The TypePad Beta Blog

Facebook Comment Syncing and Facebook Friend Finder

Social media has become the new traffic and distribution tool for many bloggers. Facebook in particular is a site where our bloggers can potentially reach millions of readers outside of their current audience. We've seen the success of the Facebook Like button and now have two more Facebook features for our Beta members to try.

Facebook Fan Comment Syncing

TypePad bloggers can now boost comment counts and bridge the conversations happening between Facebook and TypePad. Facebook Comment Syncing will synchronize comments made by Facebook users between your fanpage and your blog. For example, a Facebook fan sees your post update in their Facebook news stream and comments on it. With Facebook Comment syncing turned on, that comment will be synced and displayed directly within the comment thread of the post on your blog. If that Facebook fan comments with their Facebook account on Typepad, the reverse will happen, and that comment will sync to display on the post in Facebook. This is a great way to boost up your comment count and connect the conversations happening between Facebook and TypePad.

This feature is only available to bloggers who have added the Facebook Like button to their blog's sidebar, and will only sync comments left by Facebook readers who have hit the like button on your blog's sidebar. To try it out, follow these steps:

1. Go to Blog > Settings > Sharing. Under the first section, ensure that you have "Connected Facebook Like to Your Blog".
2. Then go to Blog > Settings > Comments and turn on the "Facebook Comment Syncing" setting.
3. Select "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page.

Note, comment syncing will not sync comments to the posts you've shared to your Facebook profile via compose. Learn More.

Facebook Friend Finder

The Facebook Friend Finder locates and suggests people on TypePad to follow who are also in your Facebook network. This is a great way to find friends you know and new blogs on TypePad. To try it out, go to your dashboard and click on the link "Find people to follow" at the top of your Recent Activity feed.

Try out these features and let us know what you think!

Having Commitment Problems with Like?

Last week we launched the Facebook "Like" button on TypePad blogs to all of our Beta members. Thank you for all the great feedback! One of the top requests we've received was the ability to "like" on the post level rather than at the blog level. So you'll be happy to know, we're working to make the post level "Like" button available in all TypePad themes. However, we know our Beta Team likes to be on the cutting edge, so here's how you can do it in Advanced Templates:

If you'd like to add a Facebook Like button to your posts, just copy the script below and follow the instructions for pasting that into your templates.

<!-- facebook like -->
<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=<$MTEntryPermalink encode_url="1"$>" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px"></iframe>

Add the code in the Individual Archives template and within the MTEntries container tag in the Main Index and Archive templates. The button can be placed wherever you wish but it's generally added in the post footer area (MTEntriesFooter).

You can adjust the above width to fit into your sidebar. For more customization options, check out Facebook's Social Plugins pages.

Lots to Like in Facebook

KNOWN ISSUE: We're seeing reports of the Like button not displaying in IE 6, 7. We're working to resolve this.

Today Facebook announced their new Social Plugins at the F8 Conference. And starting tomorrow, as part of the Beta Team, you will be able to install Facebook's new "Like" button, and connect your blog to Facebook's Open Graph. This will give any visitor to your blog the ability to share your blog with their friends on Facebook. This small but powerful feature will drive awareness of your blog through Facebook and can help drive more traffic to your blog. Yay, traffic!

We posted full details for this at Everything TypePad. Give the feature a whirl and let us know what you think in the comments. And remember, because this is brand spanking new, we do expect some hiccups along the way. 

Happy Liking!

Hacking on Blogside Search: Tags!

The last time we blogged, you were introduced to the wonders of blogside search. It's now released to all TypePad users and we've expanded the search index. In addition to titles, posts, pages and comments, we've added keywords and Technorati tags. If you're like me, your eyes lit up when you read the word "tags". If you're not, I'm happy to explain.

By indexing tags, bloggers using advanced templates will be able to send tag links to a search page on their TypePad blog instead of sending readers to Technorati. The best part is that it's an easy template change. I'll take you through it step-by-step.

1. Navigate to your blog's "Design" tab in the dashboard and click on "Templates" under "CUSTOMIZE YOUR CURRENT DESIGN".

2. Assuming you have the default templates, open the "Main Index" template and find this block of code (it'll be in there twice, for the sticky post and regular posts):

<MTEntryIfTagged><!-- technorati tags -->
	<p class="entry-footer-tags">
		<a href="http://www.<$MTTechnoratiDomain$>/search/<$MTEntryPermalink$>" title="<$MTTrans phrase="Find related items at Technorati."$>"><$MTTrans phrase="Technorati Tags"$></a>:
		<MTEntryTags glue=", "><a href="http://<$MTTechnoratiDomain$>/tag/<$MTTagLabelClean encode_url="1"$>" rel="tag"><$MTTagLabel$></a></MTEntryTags>
	</p>
</MTEntryIfTagged>

If you're using your own template code, look for the section that outputs tags.

3. You'll want to replace the code from step 2 with this:

<MTEntryIfTagged><!-- technorati tags -->
	<p class="entry-footer-tags">
		<$MTTrans phrase="Tags"$>:
		<MTEntryTags glue=", "><a href="<MTSearchResultsURL>?filter.q=<$MTTagLabel$>" rel="tag"><$MTTagLabel$></a></MTEntryTags>
</MTEntryIfTagged>

4. Save changes on the template. Provided you are using the default templates, you'll need to make the change again on all of your entry listing templates (Category Archives, DateBased Archives, Individual Archives and Search Results).

5. If you haven't, add some tags to your posts!

6. Open up your browser and check out your beautiful, new tag links.

So you can see this in action, I've set up a sample blog to show off the feature. Here's a link to all of the posts tagged "food".

One of the caveats: since blogside search indexes more than just tags, if you have written the word "food" in any entry, regardless of how you've tagged it, those entries will appear in this list.

I hope this demo has inspired you to start playing around with your advanced template sets a bit. Please post any interesting uses of blogside search in the comments. We'd love to see what how you're using it!

Blogside Search. Oh My!

We're proud to announce that a native, blogside search feature is available to our Beta members. The TypePad team has been hard at work the last several months to build out our very own search infrastructure. Last week we announced our Search API, which allows developers to build upon the great content in TypePad. And now we have an integrated search experience available for the blogside (you can see it live on this blog and on Everything TypePad).

Posts, pages, comments
So what’s being added to the search index? Pretty much everything that deals with the content on your blog. For this initial release, we provided the ability for readers to search for posts, pages and comments within your blog by keyword. 

Design, design, design
Many bloggers have been using 3rd party services such as Google or Lijit Search to power search on their blog. The problem with using another provider is that no matter how great the customizations are, it’s never going to look exactly like your blog. TypePad’s new blogside search feature will be fully integrated into the design of your blog.

Blogside search is available for all current and new blogs on classic themes and theme builder themes by going to:

• Blog > Design > Content
• Categories: Search Module: Add Search module
• Drag and drop the module anywhere in your sidebars

For members using advanced templates, grab the code from our Knowledge Base article. Microblog themes automatically have the search module embedded, so there’s one less step for you there!

Just the beginning…
Now that we’ve built this search infrastructure, the possibilities are endless. But first we need to know what’s working, what’s not working, and how can we make this experience better for you. Let us know in the comments what you think!

Connecting on TypePad has never been easier

Today we released a snazzy blogside toolbar to Beta members. Over the past year, we’ve rolled out a number of social features for our bloggers and the toolbar is another essential piece for connecting blog audiences with TypePad bloggers. The toolbar has two important functions. Firstly, it will help readers engage with your blog by giving them easy access to follow, favorite and reblog content. Therefore as a blog owner, the toolbar can be a powerful tool for building community around your blog. Secondly, it’s a great tool for all TypePad bloggers when surfing the TypePad network because you’ll be able to follow new blogs immediately and easily reblog content that you find.

All logged-in, Beta members will see the new toolbar when browsing TypePad blogs. Additionally as the blog owner, you have the option of showing the toolbar to all your readers, including those not yet in the TypePad network. What does that mean for you? By turning on the toolbar for your entire audience, you’ll help convert readers into active community members by making tools like reblog, favorite, comment and follow much more accessible.

Beta blog owners can turn the toolbar on for all readers by going to:

• Blog > Settings > Basics
• Check the box for TypePad Toolbar: "Show the TypePad toolbar on this blog"
• Save Changes

Sounds awesome, right? Well there’s more! When viewing the toolbar on your own blog, you’ll get quick access to important links to the Dashboard, Edit Post and Stats. The toolbar bridges the gap between the blog view and the TypePad interface – so your management options are just a click away. And lastly, we think the design is pretty great too. The toolbar is small, sits right below the browser window so it doesn’t interfere with your blog design, and it has a neat expand-collapse feature.  

Give it a try, and let us know in the comments about ways we can improve it for you! If you need further settings information, check out the Knowledge Base article.

Follow Me Module: Design Improvements

A good way to form closer connections with your audience and build traffic is to have your readers follow you on TypePad.  Your followers receive updates on their TypePad dashboards every time you post, comment, or favorite.  These updates let them know to visit your blog to read your most recent post.

The Follow Me module allows your readers to follow you in a single click. Until now the design of this module was not optimal. We just made some improvements to make it look nicer and work better with the TypePad themes and designs.  The changes include:
•    Automatically sizing to match the width of your sidebar
•    Adopting the style of your blog, including colors and fonts
•    Showing the profile pictures of the TypePad members you follow (optional)


If you want to turn off the # following, # of followers, and the profile pictures you can do this by changing the module settings as shown below.  Code for advanced template blogs is coming soon so check back in a couple of weeks for more detail.

Adding the Follow Me Module
1.  Go to Blogs>(Your Blog)>Design>Contnet.  The content page displays
2.  From the Modules list, select “Follow Me” (note:  this is also listed under the “About You” category)

3.  Click Add this module.  A pop-up appears asking if you want to display “following” and “followers” counts.  If you want to module to show how many people you are following and how many are following you, check the checkbox.
4.  Click OK and the pop-up closes.
5.  Drag-and-drop the Follow Me module where you’d like it to appear and Save changes.
6.  View blog and the Follow Me module appears in your sidebar.

Already have the Follow Me module?
Existing modules will be automatically updated with the improvements. You don’t need to do a thing.

Send Us Your Feedback
We’d love to hear your feedback on the new module.  Let us know what you think in the comments.

Also, if you have issues with the appearance of the module just open a ticket with the TypePad One support team.

Making Reblog Better

Last November we released a new feature called Reblog, which makes it easy for your readers to share your content others in their network.  When someone reblogs your content part, or all, of your post appears on the reblogger’s blog with attribution link back to your original post so you get the credit you deserve.

Reblog is a helpful traffic-driving tool but but we wanted it to do more. The new, improved reblog provides you with more insights into who is reblogging your posts and what posts are most popular. 

We’ve added new functionality to address these issues, including:

• Blogger notifications.  You’ll receive an email you when someone reblogs your post and a status update will appear in the Recent Activity section of your dashboard.

• Reader notifications.  The number of reblogs for a post will appear below the post and above the comments along with the profile pictures of people that have reblogged that post.
  

• More followers.  After readers reblog your post they will be prompted to follow you on TypePad to receive updates whenever you have a new post.
  

• Stats.  You can see the number of reblogs for a post in the Feedback section of the Edit Post page. 

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Turning On Reblog

If you already have Reblog on your blog you don’t need to do anyting.  If you don’t currently use Reblog you’ll need to turn it on.  While you’re at it we suggest turning on all your social features, including Favorites and the Follow Me module.

We recommend announcing the Reblog button to your readers so they know they can easily share their favorite posts on their TypePad blog.  Readers without a TypePad blog will be prompted to create a free TypePad Micro blog after reblogging your post.

Tell Us What You Think
We want your feedback before we roll the reblog improvements out to all TypePad bloggers.  After you use reblog for a few days please take a few minutes to answer these questions.  You can post your answers in the comments or give your feedback to our TypePad One support team.

1. What do you think of reblog?  Is it a good thing for you?
2. What do you think of the new notificaiton features?
3. How would you improve it?
4. Is something not working?
5. What do your readers think about it?

Also, we’re looking for examples to highlight when we roll the enhancements out to all users.  If you see an increase in traffic or create stronger connections with your readers from reblog and would like to be featured in our public announcement, please leave a comment below.

Awesome new theme: Chroma!

You asked for it, you got it - now we've done two new themes in two weeks. The latest is a great new theme exclusively for our Beta team: Chroma.

When you pick this theme, you'll upload an image to use that will automagically change the color layout of your blog, and let you pick the colors you like best for your new theme.

 

A picture being worth a thousand words, check out how the fresh new blog design comes out!

These new designs are great for showing off our new ways to easily add new photos, video and more as a microblog, to highlight favorites, followers and commenters.

If you give it a try, do yourself a favor and use the "Preview" function first to be sure things are lined up the way you like. Start a new test microblog on your favorite subject - food, fun, dogs, design - the possibilities are endless.

Now In Beta: New Design Section and Theme

We have improved the design section and introduced a new theme that is taking advantage of the new design section. Our goal is to make the design section more flexible so you — and outside designers — can add new themes and designs to your blog. One of the biggest benefits is you can create blog designs and preview them before you make changes live on your blog.

We’ve been testing the Design change for a few weeks, but we need more feedback from you. If what to try out the new design, here are few things to keep in mind:

• The new design allows you to duplicate and save your designs. We recommend you duplicate your design and then start tweaking.

• The new model is two step: after you work on a design and save the design, you still need to apply it to your blog.

• You can preview new designs but it may not be an exact preview of all of your content.

New Super-powered Theme: Mosaic
We’ve also introduced a new theme that takes advantage of the new Design paradigm. The Mosaic theme allows you to upload an image as your banner and will automatically “tile” it to fit the space. If you’ve been looking to update your “old fashioned” blog quickly and easily, this is a great way to do it.

Post by Email
TypePad has had post by email for over 5 years. Now in Beta is a huge improvement to the formatting of your post and more “Do What I Mean” (DWIM) capabilities. If you include a YouTube or Flickr URL in your email, we’ll automatically render it with nice formatting. Try it out and let us know what you think.

As always, we appreciate your feedback and suggestions for improvement.