WordPress is moving more and more options that were only initially available via the WP Admin button to the new style dashboard on WordPress.Com blogs.
It’s something I’ve noticed happening a lot and makes perfect sense while they improve security, and update and redesign their platform.
You may ask “What are these options, Hugh?”
Well, I’ve decided to update some of my older posts where the WP Admin button was used so that I can show you how to make the same changes via the new style WordPress dashboard.
I’m kicking off with one of my pet hates – bloggers who haven’t connected their Twitter account to their WordPress blog.
For me, Twitter is a great place to give my blog posts some free publicity. And who doesn’t like some free publicity?
Twitter is also an excellent place for promoting blog posts I’ve enjoyed reading, and is the third biggest referrer of traffic to my blog.
Have you come across this problem?
You click the Twitter sharing button on a blog post you’ve enjoyed reading, and instead of the blogger’s Twitter username appearing at the end of the tweet, you see @WordPress.Com instead!
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Why does it happen?
Because the blogger has not connected their Twitter account to their blog.
Of course, they may not know they can connect it or just haven’t done it.
But it’s a problem that’s easy and quick to fix.
Let’s get started.
- On the dashboard of your blog, click on Tools and then on Marketing.
- On the Marketing and Integrations page that opens, click on Sharing Buttons.
- In the Options block, look for the Twitter Username box and add your Twitter username in the box.
- Click the Save Changes button.
There is one last job you need to do to connect your Twitter account to your blog.
- On the Marketing and Integrations page, click on Connections and click the connect button next to Twitter.
A new window will open.
- Click on the Authorize App button.
WordPress will look for your Twitter account, and in an onscreen message will show you your Twitter user name.
- If the username is correct, click on the Connect button.
- Your Twitter account is now connected to your WordPress blog.
Now, every time you publish a new blog post, it will be shared on your Twitter account. Your Twitter username will also appear at the end of the tweet.
Layout, content, settings and format might differ on self-hosted blogs.
Are you on Twitter? Leave your Twitter username in the comments section so we can follow you.
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Any questions?
Don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments section.
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Hugh's Views & News 
Thanks for this article; I didn’t even know you could connect Twitter like that! Do you recommend Twitter as the best social media for expanding a blog’s reach, or is there another that you prefer?
I’ve tried most of them, and Twitter always seemed to send me the most traffic. However, I know of bloggers who prefer other social media platforms. I think the trick is sticking to the one you like best and not trying to spread yourself too thinly between them all.
Thanks so much!!! I’m feeling them out at the moment; I think I’ll try Twitter.
Like anything, it’ll need time to build up a following on it, but I find being sociable on it helps.
Thanks for this guidance.
You’re welcome. I hope it helped?
Yes, I have done as you advised. Lets see ahead when I post something 😊
Don’ be afraid of coming back and asking any further questions. I’m always happy to help.
Thats nice to hear. Thanks again
Hi Hugh, Thanks for the great article. I connected years ago, but yesterday I noticed that I needed to refresh the connection. Usually it’s LinkedIn that needs refreshing. I also noticed the new option – the thread. I tried it once and the post gave me a message that it failed to publish. I hit publish again, and got the same message, but when I checked the post had published. I don’t know if it had a thread of tweets, though. Do you have any info on the threads? Thanks again for the post.
You’re welcome, Marsha.
I’ve not tried the threaded tweet option yet, but I do intend to give it a try. I’ll certainly be publishing more information about it.
It sounds as though there may be a bug if you were getting a ‘failed’ notification, yet the tweets go out. I wonder if WordPress are aware of it? If it happens to you again, I’d recommend you let them know so that they can investigate and fix the problem.
I haven’t contacted them. I will see if it happens again. WP has bugs on different browsers. I can’t “like” if I use Chrome but it’s fine if I use Microsoft Edge. I chatted with them a couple of times and nothing they suggested worked, so I quit using Chrome to read other people’s blogs. It’s only a slight adjustment to save a lot of frustration. 🙂 Thanks again, Hugh. I should put you on the payroll. LOL 🙂
How strange that you’re having problems with Chrome, Marsha. I use an iMac and I can’t use Safari when using WordPress. Instead, I’ve downloaded and use Chrome (which thankfully doesn’t seem to give me any problems).
LOL, Go figure. We are MacGyvers. There’s always more than one way to skin a cat. 🙂
My problem is connecting a social media account they don’t have listed–Parler in my case. That seems too complicated for my elder brain.
As far as I know, you can only connect social media accounts they list. However, creating sharing buttons to other social media accounts/platforms is another matter.
I prefer Twitter compared to FB, Hugh. Thanks for showing folks how easy it is to set up Twitter on their blogs. ❤
Same here, Colleen. I deleted my Facebook account a few years ago. However, I know many who still have a Twitter and Facebook account. I’ve had good results from Twitter so will certainly be sticking with it.
Excellent tutorial Hugh. And I agree, it’s astounding the amount of bloggers that don’t connect their social media names to their own buttons. Just an extra chance to have our work exposed with our name on it. I’ll be adding this post to my next edition of writer’s tips. 🙂 x
Thanks so much for adding this your next edition of writer’s tips, Debby. I’ve got some more Twitter related posts coming up.
I’m all ears. 🙂
I always come away from here smarter. @MicheleDMorin
Thanks, Michele. I’ve followed you over on Twitter.
Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
It is a useful feature to automate the connection with your count, I also like the fact WordPress now gives you the option to edit what gets added to Twitter when your article gets published, as sometimes the title isn’t always enticing enough to encourage someone to click.
Something I don’t like, and not sure if they still do this was to add your Twitter followers onto your WordPress followers, which doesn’t really help give an accurate picture of who is actually invested in your blog and who has been tagged on from your Twitter.
Yes, I agree about the editing function of tweets on posts, James. It’s a handy feature.
There is a widget that adds Twitter followers to WordPress followers, and another that just shows WordPress followers. I have them both displayed in my widget bar so that people can see the difference. If you have any contributors who write posts for your blog, their Twitter followers are also added to the total of the Twitter + WordPress widget.
Thanks Hugh I might have a look into that. I remember when I first connected twitter it gave me a bit of a shock as I thought I’d gained 100’s of followers overnight.
If you have a Facebook account, I believe the followers from there are also added, James. It can really inflate the figures. That’s why I also have the WordPress follow widget on the sidebar of my blog. It shows how many other WordPress users and those who have signed up via email follow my blog.
This has always been a bug bear Hugh as you quite rightly point out. I think it must have been you in the early days who helped me solve this problem so I’m glad to relook at it.
What do you think of the ability to set the post as a single tweet or a threaded tweet, have you used that option yet? You’re right many things seem to be changing and it’s fun learning new things. Thanks again for all you do to keep sharing things you learn.
If it’s a long post, I think a threaded tweet is a good option, Debbie. I also use a site called Missinglettr, where I can set up tweets on a post over a 365 day period. I use the free version of the site, and it works well for me.
There’s a lot of changes happening on WordPress. I’m going to be covering as many of them as possible over the coming months.
Another great and clear how too.
Thank you very much.
This is great info, Hugh. Here’s my 2 cents. For Sunday Stills, I’ve chosen to share linked posts to Twitter or Facebook. Many bloggers who link to Sunday Stills may not know how to connect as evidenced by the WordPress.com end or they don’t have a Twitter account at all. Still others do not have any way to share their posts, I’m thinking because they don’t want to work that hard. So they don’t connect.
Thanks, Terri. I was aiming this post more at those bloggers who do have active Twitter accounts but who haven’t connected it to their blog. You have to wonder when they see @WordPress.Com at the end of their tweets that something needs fixing, yet many don’t seem too. Now, if I share a post on Twitter and @WordPress.Com comes up at the end of the tweet, I don’t share it. It’s such a small fix, and although I’ve informed several bloggers about the problem, many still haven’t fixed it. However, I guess at the end of the day, it’s up to each individual to decide what to do. I hope, at least, that this post will prompt many of those who don’t know how to connect their Twitter account to their blog to now spend the few minutes it takes to fix it.
Your post is certainly helpful, Hugh, and with your wide reach, more can fix it. I’m still surprised at how many bloggers don’t have share buttons at all! BTW I noticed a choice for tweeting a new post…perhaps you could write up a part 2 and explain the benefits of using either of those.
Are you referring to the new feature of having a choice of a single or threaded tweet, Terri?
As for the missing sharing buttons, I get you. It’s a little like having a reblog button and informing readers not to share or reblog your posts. I’ve seen that request on several blogs.
Yes. I’m not a heavy tweeter, but I would be interested in knowing more how this works, Hugh. I don’t use FB or Instagram as much as I used to, but Twitter interests me as a sharing platform. I tend to use it more for sharing posts.
Same here, Terri, although I closed both my Facebook and Instagram accounts. I’m planning some followup posts about Twitter, so I’ll definitely include some information about single and threaded tweets.
Very informative article – Thank you for sharing. 🙂
You’re welcome. I hope it’s helped.
Nice and compact information!
I hope it helps.
It helps a lot that it shares automatically the posts on WP!
It does, doesn’t it? I believe there are a lot of bloggers who don’t realise that they can connect some of their social media accounts to their WordPress blog so that posts publish there directly.
It is! I recognized that a few years ago. Now, that I read your post I don’t even remember how I discovered it. It is not an easy visible function. However, I have been connected since… hehe.
I was lucky in that I picked up that it was a feature (and how to do it) when I did an online WordPress blogging course during my early days of blogging.
That was a good idea to do that! I was more like learning by doing. At least, the basics were taught by my publisher, thank God. Otherwise, I would not have a blog anyway… lol
I love this too. I don’t go on twitter much, but knowing my blog post get automatically shared is just fabulous
Same over here! I am glad that I don’t need to schedule everything on Twitter too. So, that really saves time.
Hi Hugh, it is so nice of you to go into such detail, especially all these little technical details.
As you may, or probably don’t remember I don’t have a blog. But I save all of your info for the day this may happen. So here’s a big thank you!!
A lot is changing on WordPress, so I like to update readers with it all, Lea. Some of my older blogging tips posts are out of date because of the changes, so this gives me the perfect opportunity to update posts with all the new information. It’s a fast-changing industry, so it’s keeping me on my toes.
I’m glad it’s all helpful for you before you decide to jump into the world of blogging.
Well written Hugh! I found Twitter to be quite invasive in demanding my phine number to verify me so I stopped before I started!
It’s such a long time ago since I set up my Twitter account that I can’t remember if they wanted my mobile number. However, I do get notifications from them on my phone if they see any suspicious activity regarding my account. I don’t mind that because I see it as looking after me. However, I’m aware that Twitter and many of the other social media platforms know a lot more about us than we like to think. I think the same goes for Amazon and Google.
I agree with many of your points. It is a requirement that I don’t feel like participating in at this time.
I like your educational style of writing, Hugh. Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you very much. And I agree that you should only go with what feels comfortable for you.