Roll Your Own TwitPic-like Media Hosting Using Posterous

Ane of the more useful aspects of Twitter is the power to speedily broadcast images, videos, and other media to your followers, making it an constructive "mo-blogging" (mobile blogging) platform. Twitter doesn't have this power built in, though; sending pictures or video clips to Twitter requires using third-political party services similar TwitPic. Most Twitter clients will automatically upload images to these third-political party hosts and add a link to your tweets, making the whole feel rather seamless.

This is a pretty skilful solution for casual sharing, but if yous're using Twitter as role of your personal branding efforts, or if you're serious most the media you're distributing, yous might desire more control over how your media is stored and displayed online. TwitPic and the other services don't offer much in the mode of folio customization. They also scatter your content over several sites.

And so in that location's the Twitter API limit, which limits access to only your terminal 3200 tweets. Assuming y'all're sharing things on Twitter that are more than important than what you lot ate for tiffin and what beautiful thing your true cat just did, y'all might worry about losing your online history equally you build upwards past the 3200 marker.

Having discovered likewise late Twitter's API limit (I'm nigh to 3700 tweets at the moment), I decided I didn't want to risk my images and other posted cloth condign hard to access – although much of my Twittering is purely personal, my stream is an of import role of my online professional presence, and I want to make sure it's non but archived but accessible moving forrard.

Enter Posterous. Posterous is a lifestreaming service that sits somewhere between Twitter and a web log in terms of features. It's non actually intended for essay-like blogging, only rather for capturing images, video, web links, and thoughts quickly and hands. What'southward important here is that you can post via email or fifty-fifty SMS message, and it tin exist set upwards to automatically forward annihilation you post to Twitter, Facebook, and a number of other services (including your own blog). Using Posterous, I can create a permanent record of the images, videos, audio clips, and other cloth I post to Twitter, and I can do so in a customizable, brandable space that offers me far more than command over my content than I have with services similar TwitPic or even Twitter.

Here's how to set up and employ Posterous equally a dwelling for all your tweetable media.

Set up a Posterous business relationship

An unusual thing about Posterous is that you tin't just get to the website and sign up – you create an account by using the service.

1. Send a photo, video, or merely text email to post@posterous.com.
2. Within a few minutes, you'll receive a confirmation electronic mail with a link to your newly-created site. At the moment, your post is information technology'due south own stand-alone site. Click the link that allows y'all to modify your password.
3. Posterous assigned you a username based on the username of the electronic mail address you lot sent your first email from (the part before the @ sign). Change that to whatever you lot desire your site's URL to be (it will be "username.posterous.com" where username is whatever you choose) and enter a password.
4. Now go to the "Manage" screen and start customizing the site.
5. Click "Edit this site" to change the name of the site and add a theme under "Theme and customize my site. If you know CSS and HTML, you tin create your own theme. Also, you can upload a header image to actually brand your site.
6. If y'all actually desire to get fancy, you can set your Posterous site under your own domain name; follow the instructions on the "Edit" page.
7. Y'all tin likewise enter your Google Analytics Domain ID to track visitors using Google Analytics. Follow the instructions on the "Edit" folio.
8. Click "Edit my profile" to add together personal information and upload a photograph of yourself.
9. From the "Manage" page, click "Manage emails and telephone" to add other emails and your cell telephone number so you can postal service from them. I recommend adding your principal email accost and your phone'southward e-mail address (if it'southward unlike from your main e-mail).
10. "From the "Manage" page, click "Autopost to Everywhere" to add your Twitter account and any other accounts you lot want to post to via Posterous. You can add Facebook and other social networks, paradigm-hosting sites like Flickr and Picasa, and your own websites, amidst other services.

Now you lot're gear up up to post to Posterous and have those posts forwarded automatically to Twitter (and wherever else you choose).

Post images, videos, and other media via Posterous

1. Add an address book entry to your contact manager for Posterous. Add together both the primary email address, mail service@posterous.com, and the SMS short code, 41411.
2. Anything you lot email to mail service@posterous.com will exist automatically forwarded to all the services you've set up under "Autopost". The subject field line will be the championship of your post at Posterous and will make upwardly the body of your Tweet, and so limit yourself to 130 characters (to exit room for the shortened URL to your postal service).
3. Posterous automatically resizes images to fit your theme. If you transport multiple images, Posterous will create a very nice gallery so that all of them tin exist viewed inside the master mail service. Videos are embedded in a Flash role player, as are MP3 files you ship to Posterous.
4. If y'all might only want to mail something to Twitter, Facebook, your blog, or elsewhere, add one or more of the following email addresses to your address volume entry:
   • Twitter: twitter@posterous.com
   • Flickr: flickr@posterous.com
   • Facebook: facebook@posterous.com
   • Tumblr: tumblr@posterous.com
   • Any other weblog: blog@posterous.com
   • Posterous just: posterous@posterous.com
5. Yous can post text-simply entries through the SMS number. Blazon "Post" (without the quotes) and enter up to 110 characters.
6. If your email program adds a signature line or a "Sent via" line, you tin can make sure that doesn't become added to your post by typing "#finish" (without the quotes) at the end of the text you desire in your post.
7. You can too add together a "Share on Posterous" bookmarklet to your browser for 1-click posting from the Spider web. Any text and images you select before clicking will be posted (and you can add your ain text as well). If you don't select text, Posterous will browse the page for likely "excerpts" on the folio, which you tin can coil through until yous find the part you want to post.

Drawbacks

While I think there are a lot of benefits to tweeting this way, even for regular text tweets, I have to admit there are also a few drawbacks. The nearly notable is that yous take to remember to limit yourself to 130 characters (or less) in order to accommodate the link to your Posterous page. Every bit if 140 characters wasn't brusque enough!

Another drawback is that y'all can't mail service through your favorite Twitter client – you take to use e-mail or SMS to go your mail to Posterous. In outcome, Posterous becomes your Twitter client – merely just for posting.

Finally, many Twitter clients offer previews of images on the more popular image- and video-hosting services. Your followers won't be able to preview your images on Posterous in their Twitter client.

Patently, I recollect the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, simply y'all should be aware of them before taking the plunge yourself. If Twitter is not but a pastime for y'all, but a real part of your business or professional person life, this is a way to take a lot more than control over the content you mail service to Twitter.

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/roll-your-own-twitpic-like-media-hosting-using-posterous.html