We all know that Twitter is great but sometimes you need more than 140
characters. Maybe you want to include some additional information to
back up your Tweet, or you want to post a picture, video, or MP3 to
Twitter. Posterous is the perfect way to give your Twitter more oomph.
It's a blog tool that lets you post by sending email. To get started,
just send a mail to
post@posterous.com.
Your subject should be the title of your post, and your message can
contain formatted text, pictures, links, and any attachments you like.
Set up Twitter autopost
Go to your
Add an
autopost page, click the Twitter tab and type in your username and
password. Then click save. Now when you post anything to Posterous, the
subject line will be sent as a Tweet, with a link to the full message.
If you're feeling adventurous, click
Advanced options and do the next thing too:
... and add "Please RT" to the autopost options
If you're taking the time to write a blog post, you want it to get some
distribution. So add Please RT to the end of your autopost, and add the
text Please RT at the end.
To do this, go to your
autopost
options, click the "edit" text next to Twitter, and then "advanced
options". Then just add "Please RT" to the end of the "Custom Footer".
Double
check
that your Twitter Username and Password are correct before you
Save. (Your browser's autocomplete might have put your Posterous
username in instead.)
Now your Posterous posts will get posted to Twitter automatically.
Here's some ways to make use of it.
Make your subject lines self-contained tweets
I reckon people choose to RT based on the tweet text, not the content
of the link. So make the subject retweetable on its own. It should be a
statement that summarizes the main point of your message.
Make the subject line the Tweet, and use the message body and
attachments to add detail and extras.
Don't overdo it
People will get tired if all your Tweets have links to your own site
attached and ask for retweets. Use normal tweets sometimes too. Don't
make people click a link if there's nothing worth seeing on the other
side -- it will put people off. Don't make people click a link to your
posterous, if all the post contains is a link to a target site.
You can repost later
Twitter gets real busy once the west coast of America wakes up, and
there's a good chance most people will miss your tweets the first time.
Posterous autopost lets you post an article to Twitter again, and
again, and again. Handle with care -- but use it to reach multiple time
zones (repost at points throughout the day), or to give old posts a
boost (look through your archive for things you posted long ago, and
tweet them).
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