In the world of social networks, there are two really big players: Facebook and Twitter. These are not the only players, not by a long shot, but with almost 150 million users on Twitter, and an estimated 900 million on Facebook, these are two giants that cannot be ignored.

In the spirit of not ignoring each other, Twitter and Facebook have recently tightened their mutual integration, with links that lead to actual Twitter pages, users and hashtags appearing right in Facebook updates. Furthermore, Twitter updates can now be automatically sent to Facebook Pages as well. Whether you’ve linked Twitter to Facebook or not, this is a change worth knowing about.

Below you’ll find out exactly what these changes entail, and more importantly, how you can enable the new features on your own account.

Bring A Better Twitter To Facebook

Some people choose to send their Twitter updates to Facebook. This saves considerable time if you feel you want both your social communities to get the same information. Until recently, this is all you could get out of Twitter updates on Facebook:

These updates appear as they would on Twitter. No links except the link that was actually included in the update, and a small one leading to the poster’s profile on Twitter. This is the same for tweets that include mentions or pictures.

All this is now changed with the new Twitter-Facebook integration. If you have it enabled, your Twitter updates on Facebook will receive a facelift, to include links to people you mention, thumbnails of images you post, links to hashtags you use, and a full preview to links you post. This is also very useful when looking at other people’s updates to find out more about the people they mention, the pictures and links they post, etc.

For example, this is what a tweet containing a mention will look like on Facebook now:

Something similar will happen when using a hashtag:

As you can see, the updates now include actual links from Facebook to Twitter, where you can learn more about the hashtags used, the people mentioned, etc. This is great for Twitter users and non-Twitter users alike. If you’re a Twitter user, this is simply a shortcut for you into Twitter. If you’re not a Twitter user, this is a great way to familiarize yourself with this social network through things that might actually interest you.

Posting links and images through Twitter now looks similar to posting a URL on Facebook. This is what posting an image looks like. If you follow the link, you’ll find all the previous images this user posted on Twitter.

Even cooler, this is what posting a link would look like:

This looks almost exactly as posting the URL from Facebook would, and can really save you some time when posting links to both networks. As you can see, this last update from Twitter only includes one link, so if you use a hashtag, a mention and a link, as in the post above, only the actual link would appear. It seems that hashtags in general are in the lowest priority, and hashtag links only appear when they’re the only element used in the tweet.

These updates can now be posted on Facebook Pages as well, so if you’re running one, you can now post your Twitter updates straight onto your Page.

So now that you know all about this great new integration, how do you get it to work?

Enabling The New Integration & Posting On Facebook Pages

If you already have your Facebook and Twitter accounts linked, but can’t see these new posts appearing, the solution is actually very simple. Go you your Twitter profile page and scroll all the way down. If your accounts are already linked, click the “Disconnect” link to disconnect your accounts.

Now click the Connect with Facebook banner to link your accounts yet again. This is somewhat annoying, but is very simple to do and is worth the extra features you’ll be getting. You will now be prompted to authorize the Facebook Twitter app, and your accounts will be linked again. That’s it! You should now be able to see your Twitter updates on Facebook in the new format.

If you want to post updated on your Facebook Page, simply tick the box that says “my Facebook page” and choose the page you want to post on.

You can also choose to post updates only to your Facebook Page and not your personal profile, if, for example, you’re tweeting from a company’s Twitter account.

If your Twitter account was not previously linked to Facebook, simply connect your accounts and you’ll be able to immediately enjoy the new features. If you see that your friends’ Twitter updates on Facebook still appear in the old style, let them know about this little trick. It will improve your Facebook newsfeed too!

What do you think of the new Twitter-Facebook integration? Does it improve or hurt your Facebook experience? Let us know in the comments.