New VBulletin threads automatically sent to Twitter API

[skippybosco]

Given the rise of adoption for Twitter as well as the frequency by which the search engines are indexing it, would there be value in having new threads summaries sent to the Twitter API with a real or TinyURL back to your site.

While granted it will not help from a inbound link perspective, it may help in site exposure as well as providing an alternate means for folks to "subscribe" to your site updates (ie. following you on Twitter)

Updates would obviously be sent to a site specific Twitter account (ex. user: vbseo, name VBSEO.com)

[Chris Stewart]

Yeah, I created something like that. It was pretty easy to do:

CompiledMonkey.com Blog Archive Twitter Integration on iPhone Dev SDK - A daily look at all things geek.

[Joe Ward]

I think you will want to customize it more than just "new threads".

You don't want to flood your Twitter channel, because people will lose interest.

If you create occasional articles, that might be a better approach.

If you are going to do something automatic, try something like sending to the channel when a thread "gets hot" defined as 25 replies today or 1,000 hits, etc.

I'm sure that we'll see a flood of Twitter (and related) plugins coming soon to vBulletin.org with more advanced logic built in.

[skippybosco]

I really like how you masked the URL by setting the text color the same as the background of your twitter page until you mouseover.

[mykkal]

I believe what you are looking for already exists.
VBulletin/Twitter Intergration Modification on Vbulletin.org.
vBTwitter - Page 10 - vBulletin.org Forum

[skippybosco]

hey mykkal,

vBTwitter seems a bit different in that it empowers the forum user to "tweet" the post to their own Twitter account as oppose to the admin having all (or HOT) threads posted to a forum twitter account.

[mykkal]

hey mykkal,

vBTwitter seems a bit different in that it empowers the forum user to "tweet" the post to their own Twitter account as oppose to the admin having all (or HOT) threads posted to a forum twitter account.

I think those features are being built into the next version.

In any case... This is why I think that is Facebook Connect valuable to SEO and traffic.

Look at this. It's the traffic comparison of MySpace vs Facebook. All major changes are since facebook connect was launched. I want access to those users and all that demographic data.

[skippybosco]

That does exist today:

Facebook Connect - Allow your users to login with their Facebook account - vBulletin.org Forum

[mykkal]

That does exist today:

Facebook Connect - Allow your users to login with their Facebook account - vBulletin.org Forum

Yes I know... I have it installed on my forum.

[dascrow]

If you use the facebook connect, does it do a "full" registration of the user on your forum or does it always rely on facebook connect? Ie. if I'm a new user and I register using it for the first time... what happens if facebook connect goes away. Is that user data stored in the VB database permanently so you can do away with it whenever you want too if you decide to break way from FB?

[skippybosco]

I'd also be curious what the impact of adding Facebook Connect was to your registration and site usage.

[mykkal]

If you use the facebook connect, does it do a "full" registration of the user on your forum or does it always rely on facebook connect? Ie. if I'm a new user and I register using it for the first time... what happens if facebook connect goes away. Is that user data stored in the VB database permanently so you can do away with it whenever you want too if you decide to break way from FB?

Hey there, FaceBook passes all of the demographic data. Except the email address. It actually sends a proxied email address that you can send to. It will pass that message to the user.

I'm gonna get around this by querying all users with a FaceBook email address and asking them to update their address.

I'd also be curious what the impact of adding Facebook Connect was to your registration and site usage.

It went up. Anything a user posts in our forums are automatically posted as a note on their FaceBook profiles. SO we get the registration information plus traffic driven back from facebook.

I have the twitter plugin for vb installed as well.

Honestly, if vBSEO included open ID authentication for users, facebook connect (publishing an registration), and twitter (publishing an registration) plugins then product use of vBSEO would easily increase. It may sound out of scope but I don't think so. With the addition of social bookmarking vBSEO opened itself up to increasing vBulletin forum traffic as well as search Engine Optimization.

[PromotePoker]

honestly, if vbseo included open id authentication for users, facebook connect (publishing an registration), and twitter (publishing an registration) plugins then product use of vbseo would easily increase. It may sound out of scope but i don't think so. With the addition of social bookmarking vbseo opened itself up to increasing vbulletin forum traffic as well as search engine optimization.

+1

[mykkal]

Be great if there was a poll on this.

[meonet]

vBTwitter integration work fine with vBSEO?

Thanks