Twitter + Posterous= How to Tweet & Blog at the Same Time
For years I’d considered starting up a blog, but felt I didn’t have the time to write and edit long blog posts. Twitter was another rabbit hole I avoided since I felt it would mean yet more time in front of the computer screen. Once on Twitter, I was surprised to learn how quickly one hears about innovative tech developments, finds tips and resources, and the ease of networking with professional people you admire.
As an AT specialist, I frequently give presentations at trainings and conferences. On Twitter I follow two of my favorite presentation experts- Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds. I noticed when either of them posted pictures linked to their twitter feed, it was on a site called Posterous. What I like about Posterous is it looks like a minimalistic blog with a clean and simple design. Your twitter “tweet” becomes your blog post title and whenever someone clicks on the link in your tweet, it directs them right to your blog post. Within your post you can have more text than a 140 character tweet allows, plus you can easily embed photos and video content. Creating a post is as simple as writing an email. The subject line is your tweet/blog post title. You can attach photos that will appear in your post with without any resizing, as Posterous does that automatically. If you want to share a Vimeo or YouTube Video, you simply copy and paste the embed code right into the body of the email. The text portion of your blog post is written in the body of the email. Hit the send button and presto- you have created a new tweet and the blog post on Posterous goes up automatically. If you don’t care to use Twitter, you don’t need to link your Posterous blog to a Twitter account. Occasionally, I will do tweets that don’t link to my Posterous blog. Those are usually tweets composed of a comment or a link sending followers directly to another website.
So far the only downside I’ve found in using Posterous is that it appears a bit harder to create a sense of community than a full blown blog and website. I am hoping as I get more content and regular visitors, people will begin to comment and participate in the conversation. Feel free to get the ball rolling! Posterous also makes it very easy to subscribe any Posterous blog and get new posts delivered daily to your email inbox. Or you can subscribe to a blog through an RSS feed like Google Reader.
I’ve included a screen shot of a previous post about an action journal so you can see how it looks in Posterous and the original email with attachments demonstrating how easy it is to post content with photos by email.
