Following up from my previous post, Managing your social outreach with dlvr.it, I promised a follow-up with some basic how-to articles. In this article, I’ll be focusing on pushing Google Buzz to Twitter.

For those who may not know, Google Buzz is my main social network of choice. Sure, I’m on others (hence my need for dlvr.it!) but Buzz is the main hub and as such is the first topic I’ll be writing about. For this (and following) article, I will assume you are signed up and logged in. If you’re not, head over to dlvr.it now and get it done!

Logged in? Alright then, off we go.

The first thing you’ll need is your public Buzz Feed URL. There’s no need to go hunting around for it, as I’ve provided it here:

http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/USERNAME/public/posted

All you’ll need to change is USERNAME. For you, this’ll either be a number or your Gmail address without @gmail.com, so for example mine would be:

http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/jbayton/public/posted

Simple, right? Now you have that, you can create your new Route. Whenever you’re ready, you can click that all important button!

As soon as you’ve hit the button, you’ll be greeted with a screen you’ll no doubt become familiar with as you turn into a dlvr.it power user.. 😉

Give your new route a name and hit “+ add” in Sources. This is where we’ll get your Buzz feed in and set to be pushed to Twitter when we’re done. Be prepared, there are a lot of options you can potentially set here. I’ll show what’s required and trust you can take all the time you need to check out the other options at a later time.

Feed URL is where you’ll enter the Buzz feed I posted above, though with your username, obviously.. unless you want to post my updates? I’d be flattered, I’m sure! I doubt you’d be too happy though..

When should we make your first post? gives you the option to post your latest Buzz, wait until your next Buzz, or to publish every Buzz you’ve posted. If your Twitter account is a little slow, you may find publishing everything gives the illusion you’re (suddenly!) very active on twitter!

Feed active simply turns the source on or off. We’ll definitely want it on.

Retrieve Log may come in handy later, it shows when your source was last polled and what was delivered for you.

We’re now ready to save the source. With this information set, all of your Buzz posts will be pushed to Twitter every 15 minutes. Wanting more control? Take a look at the menu items along the top:

Feed update allows you to set how often dlvr.it checks for new Buzzes. It’s every 15minutes by default.

Item text allows you to define prefixes and suffixes to every Buzz, and to find & replace any content you wish within each Buzz.

Filters allow you to specify on what words will trigger dlvr.it to pick up a Buzz. You could, for example, only push Buzzes you specifically want on Twitter with a #twitter tag. Any Buzz then posted with that tag will be posted to Twitter.

Scheduling allows you to define when Feed update will run.

Location allows you to define whether location in Buzzes will be transferred to Twitter

And finally, there are some Advanced options that you may consider quickly perusing on the off-chance there’s an option there that suits your needs.

We’re definitely ready to hit save source now. Let’s move on.

Once you’ve saved the source, your route will become visible again. Simply click on “+ add” on Destination to add your Twitter information.

On the next screen, you’ll be prompted to choose a destination. There are a number to choose from, but luckily someone has decided to place Twitter at the top of the list (it’s like they know what we’re doing).

Click new and wait for the next screen.

Almost there now – Make sure Active is ticked and click Start Authorisation. You’ll now be taken to Twitter to sign in before returning to this screen after a confirmation message. Before you click save you can again set a couple of extra options, such as what parts of your Buzz to post in Post Content and how dlvr.it will handle hashtags in Advanced.

Have you finished tinkering? As soon as you hit save you’ll be returned to your route list where you’ll see a new, shiny Buzz to Twitter route. The final step is to make sure Active is showing in the top right of the route, if it isn’t, click it.

(Feed – Dlvrit Feed is something extra I added, you won’t see this).

And that, my good reader, is all there is to it. If you’re impatient you can hover over the Buzz source and click the little circle to the right of what I’ve called “Google Buzz”. This will force a check for Buzzes. Otherwise, carry on with your day. This is sorted.

If you have any questions at all, please let me know. If not, enjoy completely hassle-free Buzz to Twitter deliveries!

Look out soon for deliveries to Facebook, Linkedin and even a way of aggregating all of your content into one simple RSS feed.

Cheers,
Jason