Custom Twitter Feeds – review

Hello friends,

I am sure that you are familiar with the social media power of Twitter. This network is proven to be extremely effective when it comes to using it for marketing purposes.

In this post I will present to you one solution that will allow you to show your Twitter feeds on your WordPress website in order to attract more followers in this social media.

The solution is called Custom Twitter Feeds.

First a quick explanation on how Twitter works for those users who are yet to begin using it.

Twitter allows you to create a micro-blog message that is limited to 140 characters. In it you can add text, images or video files. Usually Twitter also counts the URL characters as part of the main message that is why using a URL shortener is a good idea in this case. In this social media you can also create polls and add location to your tweets (the name of the micro-blog messages that you create).

Twitter relies on the @ sign to mention a user or a brand in a tweet. For example if you wish to mention The CMS Place on Twitter you can use @TheCMSPlace in your updates.

This social media also relies on the hash-tag technology. These are specific topics that may go viral if more than one person uses them in their tweets. They are created of characters without spaces and with the # symbol in front of them. For example: #WordPress. You can either use existing hash-tags that are already viral or you can create your own one and popularize it.

In Twitter you can also have conversations when users and brands are mentioning each other and then replying on the respective tweets and so on.

Now on the main topic – why should I use Custom Twitter Feeds on WordPress.

This plugin will allow you to display the feed of your personal or business profile on your website. The key moment here is that you will be able to completely customize this feed. You can add user timeline, home timeline of even the hashtag that you have created for your brand and want to be popularized.

How to use Custom Twitter Feeds?

Begin by following the already familiar procedure of installing (automatically using WordPress or by downloading from WordPress.org) and activating the plugin.

Then you have to go to your WordPress dashboard and click on the Twitter Feeds menu in order to configure the plugin.

Once you do this, you will be presented with five tabs:

• Configure – here you have to either login to Twitter in order to get Access Token and Secret. If the big blue button is not working you can use the link next to it and if this also fails you can also enter your Twitter app information manually.
  Click on “Save Changes” when you are done with this step and then configure the feed settings:
  • Feed Type – select between User Timeline, Home Timeline or Hashtag;
  • Tweets to display – specify the number of tweets you want to be visible on the feed;
  • Period for checking for new tweets – you can set the plugin to check for new tweets on a regular basis – hours, minutes or days. You can also clear the Twitter Cache if needed;
  • Determine whether or not to keep the settings in case the plugin is removed;
  • Add support for an Ajax powered theme (if you are using one);

  Now click on the “Save Changes” button once again and continue to the next tab:

• Customize – here you can make the actual customization to your Twitter feed. You are presented with four groups of settings:
  1. • General:
       • Width of the feed;
       • Height of the feed;
       • Custom CSS Class;
     • Show/Hide:
       • Retweeted text;
       • Avatar image;
       • Author name;
       • Tweet text;
       • Date;
       • Tweet actions;
       • Twitter link;
       • Quoted tweet box;
       • Header;
       • The “Load More” Button;
       • Custom Twitter Feeds credit;
     • Misc:
       • Custom CSS;
       • Custom Javasript;
     • Advanced:
       • Request method type – auto, cUrl, file_get_contents() or WP_Http;
       • Force cache to clear on interval – select between Yes or No or leave it neutral “-“;
       • Tweet Multiplier – if your feed excludes reply tweets (this is automatic in hashtag/search feeds), the correct number of tweets may not show up. Increasing the number specified in this field will increase the number of tweets retrieved but will also increase the load time for the feed as well;

  Save the settings once again and proceed to the next tab:

• Style – here you can add colors, header information, date information, author information, links, retweet boxes, tweets actions and “Load More” button styling;
• Display Your Feed – here you can determine where your feed will be shown. You can use a shortcode and place it anywhere you desire. There are also different shortcodes combinations available for you to choose the most suitable one for your WordPress website. The feeds can be displayed in posts, pages and widgets;
• Support – provides you with information about your system and options to contact the plugin developers in order to receive high-quality support;

What should I do next with Custom Twitter Feeds?

Start filling your Twitter profile with useful tweets and display them on your website. Remember that great content in any form is a sure method to attract new followers for your brand. A good idea here will be to find additional information about using Twitter for social media marketing purposes so that you can be sure that you are doing it right.

That’s all friends! If you find this plugin useful, please give it a try. Bear in mind that this review was for the options supported in the free version of Custom Twitter Feeds. If you want more power for your custom feeds you can purchase the PRO version of the plugin and unlock all of the additional options in the tabs.

Please share this post on social media in order to help other users find out about this great plugin and don’t forget to write any questions or feedback in the comment section below.

See you soon, friends!