Many of us have now fallen into the numerous social networking services that have sprouted up over the last two years. However, there is a way to save some time and energy when updating two of the biggest social sites out there: Facebook + Twitter.

Many of us have started using various applications or tools to update either Facebook or Twitter but what many people don’t realize is that each can be updated by posting to your WordPress blog. Now most of you know that I am a huge proponent of WordPress, its free, cheap, easy, and saves time in getting the word out to customers about services, promotions, and sales.

What are the benefits?
1. Content helps SEO. Updating content through your WordPress blog also allows you to begin to generate and archive information in your blog. Major search engines look favorably on this and it could help you get past your competition in the organic search engine race.

2. It saves time. Instead of logging into each service individually, you’re now able to update two of the biggest social networking tools out there in one place at the exact same time.

3. Reaching more people, faster. By automating the updating process, you’re able to get your information to clients and potential customers much quicker. This allows for faster turnaround time and potentially great ROI.

What if I don’t know anything about WordPress?
I suggest you download it and read through the easy install manual.

Installing Wordbook into WordPress
1. Login into your WordPress account and navigate to the ‘plugins’ section. Click the expansion arrow and click on ‘add new’.

2. Search for ‘Wordbook’. This is the plugin that will allow you to update your Facebook account automatically with WordPress.

3. Now there is more than one Wordbook and I’ve found the Robert Tsai authored plugin in much easier to deal with than his counterpart. Click the ‘install’ link on Robert Tsai’s Wordbook plugin.

4. You will be prompted with a Thickbox window that will ask you to install the latest version of the plugin. Click on ‘install the latest version’.

5. Once this has been completed the plugin will be installed, however, you will need to visit the settings section in the bottom left-hand size of the sidebar in order to configure the plugin.

6. Click the expansion arrow next to ‘Settings’ and then click on ‘Wordbook’.

7. You will be greeted by a screen that informs you of Wordbook’s status. This screen is where we will be configuring Wordbook to cross-post to your Facebook wall. Click on the Facebook icon with the lock icon on it.

8. Sign into the Facebook account in which you would like your WordPress posts to appear, then click on ‘Generate’. This will generate a user-unique code which Wordbook will use to identify your Facebook account.

9. Navigate back to your Wordbook configuration screen and copy/paste the code into the code activation field and click on the ‘submit’ button.

10. Once the activation of the plugin has been successful, you will see your Facebook account’s profile image to the right. Your WordPress blog will now update your Facebook wall whenever you create a new post.

Installing Twitter Tools into WordPress
Now its time to integrate your Twitter account into WordPress:

1. Login into your WordPress account and navigate to the ‘plugins’ section. Click the expansion arrow and click on ‘add new’.

2. Search for ‘Twitter Tools’. This is the plugin that will allow you to update your Twitter account automatically with WordPress.

3. Click on the ‘install’ link for Alex King’s version of Twitter Tools.

4. You will be prompted with a Thickbox window that will ask you to install the latest version of the plugin. Click on ‘install the latest version’.

5. Once this has been completed the plugin will be installed, however, you will need to visit the settings section in the bottom left-hand size of the sidebar in order to configure the plugin.

6. Click the expansion arrow next to ‘Settings’ and then click on ‘Twitter Tools’.

7. In the fields proceeded by ‘Twitter Username/Password’ enter your username/password and click on Test Login Info. If you have entered the proper information, you will be prompted with a ‘Login succeeded, you’re good to go’ message and you should continue onto Step 8.

8. The next field will ask you if you would like to ‘Enable option to create a tweet when you post in your blog?’ You should make sure that this box says ‘Yes’. This is the field necessary for cross-posting to your Twitter account when you update your WordPress blog.

9. The next field asks ‘Tweet prefix for new blog posts’. This is what will appear before any posted information on your Twitter stream. For instance, I have put ‘#Portland #Web #Design’ in this field so that now only will people know what categories of information I am addressing, but Twitter will also recognize them as keyword optimized information for searching.

10. Success! You can now cross-post to Twitter using your WordPress blog! (You can leave the rest of the fields in the Twitter Tools configuration set to their defaults. None of them have any bearing on your cross-posting to Twitter.)

Conclusion
Whew, I know that’s quite a few steps, but now you’re ready to streamline two of the social networking giants right into your very own WordPress blog!