned a thing or two from your blog post.
Thanks for sharing the info.
Tonya

Mitch Mitchell Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 12:40 PM

Welcome Tonya, and I’m glad to help enlighten you a bit on some of the more technological stuff we put up with as bloggers. Yours may be old fashioned, but at least it means you’re around when your items show up.

November 7th, 2012 | 9:23 AM

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