First, I apologize if you have been getting a ton of notifications from either my Twitter or Facebook account. I was unsure of how to ‘test’ if the IFTTT service was actually posting and directing information the correct way, so I just set it up and hoped for the best.
For those new to IFTTT, I’ll explain. IFTTT (If This Then That) is an online rules based system wherein users can create ‘recipes’ using ‘channels’. Recipes are collections of triggers and actions from/to predefined ‘channels.’ ‘Channels’ are services that IFTTT is compatible with (Twitter, Facebook, email, SMS, etc…). The idea behind IFTTT is to allow the service to automatically (automagically) do routine things so you don’t have to. In my case, I have a blog, a Facebook, a Twitter, a 500, a Flickr, a YouTube, a Soundcloud, a Spotify, a etc etc etc… If I wanted to update the status of one, or the profile picture of another, I would then need to duplicate the post or picture across the other profiles. This isn’t fun or fast! However, IFTTT makes it so easy! In fact, there is a good chance that you are reading this after being directed from a link on my Facebook or Twitter, when I originally posted this directly to my blog.
After a little bit of tweaking I have the following setup:
Any image from Instagram is immediately uploaded to my Flickr and 500, then a post is created and uploaded to my blog… this blog. If I create and upload a YouTube video or a track on Soundcloud a post will also be created with the relevant information linking back to them. Once the post is created on the blog it is linked and posted to Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, I tested a recipe that syncs my Twitter profile picture with my Facebook profile picture It works, and I will soon replicate it to sync my YouTube, Flickr, and any remaining profile pictures.
Some would say that this is severe overkill, but I disagree. I prefer to look at this as connectivity without selling your soul or spending a ton of time managing the accounts individually.
I’m still working on a viable bot/spam resistant comment section for the blog. Until then, post any comments and questions on Facebook. Thanks for reading!
[UPDATE] : I also have the blog posts being backed up to my Google Drive, just in case!