How To: Create A Viral Twitter Feed

Use ifttt.com to link BuzzFeed and Twitter: you'll never come down with a case of Tweeter's block again.

Social media is a blessing and a curse: it connects us and feeds us information, but it sucks up our time.

On the one hand, social networks are incredible tools for networking, sharing news, connecting with friends, and a myriad of other creative pursuits. Social networks have improved the distribution of news, and connected people in a way never possible before. You can even get a job using social media. It’s certainly helped a lot of people.

But to have any kind of authority on a social network, you have to spend time – lots of time – building your presence on it. Not to mention there is a constantly increasing number of social networks you could choose to spend your time on: Do I really have to be on Path if I already use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, Instagram, and Pinterest regularly?

Of course, using social media isn't a requirement. When Facebook announces a new feature like Facebook Timeline, and your news feed is crammed with angry reactions about the updates, remember: being a part of Facebook is a choice.

For me, social networks are a draw for the technology and innovation. I want to have a presence on all social networks in order to understand them. But I don't have the time to constantly curate each channel.

The simple solution would be to link accounts, like sending tweets to Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. However, that would just be recycling content across networks. Instead, there are shortcuts we can use to generate fresh content automatically. We can save time, and have new content to build a network presence.

Here's how you can leverage ifttt.com (an acronym for If This Then That) which is a website that connects social networks and other Internet tools, to distribute new content to your Twitter feed. Below are instructions for how to funnel viral content from the popular social news site BuzzFeed to a Twitter account using ifttt.com.

Using BuzzFeed to Create a Viral Twitter Feed

First, get an account with ifttt.com, and follow the on-site instructions to connect your account to other networks. When you've connected your account to several networks, you can plug those networks into an If This Then That formula so that an action on one site triggers a result on another site.

Using BuzzFeed's "Viral" badges that the site awards to popular stories as triggers, we can create a task that sends a tweet with a link to that story automatically.

1. Create a task.

Click the BuzzFeed icon; this will be the trigger channel.

2. Choose a trigger.

Here, you'll tell ifttt.com what you want to trigger the action of your task. Select the option in the center, "New post with badge" so that ifttt.com sends a tweet when a BuzzFeed post gets the "Viral" badge.

3. Choose a BuzzFeed Badge.

Choose the BuzzFeed badge that will trigger a tweet. BuzzFeed gives badges to different kinds of content: the "Viral" badge is for popular articles. Whenever an article gets posted with the "Viral" badge, this ifttt.com task will be triggered to send your tweet.

4. Choose the Action.

Choose the action that results from the trigger. Here, you'll choose the Twitter channel so that a "Viral" badge on BuzzFeed sends a Tweet.

5. Post a New Tweet.

Choose the type of action that occurs with your Twitter account. Choose the option to post with a tweet or post a tweet with image.

6. Choose Tweet Text.

Enter the information that will be sent with your tweet. You can use hashtags and @ handles. You can also choose to include the image that goes along with the BuzzFeed post in your tweet in this step.

7. Name Your Task.

You’re almost done. Enter a name for your task and click “Create Task.”

8. Monitor Your Task.

You can monitor your tasks under the “Tasks” menu. Here, iftt.com will tell you how long ago the task was created, when it was triggered and how many times it was triggered. You can also edit your task in this menu, and turn it off if your want to temporarily disable it.

So there you have it, use Twitter with ifttt.com and BuzzFeed's "Viral" badges and you can create a viral account in just a few steps. Play around with ifttt.com and see what other links you can create to help streamline workflows and make social media more productive.