Adding a Twitter Widget to your website

If you have a Twitter account, you can add your own 'Tweets' to your website so visitors can follow you from your own site rather than having to visit Twitter.

Twitter.com is one of the world’s most popular social networking sites. Its users are encouraged to post messages, or “tweets”, of up to 140 characters which can be seen by anyone who chooses to follow them.  

For users of Twitter, the focus is entirely on the content of “tweets”, unlike other social networking sites such as Myspace or Facebook which allow users to post photos. This means Twitter is useful for conveying information quickly and easily or updating people with news.

Businesses can use Twitter in one of two ways. The first is to circulate useful information within a company (for instance a newspaper editor might send out a “tweet” notifying staff of a story which needs covering). The second is to use Twitter to update potential customers of news, like a mini-blog.

Many big name companies use Twitter for just this reason, including Innocent Drinks and the Blackberry Company. A directory of companies using Twitter can be found at http://www.twellow.com/

Get a Twitter Widget here.

 

One of the simplest ways to use Twitter for your business is to add a Twitter “Widget” to your website

 

The Twitter Widget is a small box showing your latest “Tweets” which is pasted into your website as either a Flash object or as Twitter html code (if you want to style the box yourself to match your website).

The advantage of using Twitter over simply adding news to your website is that tweets show up instantly, without any need to edit your website.

If you cannot update your own website, but have to rely on a web designer to do this, then having a Twitter widget is a good way for you to add up-to-the-minute news yourself - instantly!

If you have access to the code for your website, the way to add your Twitter without having to style it, is to choose one of the Flash widgets.

To do this, firstly you must sign up for a Twitter account, then go to:

http://twitter.com/goodies/widgets

Choose between the widget for “My Website” and the “Facebook” widget. Choosing the widget for "My website" gives 4 options: Choose "Profile Widget"

You are then prompted to customise the profile widget. First add your Twitter username to the box and tyou will see your latest Tweets appear on the right..

Next Click preferences and pick your preferred options, then appearance to change the colours to display the widget in.

Then dimensions to choose the size you'd like the widget to appear.

All is very straight forward!

When you are happy with the choices you have made, click "Finish & Grab Code" button at the bottom of the page.

After obtaining the code for your Widget, all you need to paste the code into your website.

Simply place this code into the area of your website that you wish the Twitter Widget to appear.

Simple!

 

 

Need to know how to add a Twitter widget to a Myspace Page?