Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago · 2 min. reading time · ~10 ·

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My True Confessions: How to Life Hack with IFTTT

My True Confessions: How to Life Hack with IFTTT


My name is Paul, and I am an IFTTT addict. I’ve tried to stop. I can’t stop. I don’t even want to stop anymore. I want it. I want more of it. I must have more of it.

I want it to be IFTTTATAT.

By now, you’re wondering what the hell I’m yammering on about. Let me explain.

My addiction started benignly enough.  I’ve been trying to find a solution to fixing the lack of post notifications on LinkedIn.  Karthik Rajan suggested I look closer at IFTTT.

I did.

Darn you, Karthik, darn you, I say! Now I can’t stop. ;-)

Before I go on, IFTTT is not a client.

I’m a ghostwriter. Sometimes people think I push my clients’ stuff. That’s fair. I do push my clients’ stuff.

Not now. The rule of thumb is this. If my name is on the post, it isn’t ghostwritten.

Enough said.

IFTTT is an acronym for If This Then That. I wish it was IFTTTATAT as in If This Then That And That And That. 

Sometimes "if this" needs a few "then thats."

But, I digress.

IFTTT is a web-based mini-scripting thing. It’s completely GUI-driven so anybody can use it.You can find it here. It really kicks heinie when you add the phone appfrom here. The app is available for both Android and iOS.

IFTTT has two flavors, DO and IF.

I'm not very excited about DO. I use it only to track time working for clients. DO is like a button. Press it, and it does something. You need to press it though. It doesn't do anything alone.

IF is different.

IF is the blue stuff from Breaking Bad. It's fantastic. It's fun. It's addictive. It's automated.

I'm in love.

It's addictive 'cause it's easy and powerful

IFTTT calls scripts, "Recipes." Like other recipes, they have Ingredients. You use Ingredients to do stuff, useful stuff, cool stuff, addictive stuff.

There are recipes that are ready to go, just waiting for you to try them. Careful! A single taste is enough to get you addicted.

Just ask Heisenberg.

Wanna know when Google (NASDAQ GOOG) hits $725? There’s a recipe for that or any other ticker symbol you prefer.

Wanna set your phone to just vibrate when you get to work? There’s a recipe for that too. You want the ringer back on when you leave? Ditto.

Existing recipes are great. Having the ability to create your own is even better. If that ability is quick and super easy, it's freaking awesome.

Since I started playing with this thing, I’ve created a bunch of recipes.

When I leave home, two recipes kick in. One cuts my Wi-Fi to save battery life. The other turns on Bluetooth, so I can connect to my car. Two things happen, so I need two recipes.

Better if it was IFTTTATAT, but hey, it isn't.

When I get back, two other recipes kick in. They cut Bluetooth and turn Wi-Fi on. 

More...

Any new Twitter followers get added to a spreadsheet on Google Drive without me needing to do anything.

If I post a Tweet with #fbp in it, a recipe writes a matching status (link post) on my Facebook page. I just need to remember the #fbp.

LinkedIn updates are also automatic. I just tweet with #in.

IFTTT Tweets any Medium post I recommend. I don’t need to do anything at all.

That’s just scratching the surface.

How a friend used IFTTT to register people at a trade show.

He first created a QR code that texted “Tell me more about CompanyX and sign me up for the give-away” to a specific cell number.

Next, he made an IFTTT recipe that searched incoming texts for that phrase. If found, it would text back a link to an online form. That form collected info and entered people into a contest.

298 people signed up at his booth.

419 signed up via the QR code!

Let’s look at how it does this magic.

IFTTT works with channels. Anything with an API (Application Program Interface) can have a channel. Right now there are 266 channels ranging from Amazon Alexa through Zubie.

Hint to beacon and analytics guys... If you have an API, make a channel.

Hint to Javier, Juan and the gang, as soon as your API is live, make a channel.

Question for LinkedIn... You're a major platform, why does your channel do diddly squat?

Most channels have both Triggers and Actions.

Remember when we said that IFTTT means, “If This Then That?” 

The “If This” part is the trigger. 

The “Then That” is the action.

Each side of a channel has ingredients. Makes sense to have ingredients in a recipe, no? I just think of these ingredients as customizable thingies. You can use those thingies to customize your recipes.

To use a channel, you need to enable it. That’s not tough to do. Just click on the Channel, then click the "Connect" button.

Here’s an example

I used Twitter’s “New Follower” trigger to connect to the “Add a row to a Google Drive spreadsheet" action. I enabled the recipe and now IFTTT writes all my new followers to the spreadsheet.

This is Fun Stuff

The fun thing about this method is that it runs via a tweet. We all use tweets to promote posts. At least, we should.

Combine IFTTT scripts and you can automate your social media posting. I schedule Tweets for my posts using #fbp, #in, and #insta.

Those tweets write updates to my Facebook page, my LinkedIn updates, and my Instagram account. If I use all the hash tags in one tweet, everything happens.

A note to fat fingered authors like me, the hash tag is literal. We're using Twitter's search function. If you type #FBP instead of #fbp, it won’t work.

It’s super easy to set up, publish, and share recipes. Just click "Publish." (Duhh) You get a link to tweet, email, or use here. You also get code to embed it on your site.

Parting words

As addictions go, an IFTTT addiction is pretty tame. If anything, I guesstimate it saves me about a half-hour a day. That adds up.

Some addictions are a good thing.

I urge you to play with IFTTT. Automate your life. You’ll be glad you did. If you want to talk about IFTTT or need help doing something with it, pop it in a comment.

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Comments

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #1

#1
Actually, I don't use it for marketing. I use it as anti-porn. Often you get a perfectly reasonable sounding profile that does nothing but RT porn. I blacklist them on Google sheets. At least I used to. Now it's straight to SQL

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