We use the Pretty Link Pro WordPress plugin, which is a bargain and can be purchased by clicking here, to tweet articles under the @questiondefense Twitter account. This not only is easy to do with Pretty Link Pro but it provides a great method of driving traffic to our articles here on Question-Defense.com. There have been numerous times when one of us forgets to check the tweet article checkbox in the Pretty Link Pro bucket from the Add New Post page when writing articles. The issue with that is the fact that once an article is published there is no tweet article button from the Edit Post page within WordPress. Below we describe the process of tweeting a post after it has been published in WordPress.
Use Pretty Link Pro To Tweet A Post After It Has Been Published:
I am writing this article as much for Question Defense authors as much as I am for others because all of us forget from time to time to check the Pretty Link Pro bucket “Auto Tweet on Publish” checkbox before clicking the Publish button on our posts! Luckily it is still really easy to tweet a post with Pretty Link Pro after you publish an article however you will need the Twitter account username and password which in our case is not distributed to all authors. So when a post needs to be tweeted after it has been published it becomes an admin function to tweet posts after they have been published if they were not set to Auto Tweet on Publish.
If you forget to set the post to auto tweet before publishing the Pretty Link Pro bucket on the Edit Post page in WordPress will look like the below example image.
Hasn’t Been Tweeted Yet – Pretty Link Pro
When you run into this situation on WordPress when publishing posts where you forget to check the Auto Tweet on Publish box you can easily tweet the message by first clicking on Pretty Link in the WordPress Admin left navigation menu. This will not only expand the Pretty Link Pro sub menu as shown in the below example image but it will take you to the list of Pretty Link Pro Links page.
Pretty Link Pro Expanded Sub Menu – WordPress Admin
If the Pretty Link Pro Pretty Link admin page does not open click on Pretty Link in the Pretty Link Pro sub menu. This will open a page similar to the below example however the links will obviously be links to your posts and not the Question-Defense.com Pretty Link’s.
Pretty Link Pro – Pretty Link List In WordPress Admin
The above example image not only lists the most recent Pretty Links, which are automatically generated when a post is published, but it also shows the alt text of the Tweet link below the most recently created Pretty Link. This Pretty Link was for an article created where I forgot to place a check in the Auto Tweet On Publish checkbox and thus the article was not automatically posted to Twitter. To manually tweet about this article I click on the Tweet link below the article to open a new window to Twitter with the Pretty Link already pasted into it as shown in the below example image.
Twitter – Tweet Specific Pretty Link
Please be careful as if you are signed into Twitter with a different account Pretty Link Pro will attempt to post the Pretty Link to the Twitter account you are signed in with. If you are not signed into Twitter then a username and password field will be displayed below the Tweet window as shown in the below example image.
Not Signed Into Twitter – Tweet Specific Pretty Link
Before you actually post the Pretty Link to Twitter you will want to add more details to make the tweet more similar to what it would be if you used the “Auto Tweet On Publish” function that is available when creating a new post in the WordPress admin. The details you want to add include putting the title of the article before the Pretty Link and putting some custom hashtags after the tweet as shown in the below example image.
Post Title And Hashtags – Tweet Via Pretty Link
One thing to note is that if the post title is super long you will want to trim the end of it or modify it a bit so the tweet is not over Twitter’s 140 character limit. Pretty Link Pro cuts off titles at exactly 46 characters so I am assuming it is better for SEO to shop the end off the title than to actually modify the title of the article. I am not one hundred percent sure about that but wanted to mention as that is my observation and understanding. Once you have verified the post title will fit properly without going over the Twitter character limit add some relevant hashtags after the post title. You can see in the format about I use “-” to separate the post title, the Pretty Link, and the hashtags at the end. Once you have the entire tweet constructed and ready to post to Twitter click the Tweet button and you will be redirected to the Twitter accounts Me Page as shown in the below example.
Twitter Account Me Page After Pretty Link Tweet Posted:
You have now tweeted a Pretty Link to the post that was not auto tweeted when the WordPress post was published the first time! I am going to put in a recommendation to the Pretty Link developers to add a Auto Tweet button on the Edit Post WordPress Admin page as well though I am sure they are busy with other features so it may be awhile before this new feature will be implemented.
If you do not already have Pretty Link Pro and you are looking for a way to auto tweet WordPress posts then click here to view Pretty Link Pro’s features. I believe Pretty Link Pro to be an amazing value because of features that include Auto Tweet Posts On Publish, Keyword Replacement In Posts, Social Media Bar For Posts, and many others!
