There are a lot of Twitter plugins and widgets out there for WordPress. So which one is the best? I’ve tested a lot of the various plugins available, but I have yet to find a plugin that has the functionality of Twitter Tools by Alex King. This plugin does an great job of providing both enough options and clean code. I also trust Alex because he’s a core contributor to WordPress, which means more than likely not leaving WordPress anytime soon.
So what’s so great about Twitter Tools? Here are just a few items I love about this plugin:
- The plugin comes loaded with 4 different widget plugins you can activate, for whatever suits you best.
- You can setup weekly digest posts to recap from what was talked about on Twitter
- Optionally you can create individual posts for each tweet
- You can optionally tweet directly from your sidebar (which is great when you want to let people tweet from your account, but not give them access directly)
- You can choose which Javascript library to use
- A linkback is optional and not forced (which some plugins do, and makes me quite angry when they do)
Overall, this plugin is just a great plugin. Alex keeps it up to date, so you can rest assured that it’s a secure plugin.
Here is what the options page looks like.
I used Twitter Tools for a while and then I swapped it with Twitter Posts (http://www.rene-ade.de/inhalte/wordpress-plugin-twitterposts.html). The main advantage I found of using that one that everything goes automatically and without having to change the code, you can change the text that shows up in Twitter to announce you have a new post…
uhuh, in your screenshot I can see now that Twitter Tools also has that option, hmmm….
I agree Jonathan. I love Twitter Tools. I use it on a couple of different sites, for very different purposes. Very flexible. And the word “optional” comes with every feature. It’s like a “make-your-own” twitter plugin.
I’ve been using this plugin for a while now and have been extremely happy with it. Of course, not every Twitter plugin will work 100% of the time, but I’ve seen this one as the most reliable.
Agreed. I have not found a Twitter plugin better than Twitter Tools. Although recently I stopped using a plugin and just use javascript to display my tweets. And my weekly digest is done manually every week, so I can categorize everything and make it a little more useful.
posting tweets with Twitter Tools has worked perfect till a few days back.. Now the URL is missing from the Tweets.
Could it be that the latest version of WordPress is interfering with it?
I see no place to enter the Title or URL in customization. What else could it be?
No, the upgrade wouldn’t have messed with it — the only changes for WordPress 2.8.6 were a few security fixes, dealing with user registration.
I’m not sure what you mean by “enter the Title or URL in customization” — if you want to tweet directly using Twitter Tools, there are options to auto-tweet your new posts.
i agreed w/ u, this plugin is best-of-the-best twitter plugin ever.
already tried fews, nothing can beat TT.
just awesome!
Thanks for the twitter plugin links
Thanks. I’m fumbling with how to integrate twitter into my blog. Appreciate the review.
thanks for the recommend J.D.! got it up on my site already…:-) what features do you use?
Mtn. Jim
I mostly just use the “pull tweets into sidebar” functionality, which you can see above on the right hand side. Very useful and easy to use, in my opinion.
It’s a great plugin, but it’s to bad you can only use one twitteraccount.
I’m looking for a plugin for two twitteraccounts to one wordpress website.
anyone?
I’m using Xhanch – My Twitter.
http://xhanch.com/wp-plugin-my-twitter/
For me, it’s the best one so far
Now I use plugins wp to twitter for update my blog to twitter account automatically , it’s work for me.
Hi. Saw your recommendation and am using it now. However, I can only see one widget, and I’d like to know how to get a line or paragraph break after each tweet. I’d also like to be able to put a BR before the timestamp.
How did you format your widget?
Installed Twitter Tools but am struggling to get it working at all!
what issues are you having?