Feeding Active Rain Blog to your Facebook Page - Updated

Glad to see so many of you are liking this as well...

@Mike:  Adding content via RSS appeals to me solely for the Automation perspective.  The RSS Graffiti application covers about 95% of what I have been looking for.  I tried Notes, and did not like it. I tried several other RSS applications, and none of them worked reliably, automatically, or graphically.  By Graphically, I just mean that I need to have images in the posts, and like you mention above, most RSS feeders do not include them.  RSS Grafitti, on the other hand, does include an image!  I just need to work out how the application will pick the correct (the one I want) picture automatically.

Some users have complained about missing images, from what I read, and in most cases, it was the RSS feed not including them which is an easy fix...

@Trisha: Correct - only new ones.  Don't think you'd want it to pick up all of the old ones - might scare your friends and fans away!

Michael

I'm glad many of you are enjoying this FB App - I just posted a new blog regarding FB's Notes Application, and how it has begun allowing images.  Check it out here:

A couple of quick updates:

I'm pasting a copy of a response I received for a question I had posted on GetSatisfaction for the developers of RSS Graffiti.  The Question was in regards to image selection and trying to find a way to make sure RSS Graffiti posted my desired image alongside the link.  Many of my posts have several pictures and there's four in my digital signature alone.  Normally, I want the primary picture of the home to show, or one of the images that relates to the topic.  Not any of the signatures.  Here's the Technical Response:

"RSSGraffiti looks for media in the following order.

First it searches for videos, then for audio and then for images. In your case we are only interested as you said in images.

It looks for such media first in enclosures and If any image enclosures exist, the first one gets published without further checks.

If no enclosures were found, then the text part of the message is being parsed and for every img tag found the application tries to validate it against specific rules. This is done in order to exclude images like image buttons or injected advertisement banners from being published.

The first image that passes these checks gets published. If no image is found even in the text of the item then no image is published.

So in short if you want to control which image gets published the safest way is to put it in an enclosure, or alternatively make sure it appears on the text before any other image.

Your idea of custom naming convention is not in the features of RSSGraffiti today, but it is something that we could possibly implement in the future. But since we have other things that we evaluate of higher priority for now I'd suggest to use one of the approaches I mentioned a few lines above in order to have the desired result.

If you need more help or clarifications please do not hesitate to ask again. Thanks for trying RSSGraffiti and for your valuable feedback.  Dimitris"

Having done some Google searches, I am unable to figure out how to make sure my Wordpress Blog images are put in Enclosures.  And a search of Active Rain came up fruitless as well.  So, in the weeks ahead, as time allows, I will try to find more information about this.  And I will also reply to the comment on GetSatisfaction and see if Dimitris can point me in the right direction.

Next up: I posted a blog earlier this week about Facebook Notes now including Thumbnail image files.  Well, one of the Developers of RSS Graffiti came by and posted some great information on what makes their product superior.   And I agree with him - it is superior - and it seems like most commenters here would agree.  But I needed to try it out for myself.  You can read more about this here.

Most importantly, here's an important point from the Developer as to the benefits of RSS Graffiti that was commented on The Stage Coach's Facebook Page:

"...RSS Graffiti and Notes are much much different. RSS Graffiti writes on your wall (hence the name) and points to your original story. Notes on the other hand, imports (copies) your story form your blog into the Notes application and then publishes on your wall a story about your new Note. Focus on that fundamental difference and you will then start noticing a number of differences in details. This will give you a more clear picture why we started RSS Graffiti when we already had Notes available in Facebook. Best regards, Yannis for RSS Graffiti"

I have to admit I am a bit surprised/impressed that the RSS Graffiiti guys are in tune to what's being said about their Application.  It's one thing to sign up for a Google Alert - it's a whole different thing to step up and become part of the conversation.  I am looking forward to future updates from them...

hi, Alice:
Luckily, I'm having lunch, so I am able to answer you timely!

Some times there is a delay. Some times, it's longer than others based on FB activity... or network traffic etc.

Yesterday, my A/R blog took about an hour to show up.  I say "about" because after 10-15 minutes it was not up, and I came back an hour later and it was posted.  So it could have been 20 minutes.

Did you hit preview when setting it up?

hi, Robert:
Not sure, to be frank. It posts the RSS feed you give it. I did not see a RSS Feed Icon on either my A/R Outside Blog, or my Localism page.  There may be a way to get the feed from one od these, but I do not have the answer.

If you don't want ANYONE to see a post - why would you post it at all?  I have seen several accounts of "Members Only" Posts showing up in Google searches.  So don't think for a minute that private posts are safe from public view.

My rule of thumb, don't post any thing that your mom would be ashamed to hear you say.

thanks for stopping!