Introducing BuddyStream: A Social Network Synchronization Plugin for BuddyPress

There’s big news in the BuddyPress world today with the arrival of a new plugin that will synchronize all of your favorite networks to the BuddyPress activity stream.

You may have heard of or previously used the Facestream or Tweetstream plugin by the same developer, Peter Hofman. He is no longer supporting these plugins because the new BuddyStream plugin combines these features and improves the way they work. Currently BuddyStream supports Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm and Youtube, and more are on the way.

Each user can select which social networks he wants to integrate with his BuddyPress profile.

Example Twitter integration:

BuddyStream will automatically import recent Twitter posts into the activity stream.

When the Flickr integration is turned on, BuddyStream will automatically import the user’s recent photo uploads:

It’s very simple for a user to add accounts from the frontend. Social networks appear under the “Settings” menu and the user need only enter his username and password for the networks he wants to integrate into his profile.

Each social network has its own admin panel where you can see which users are using the network, view cool statistics, and manage the advanced filtering settings.

Also, the site admin may choose which social network to integrate on the site by turning it “off” or “on”.

How BuddyStream Can Benefit Your Site:

If you’re having difficulty getting your users to post updates on your BuddyPress site and the activity stream looks like a ghost town with only admin posts, then this plugin will help to fill in some content. It imports recent posts so that your users appear to be much more active. Members can interact with each other’s content directly on your site, even though it was originally posted on another social network.

This plugin is just about ready to launch. Check it out the plugin at the BuddyStream homepage and watch for updates by following @buddystream on Twitter. Please also consider donating to help support the plugin’s development, as it will be free for all to use in the WordPress repository.

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