Hey, This Twitter Plugin Works Great!
I don’t normally push WordPress plug-ins for the simple reason that they don’t always work as performed or the usefulness of one plug-in v. a similar one shows that there aren’t many differences to warrant noting one at the expense of another. In addition, I know that plugins can sometimes be quirky, draining precious resources as well as messing with themes if the coding isn’t quite right.
Giving TweetMeme A Try
That being said, I’ve gotten to like one I found recently — TweetMeme — which works with Twitter. Specifically, it allows you to tweet or retweet a blog article by clicking on a Digg like icon you can place at the beginning of your article, at the end of your article or in both places.
You can choose the normal sized widget or select a compact widget, both will immediately retweet the article when clicked on provided you have an account with Twitter (or the person who clicks the widget has one if they do the tweeting). Moreover, you can display the button on pages as well as posts, even on your feed which can be a great way for your readers to retweet your information.
Play Around With The Settings
You can design the button to float left or right and tweak the settings between a post and the button itself. Finally, you can either use your name as the source for the tweeting or tweet your pages with @tweetmeme as your source. The easy to use control panel makes setting up a breeze, no coding needs to be entered into various php files.
Because this plugin is from TweetMeme, you can also find your tweets featured on their site, by category. Get a boatload of tweets and you could have a front page appearance, much like Digg. TweetMeme, in fact, tracks the most popular tweets on Twitter, updating every five minutes.
Digg Is So Yesterday
Speaking of Digg, I’m so done with that service. Unless your far left radical or conspiracy theorist, your stuff generally won’t get dugg without much cooperation from like-minded people. Twitter on the other hand seems to be visited by people who actually make a living during their waking hours and includes people from a broad spectrum of society. Sure, you can follow whomever you want, but you can also avoid the problem children unlike with Digg.
So if you want to give TweetMeme a try to see how it works, why not retweet this article while you are at it? Or, find something else here to retweet and then download the plugin to see if it suits your needs.
By LarryJackson, May 11, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
Thanks for sharing this plugin, Matt. I have noticed that I am getting much more traffic from Twitter than I ever did from Digg. You speak the truth on that one for sure.
LarryJacksons last blog post..J.C. Watts–Lobbyist or Governor?
By ViCky, May 11, 2009 @ 11:56 pm
Well , I am not a wordpress user and that plug in is not much use for me but i also agree that Twitter is better for your blog then Dig
By socre, May 12, 2009 @ 4:22 am
Until now I do not use it. It is time to uses Twitter. Thanks for it.
By Matt Keegan, May 12, 2009 @ 6:17 am
@Larry — Give it a try, Larry. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how well this works. I’ve been getting in the habit of looking for the button on other people’s site, but since it is new I don’t see it around that much. However, when it becomes widespread I look at it as one more opportunity to share the tweeting love.
@Vicky — I am not sure if a variation of the plugin has been made for other blogging platforms. It may be worth it to Google it to see if there is one for you.
Matt Keegans last blog post..China Is Good To The Chevy Cruze
By Mihaela Lica, May 12, 2009 @ 6:25 am
Ahhh, finally… I always hated digg (the small digg haters gang – LOL) and it is great to see something that might “scare” the Rose.
By Matthew C. Keegan, May 12, 2009 @ 8:55 am
Mihaeala, I think Twitter and the TwitterMeme have something going for them. The playing field has been leveled, now anyone can participate without being dugg down or attacked.
Digg seemed to work well for awhile, but then it was co-opted by the lunatic fringe making it difficult for mainstream net users to take advantage of what it has to offer.
By positive attitude, May 12, 2009 @ 9:30 am
I will test this plugin, thanks for sharing.
positive attitudes last blog post..Kickstart Your Confidence
By Cisco Certification, May 12, 2009 @ 2:08 pm
yeah, there’s always some new things to try. I myself will try this now.
By LarryJackson, May 12, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
I have it installed now, Matt. As I said earlier, I see a lot more traffic from Twitter than I ever did with Digg.
LarryJacksons last blog post..Atlantis headed to Hubble one last time
By Matthew C. Keegan, May 13, 2009 @ 6:18 am
That’s great, Larry. Makes it so much more easy to retweet something when the button is in place. I just RT’d your Atlantis shuttle article, a good read worth sharing with the Twitter world.
By sid@typeofattorney.com, May 14, 2009 @ 2:25 pm
I have just started to get into this twitter thing , but i agree it seems to be a lot more effective than Digg atleast for now. Not sure if twitter will be a long term thing but it is hot at the moment. Thanks for the plugin will try it out.
By Matthew C. Keegan, May 14, 2009 @ 3:01 pm
Sid, Twitter is going through some growing pains for a very good reason — it has been getting a lot of free publicity for some time. I like that it levels the playing field for users, instead of restricting it to a club of grouchy, mean-spirited people like some social media sites have become. Used with StumbleUpon and a few other key sites, Twitter can be beneficial to the web user.
By Jeremy, May 15, 2009 @ 8:25 am
We just started our blog and we’re really in the incipient experiencing phase with twitter methods. thanks for the comprehensive info on this plugin.
By Matthew C. Keegan, May 15, 2009 @ 8:28 am
Best wishes with the new blog, Jeremy! Now is the time to give a bunch of plugins a try to see if they work for you. I use about a dozen of them, including page reorder, Adsense adder, akismet and more.
By Ask A Doctor, May 16, 2009 @ 2:48 pm
Hey, Matt! Do you know if there is a Twitter plug-in for Joomla as well? I could really use this for my site.
By Matthew C. Keegan, May 16, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
Ask, I can’t answer that. Visit tweetmeme.com to see if something turns up. If you still can’t find an answer, then Google the words tweetmeme and Joomla to see what turns up. Have fun!
By Internet Marketing Joy, May 17, 2009 @ 9:16 pm
I have to admit..I’m an avid user of Twitter..for me Twitter is a great way to connect with friends and family and at the same time promote my site’s content…anyways thanks a lot for sharing this Twitter plugins..I will try it on my blog, too.
By Vinny O'Hare, May 30, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
Great Plugin, Didn’t know how to place it at the top of my site. It was in the appearance section of WordPress for all you newbies
By Matthew C. Keegan, May 30, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
Vinny, I’m glad that you like. I checked out your site and the plugin looks great. BTW, I also manage a racing site at Finley Racing – a new site, so there isn’t all that much posted on it yet.
By Pozycjonowanie, June 22, 2009 @ 4:27 am
TweetMeme is awesome! And it doesn’t slow everything down so much. However I don’t agree with your opinion about digg – it’s not perfect but the ammount of people you can reach with it is a lot bigger than the ammount of people you could reach with twitter. Why not do both?