WordPress recently announced that the auto-sharing of blog posts to Twitter ended on the 1st of May, 2023. You can read their announcement by clicking the following link – Why Twitter Auto-Sharing Is Coming to an End.
Does This Mean That Twitter Is Dead?
No. Despite many users deleting their Twitter accounts when Elon Musk took over (and some continuing to do so), Twitter is very much alive.
Although I’ve lost over one-hundred followers on Twitter, I still see traffic to my blog coming from it. As you’ll see from the following image, Twitter outperforms any other social media platform in the number of shares my blog gets.
Only the WordPress Reader and search engines outperform Twitter in the number of shares they bring to my blog. I am curious why so many people have shared my blog posts via Skype, though.
Has Twitter Become Worse Since Elon Musk Took It Over?
Many users feared that Twitter would become more hate-related. I’ve not seen any increase in hate-related content. That may be because I always avoid it. And like on other social media sites and WordPress, I block users who publish hate-related content or who leave nasty comments.
I’ve had a Twitter account since 2010. Four more years than my WordPress blog, and I’ve had more trolls visit my blog than have visited me on Twitter.
What’s The Best Way To Deal With Trolls Or Nasty Comments, Tweets or Blog Posts?
Never engage with them. Trolls move on when they don’t get any kind of reaction. Ignoring, blocking and marking their comments as spam is the best form of action.
If I don’t like something on television or the radio, I switch off or switch channels. Likewise, if I see anything I do not like on any social media platform, I move on. Any spam or hateful comments directed at me get reported, and I block the user.
While I have not liked all the changes that have occurred on Twitter, nothing has made me delete my account yet.
Am I Sad That WordPress Is Ending Auto-Share To Twitter?
You may be surprised by my answer, but no. While WordPress did its best to get a good deal for users, I’m glad it decided to walk away from negotiations. WordPress put its users first. Had it agreed to the inflated rates Twitter wanted, users would have been hit with price increases.
Will The Twitter Sharing Buttons On Blog Posts Still Work?
Yes. WordPress has confirmed that the Twitter sharing button will still work. No need to delete it. Users can still tweet your posts even if you do not have a Twitter account.
And although auto-sharing to Twitter is ending, you can still copy links to your blog posts and paste them into new tweets.
Is Auto-Sharing On WordPress Now Dead?
No. Users can still auto-share their posts to the following social media platforms.
- Tumblr
In their announcement, WordPress also mentioned that auto-sharing was coming to Instagram and Mastodon (due mid-June 2023). However, I have heard that only those with an Instagram business account will have the ability to auto-share their blog posts. That may not be true, but more information will follow.
On May 3rd, I published a Wordless Wednesday post and was surprised to find that auto-sharing to Twitter was still working.
On May 5th, I published my Flash Fiction Friday post, and auto-sharing to Twitter was still working. By the time this post goes live, it may have stopped working, but I mentioned it to WordPress, and they came back with this response.
I guess it’s a little like WordPress themes that are no longer supported. They may become unreliable with no support, start to cause problems, and eventually stop working.
And a further update from WordPress on Twitter dated 9th May 2023.
Update 18th May 2023 – Auto-sharing to Twitter from WordPress has now been switched off.
Does Social Media Bring Traffic To Blogs?
Yes, but you must give it lots of time to work properly. Spreading yourself too thinly on social media by having too many social media accounts does not work. When I cut the number of social media accounts I had to two, I saw my blog stats take off.
Is It Worth Joining Instagram And Mastodon Now That WordPress Are Introducing Auto-Sharing To Them?
Only if you can give them the time to make them work for you and your blog.
You must engage with other users to gain followers. When I started engaging with other bloggers on WordPress, my stats boomed. When I started engaging with other users on Twitter, my stats boomed.
Don’t expect things to take off if you’re not prepared to give your time engaging with other users.
My recommendation is to stick with two or three social media platforms. Stay with those that work best for you.
What Is Mastodon?
I heard about Mastodon last year but only decided to create an account when I heard that auto-sharing to Twitter was ending.
It’s early days for me, but it has the look and feel of Twitter. I’ve added a Mastodon button to my social media widget. It’s the second button on the following bar.
Clicking on it will take you to my Mastodon account. If you already have a Mastodon account, please consider following me, and I will follow you back.
If you want to join Mastodon, start here on the Mastodon startup page.
If you want information about Mastodon, I found this unofficial guide to Mastodon very helpful.
However, it may take time for Mastoden to take off, so be prepared to wait. New social media platforms are being launched all the time. Remember to stick to just a few. Don’t spread your time too thin.
I will give Mastodon time, but I will delete my account if it does not work for me.
So far, it’s looking good because I am engaging with other users and, in turn, they are engaging with me. Some have been very helpful, although I’ve failed to find many WordPress users. So, if you’ve a Mastodon account, please consider connecting with me.
Instagram was one of the social media accounts I deleted a few years ago. I’ve no plans to rejoin Instagram.
Not Sure What Auto-Sharing Is Or How To Set It Up On WordPress?
This document, Post Automatically to Social Media, gives full details.
Layout, content, settings, and format might differ on self-hosted blogs.
This is an updated version of a post originally published on Hugh’s Views And News in 2020.
Have you already cut ties with Twitter? Do you have a Mastodon account? Do you have any questions about auto-sharing on WordPress? Leave them in the comments section.
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Hugh's Views & News 
Congratulations! You won the Inspire Me Monday Linky Party and you’ll be featured on my site tomorrow. I agree with your views on this situation.
Janice
Thanks for the fantastic news, thanks, Janice.
Thanks for all this info Hugh, although it doesn’t bother me. I always hit share buttons. Even my own blog keeps telling me to redirect to Linkedin for 5 years now, lol. So it won’t send to Linkedin automatically. Twitter is so worse since he came along. I’ve noticed that when you share a tweet and try to tag someone by starting the first few letters of a name, it doesn’t catch who we’re trying to tag, and we can’t possibly remember everyone’s handles. 🙂
Auto-sharing is more about sharing your own posts (rather than those of others) as soon as you publish a post, Debby. So it saves you time in having not to have to share the post yourself on your social media accounts. However, there are only 4 social media platforms where sharing is possible, although Twitter is going, but WordPress are bringing Instagram and Mastodon to the party (from mid-June).
I’ve not seen anything to stop me using Twitter. And many of the plans for Twitter since the takeover seem to have fallen by the wayside. While it continues to bring my blog traffic, I’m staying with it. It’s easy to block the trolls on there too.
I’ve also found that the more you tag somebody, the more that person will show up when doing searches. Give it a try and see how you get on. It’s certainly worked for me.
Thanks Hugh. But I am already doing that with sharing, and on my own blog too because I’ve noticed WP isn’t auto sending to LinkedIn even though I have it set for there. No worries. I do most sharing manually because technology isn’t always reliable and that’s a fact. 🙂
Oh, I agree that technology isn’t always reliable. If auto-sharing from WordPress to LinkedIn is not working, I’d report it to them.
I have. To no avail. I don’t mind hitting my own share buttons 🙂
Hi Debby,
I agree that Twitter is worse since he came along.
Hi Janice! That’s a fact! 🙂
I received that notice about this auto sharing on Twitter becoming obsolete as well and I don’t blame WordPress for not playing games. Thanks for making a blog post out of it, Hugh. It will help a lot of people.
I just checked and my last blog, which I posted today (May 9th), still auto shared on Twitter! We will see what happens in the future.
I’ve never heard of Mastodon – except in that email from WordPress. I’ll let you be the Guinea pig! 🙂
I’ve seen some tweets from WordPress (which I retweeted) that say that auto-sharing to Twitter is still working and to enjoy it while we can, Liesbet. Who knows? Twitter may never cut the link. Given they seem to be still in some chaos after the takeover, it may be sometime before it happens (if at all).
My posts are still auto sharing to Twitter but I’m sure that will end soon. I just started to share to LinkedIn, which I have been there for 12 years and never considered sharing my blog there. I joined Mastadon a month ago and look forward to also sharing my posts there.
Btw, I am on the Premium plan and I am able to view a breakdown of # of shares to social media via Stats, Insights.
Thank you for the informative post.
You’re on Mastodon, Eugi? Please let me know your username there, and I’ll follow you. I’m keen to follow many more bloggers on Mastodon.
And thanks for confirming that you can view the breakdown of social media shares on your blog’s dashboard. It does not seem to be available on free plans, but good that it can be viewed on the Premium plan.
My user name is calsy1031
https://mastodon.social/@marmalade12
Please let me know your user name, as well. Thanks
I found you and have followed you, Eugi.
Mine is @HughWRoberts05@mastodon.social, you can also click on the Mastodon button on my social media bar on this post, and it’ll take you to my account.
Thank you, Hugh.
Thank you for the post! My post on 6 May got auto-shared to Twitter as well (although I’m a Jetpack-enabled .org user). By the way, where do you see “Number of Shares” list? I somehow can’t find this list on my account. Thank you in advance!
I see it on the Insights tab of my blog’s dashboard. However, it could be in an entirely different place on self-hosted blogs.
Thank you for your advice! I’ll have a look. I also need to log into .com account to see more stats, so it might be same as .com users. Thanks!
Hi Hugh, so auto-share is where you add a message to the field as you get ready to publish your post, just to make sure I am getting this. Twitter is the only one I use for my blog after my Facebook blog page got hacked and they tried to spend my $$! I abandoned Instagram and don’t waste my time with Linked In since it’s a career/job-hunting site IMHO (which I also deleted).
When I read the post from WP, my takeaway is that we couldn’t auto-share from the Jetpack app (mobile) but it would still work on PCs. Sunday’s post on 5/7 auto-shared my post as usual. As some have commented, I don’t use Twitter other than for blogging, sharing posts etc. And I don’t really use Pinterest for the blog since it has become a somewhat useful search engine.
I actually made 100 business cards for my blog. I handed them out a few to my neighbors and many follow me, even the local postmaster. None of them are bloggers but they enjoy my “articles” as they call them and photos (especially the local images from around our area). For once, non-bloggers are reading my posts, LOL!
Let us know how Mastodon works. Most of my traffic and new followers still come from WordPress and the massive blogging community. Being a part of blog challenges drives new folks to my blog and me to theirs. Thank you for this great post!
Hi Terri, yes, that’s correct. However, you make a good point about it still working on the WordPress site via desktop computers. I will ask the WP Happiness Engineers the question and respond to you here with their response.
The business card idea is excellent. I know of some bloggers who post their latest blog posts to local community websites. They get lots of traffic to their blogs, so that’s another excellent way of getting traffic and readers (providing the site allows you to post material). I don’t do it, as my posts are not locally related.
I’ll certainly keep you updated about Mastodon. I don’t expect much uptake until WordPress start auto-sharing to Mastodon; I’ve already found it a friendly community and have begun building my follower list.
Thanks for the update and ideas to share posts, Hugh. I enjoy sharing Sunday Stills links through twitter (I used to use FB when I could). Amazing the number of bloggers have the twitter share button on the their blog but obviously don’t use their account, at least we appear to be able to share from that angle. I will have a look at Mastodon.
I think it’s a case that some bloggers have not connected their Twitter accounts to their WordPress blog, Terri. If their Twitter handle does not show up on the tweet I am doing, I don’t share it on Twitter.
WordPress has confirmed that the Twitter sharing button will still work, so that’s good news. No need to delete it because auto-sharing is coming to an end.
That’s another good point, Hugh. Perhaps some will delete theirs in spite of the fact that we can still share that way. Some bloggers still have the meta widget in their sidebars, LOL!
I recently read somebodies ‘about me’ page to find out what they blogged about (they’d left a comment on one of my posts), and it said, ‘My new book is being launched on September 30th 2015. More details will follow here.’
Needless to say, there were no details, and the ‘about me’ page had not been updated for the last seven years. Blog housekeeping is so important, yet many fail to carry any out, Terri.
That’s too bad. I get it though, Hugh, when I decided not to pursue my fitness book, I needed to update my about me and blog book page. People also need to update their gravatar profiles, too.
Hey, Terri. So, I’ve spoken to the WP Happiness Engineers, and I’m afraid they have confirmed that Twitter Auto-Share is ending for all WordPress.Com users, even if you blog on a laptop or desktop.
However, let’s hold on to our hats because it may be a while before it stops working. For now, keep sharing!
Well now at least we know, Hugh, and I thank you for checking again. I sure appreciate your great relationship with WP engineers. So helpful to us all!
Hugh, I have a Twitter account and I won’t shed a tear when it goes. In recent months, I’ve spent too much time blocking unwanted visitors.
Keep on blocking and ignoring the Trolls, Kevin. Don’t allow them to beat you.
Thanks for this info, Hugh. I’m on twitter but mostly for news updates – we live in earthquake country and twitter always get the info faster than the news. My blog often get referrals from Instagram which I don’t understand as I rarely post on that site. The mysteries of the web worlds hey?
Remember that other Instagram users can still share your posts, JT. I don’t have a Pinterest account and never share anything on it, yet my stats show I get traffic from it. This is because Pinterest users share my posts on the platform.
I’m glad to hear that Twitter has a good and vital use for you.
I stopped using the Jetpack social share awhile ago. Because they changed the free version to a limited 30 shares a month. And not 30 shares for each platform, 30 shares total. So if you wanted to share to 5 social media sites that would be 5 shares.
I would run out of shares after a few posts and that sucked. I went to Blog2Social and I use the free version which actually shares to more platforms than Jetpack does.
Mastodon is not as active as I thought it would be. But like you said, it will probably take time for them to take off. I only found out about Mastodon when George Takei posted on twitter about them, lol.
For somebody who uses multiple social media platforms, Blog2Social sounds good, Mac. However, I cut back on the number of social media platforms I used because I could not give them all my time, so none of them worked for me because I was not engaging enough with other users. Since cutting back and engaging more with other users, social media has worked better for me.
I’ve only been on Mastodon for just over a week and am already building up a follower list. However, I’m only gaining followers because I engage with other users. The community there seems friendly and helpful. Once auto-sharing to Mastodon comes to WordPress, I’m hoping it will take off.
Thank you for such an informative post, Hugh. My auto link to Twitter hasn’t worked in a while, but I just use my share button to post there – no problem. I had not heard of Mastodon until now, but since I’ve come to value your opinions, I will probably wait until you give us an update on how it works for you.
I’ll certainly wait for auto-sharing to Mastodon to become available on WordPress, then give it at least a year to see how things go. I am already building up a follower list on Mastodon and have found it fun to use, although I still have much to learn about it. I’ll keep you all posted. But in the meantime, I’m staying with Twitter too.
Yes, I have also read this although I use Publer as my scheduler, and as they decided to pay the hefty monthly fee you can still schedule your posts via Publer’s paid account system. .
Your comment reminded me there are many other ways to auto-share blog posts to Twitter, Esmé. Thanks for the reminder.
Hugh, are you on the business plan? I don’t get a breakdown of social media states on WP.com like you do. I don’t see anything like that. Very interesting. Thanks for information on Mastadon.
Hi Colleen, yes, I am. It’s on the Insights tab on my dashboard. I am viewing it via a desktop computer.
I like Mastodon, although still early days.
Thanks, Hugh. The insights tab makes sense, now. I will have to see what Mastodon is all about. I appreciate your introduction.
I dont have any social media accounts … well I don’t use the two that I have but have been thinking I need to look into them
Keep to one or two if you decide to use them, Brenda. They can bring much traffic to your blog, but only if you give them your time.
I’ve just linked my LinkedIn account, so let’s see what happens there.
Thanks Hugh 👍🏻
Enough time is always the issue for things done well.
In any case, good and interesting writing gives the spark.
Thanks for the info
You’re welcome. I hope you found it helpful.
I only shook my head when I got informed that WP stopped negotiating with Twitter because Twitter would keep up its plan to charge users. Although like probably everyone here, I built up an audience on Twitter, I don’t mind having finally an auto-share option with Instagram. Meanwhile, I am much more active there.
We should know next month if auto-sharing is coming to Instagram. It sounds like it works well for you, Erika.
Yes, for once that would be a change that would really suit me 😄
As of this morning my post auto shared but I’m not a huge user of Twitter. I fell out of it when so much hate was coming through before they started to block things. I’ve kind of let my social media slack off but if they’re planning to start auto posting to Instagram I’ll be happy with that.
Instagram is certainly mentioned as one of the social media platforms WordPress will introduce auto-sharing to, but I did hear a rumour that only for those with Instagram business accounts. However, that may be just a rumour. We shall see when it finally happens (Hopefully mid-June).
I’ve already made mine a business account. It’s as easy as making a business account in Pinterest. It allows you to see more stats about how your posts are performing.
Great. All you’d need to do is connect your Instagram account to your blog (once auto-sharing starts). You’re then all set to go.
Nice to know this update.
Thank you Hugh.
I don’t have a Twitter account.
And I lose nothing😂😂 lol
You don’t, and there is nothing wrong with not using social media. I know some people who have deleted all their social media accounts for various reasons. It can be very time-consuming – but only if you allow it.
Thank you Hugh.
I had an account with Twitter.
I felt it was too taxing regarding mental peace!
Twitter may be good or bad, and it’s my personal opinion.
Thanks Hugh. I noticed that my post yesterday did get auto shared to Twitter. As you say, it may just stop working at some point.
It’s interesting to see how much traffic you get to your blog from Twitter. I get very little. Pinterest is my number one source of blog views so that’s where I put my effort.
Do you give Pinterest a lot of your time, Michelle?
Twitter gets more of my time than the other social media accounts I have, so it seems it pays me back for that. However, since I’ve joined Mastodon, I’ve given it a lot of time too. Too early yet to say if it’s bringing any traffic to my blog, but once WordPress introduces auto-sharing next month, I hope to see some results.
I did try Pinterest many years ago, but could not get on with it.
I don’t spend a ton of time on Pinterest. For every blog post, I create between 4 and 6 pins and I schedule them out over the week or two after the post goes live. Between new content and re-promoting older content, I do two pins a day. Canva really makes creating the visuals easier.
Canva is a wonderful blogging tool. I use it for all my images. Plus, it’s free to use (unless you want to upgrade).