Being as prolific on the Web as I am, it makes sense for me to type something once and for it to be syndicated everywhere. For example, I use Twitter as a single port of call to quickly update my status across a number of networks; Facebook, MySpace, YahooPulse, ICQ, and Tumblr
I am not going to try to convince you to use Twitter, dear Reader. I am going to tell you how you can make your online time more efficient by being better connected. You may be reading this note on Facebook but that is not where I wrote it. It is actually imported automatically from my blog. Simples.
I never really understood the use of this until Vodafone told me that I could tweet by text for free (to begin with). It was great because I didn't have unlimited fast Internet access on my mobile. That's how it started. I wanted to update my Facebook status because most of my friends are spread far and wide and I don't get to see them often. I was already sending mass texts to try to organise new year's parties etc, and as Facebook became more popular so it made sense for me to use it instead of texting. I connected my Twitter account to Facebook and this enabled me to send out quick news to a wider audience quickly and easily from anywhere. I asked a friend how he did it and I in turn have passed this on to another mate. So if you want to link Twitter to Facebook then check out the easy tutorial.
http://www.ajvaynerchuk.com/how-to-link-twitter-to-facebook-a-twitter-tutorial-3/
You can link a lot more things to each other. A friend of mine recently posted a youtube video to his Facebook wall. Go to YouTube, watch a funny video, then press the share button, choose Facebook, wait for the share window to open, choose a thumbnail, press share again...
so many clicks! and why must a share it to just Facebook? I have old friends on Bebo, American friends on MySpace, and industry friends on Twitter. I want to share it with all of them. I also want to share the music that I listen to and the photos that I take with all my mates, not necessarily only with the ones in a single network. I can only do all of this quickly and easily because I have authorised their official website applications to my Facebook wall and, dear Reader, you can too.
Check out the apps you have already authorised on Facebook. Here are some official ones...
Bebo
FriendFeed
Last.fm
LinkedIn
Tumblr
Twitter
Other than their Facebook app, there are a number of websites that allow you to connect your account with them to Facebook. Some of these include
I Move You account settings
ICQ Edit Profile - Settings - Feeds Settings
YahooPulse Settings - Manage my linked accounts
YouTube Account Settings - Activity Sharing
Disqus settings - connections
Digg settings - connections
Tumblr Account - preferences
MySpace Account - sync
So what are you thoughts? Is it a good idea to authorise website apps to access your account and post things for you automatically? Does it save time and effort having things connected automatically? Do you feel it is a risk opening your info to third party software agents that you do not know what they are doing? Or is it just dangerous... you accidentally share a video from YouTube that your boss sees from your Twitter feed but you really really should only have shared the video with your best friends? (but this cannot really happen if you have your settings right, especially with Flickr photo security - top notch)