I've frequently been asked how to setup automation between SchoolSuite and popular social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. Although it is not offered as a native feature by either social network, there are a number of free service that offer the capability to queue posts from an RSS and post them to your pages.
Two free services that I have tested and used in the past HootSuite and Twitterfeed. HootSuite is more of a control panel for all of your social media activities, while Twitterfeed is specifically a service for automating posts from RSS feeds.
Here are the steps required to setup the RSS to Facebook automation:
- Create a Twitterfeed.com account
- Login and click 'Create New Feed'
- Add "Feed Name' and "RSS Feed URL". (A RSS feed can be created on any news list web part by modifying the "Elements Layout' to include RSS)
- Configure advanced settings including update frequency, post content, post link service, post sorting, post prefix and suffix and any keyword filters.
- Click 'Continue to Step 2'
- Add any available services, in this case, you'll want to click Facebook and authenticate the account(s) that is currently an administrator of your Facebook page
- Select your Facebook page from the dropdown and add any UTM tags (great for tracking click-throughs with Google Analytics!)
- Click 'Create Service' and you're done! Pat yourself on the back.
Hopefully this can help simplify your posting to Facebook, Twitter, and other services. Don't forget, you can post any news item to Twitter from within SchoolSuite.
Have a question? Leave a comment and let us know!