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How to Connect WordPress to Facebook [Beginner’s Tutorial]
Are you looking for ways to connect WordPress to Facebook and automate specific tasks? Well, you’re in the right place!
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites on the internet. As such, many businesses use Facebook pages to promote their product or service, connect with their audience, and share content to get traffic to their website.
If you’re using Facebook for your business, you can avoid the hassle of doing everything manually by connecting your WordPress site to Facebook and automating certain repetitive tasks.
In this article, we’ll share the step-by-step process of connecting WordPress to Facebook with the help of an example – sharing new blog posts on Facebook automatically.
Later, we’ll also share some use cases on how you can automate tasks by connecting your WordPress site to your Facebook page.
How to Connect WordPress to Facebook
The magic tool that can connect WordPress to Facebook is Uncanny Automator.
It is a powerful automation plugin for WordPress that can connect WordPress plugins together. You can even connect your WordPress site to popular web apps like Google Sheets, Twitter, Zapier, Slack, and Mailchimp.
To get started, you’ll have to create recipes (also known as automations) to connect your WordPress plugins or web apps.
The concept of a recipe is pretty straightforward. A recipe tells your WordPress site – if this happens, then do that. Hence, each recipe has two parts:
- Trigger: It is the condition that starts the recipe. Some examples are someone submitting a form, publishing a new post, purchasing an item, etc.
- Action: It is what Uncanny Automator does when the trigger happens. Some examples are registering users for an event, sharing a post on Facebook, sending a thank you email, etc.
Now that the idea of a recipe is clear, let’s get started with the actual tutorial – sharing new blog posts on Facebook automatically.
Step 1: Install Uncanny Automator
First, you need to install the Uncanny Automator plugin on your WordPress site.
In case you don’t know, the Uncanny Automator plugin comes with a free version and a pro version. But what’s the difference between the two versions?
Well, the free version of the plugin allows you to use fewer triggers and actions on your WordPress site, but it still supports millions of recipe options that can be used an unlimited number of times. Also, it includes 250 free app credits to try out third-party integrations like Slack, Google Sheets, Facebook, and more.
On the other hand, Uncanny Automator Pro allows unlimited usage of the app integrations, plus comes with additional features like scheduled actions. And of course, Uncanny Automator Pro users can use all the available triggers and actions on your website.
So you should consider upgrading to the premium version to gain access to all the features.
To follow this tutorial, you can use the free version of the plugin. But you’ll need the premium version for unlimited usage.
To get started, you need to head over to Plugins -> Add New from the left sidebar of your WordPress admin panel. Next, you’ll have to search for Uncanny Automator using the search bar present on the top-right corner of your screen.
Once you find the plugin, you need to click on Install Now to install the plugin on your WordPress site. And then, click on Activate to start using the plugin.
If you’re using Uncanny Automator Pro, you need to install both the free and the premium versions on your WordPress site (the free version works as a base for the pro version).
Let’s proceed to the next step now.
Step 2: Connect Your Website to Uncanny Automator (or Activate Your Account)
The next step is to connect your website to Uncanny Automator.
To do that, first, you need to create a free account on Uncanny Automator if you’re using the free version. Just go to Automator -> Dashboard from the left sidebar and then click on the Connect your site button.
This will open a new registration page and will ask you to enter some basic details.
Once you’re done, you should click on Sign up to create the account and connect your site to Uncanny Automator.
Premium users can ignore the above process if you’ve activated your license. If not, head over to Automator -> Automator Pro license and enter your license key to activate your account.
Step 3: Connect Uncanny Automator to Facebook
After creating the free account or activating your license, you need to connect your Facebook page to Uncanny Automator. It is an essential step as Uncanny Automator needs your permission to post on your Facebook page.
Before we proceed, you should note that Uncanny Automator can only post to your Facebook page. It doesn’t work for posting to an individual feed or posting to a Facebook group.
To get started, you need to go to Automator -> Settings and then click on the Facebook tab. Here you’ll have to click on Connect Facebook Pages:
This will take you to Facebook to start the process of connecting your Facebook page to Uncanny Automator.
First, you need to log in to your Facebook account if you aren’t already logged in. Then, you need to click on the “Continue as …” button to proceed.
If you’ve linked your Instagram business account to your Facebook page, then you’ll see that Instagram account on the next modal window.
You can select it only if you want to connect your Instagram account to Uncanny Automator. This will permit Uncanny Automator to post on your Instagram page as well.
It is an optional step. So click on Next if you don’t want to connect your Instagram account to Uncanny Automator.
Now, you’ll see the list of Facebook Pages that you currently manage. Here you should select the page(s) you want to connect to Uncanny Automator and then click on Next.
After that, you’ll have to turn on all the options to Yes and then click on Done to permit Uncanny Automator to post automatically on your Facebook page.
In case you turn anything off, the plugin may not work correctly.
Finally, you need to click on OK to complete the process.
This will take you back to the Settings page of Uncanny Automator.
You’ll now see the name of your Facebook page on the Facebook tab – confirming that you’ve successfully connected Uncanny Automator to your Facebook page.
Step 4: Create a Recipe
Let’s get started with the fun part now – creating a recipe.
Head over to Automator -> Add New from the left sidebar to create a new recipe. Here you’ll be asked to choose a recipe type. And you should select Logged-in users and click Confirm.
Why did we select Logged-in users (instead of Everyone)? When a blog post is published, it’ll be pushed by a user with a WordPress account. Hence, we’re telling Uncanny Automator that only logged-in users can trigger our recipe.
Also, logged-in user recipes have more triggers and actions available since we can work with user data. You may read more about recipe types here.
After selecting the recipe type, you need to add a recipe name in the Add title textbox for future reference. And you can use any recipe name you like.
Let’s name our recipe – Share New Posts on Facebook. Then, let’s proceed to the next step.
Step 5: Create a Trigger
The next step is to create a trigger.
Here we want to use a new post is published as our trigger. Go ahead and choose WordPress under Select an integration.
Why did we select WordPress? Blog posts are a native part of WordPress and not linked to a plugin or app. And we can find standard WordPress functions in the WordPress integration.
Now you’ll see a list of trigger options. Here, you need to find the trigger that says – A user publishes a type of post with a taxonomy term in a taxonomy.
Once you click on that trigger, Uncanny Automator will ask you the content type you want to select. For example, you can use the Post type dropdown to select Post or Page. You can even keep it as it is.
In our case, we want to share new blog posts on Facebook. Hence, you need to select Post in the Post type dropdown.
If you want to share posts from a specific category only, you should choose Category under Taxonomy and the category’s name under Taxonomy term.
You don’t need to change the Taxonomy or the Taxonomy term if you want to share all your blog posts.
Finally, you’ll have to click on the Save button to make the trigger live.
Step 6: Create an Action
Now let’s set up our action. To get started, you need to click on the Add action button.
Next, you’ll see a list of web apps and plugins. Here you need to click on the Facebook option.
Now you’ll have to select the Publish a post to a Facebook page option since you want to share your new blog posts on Facebook.
Uncanny Automator will come up with two options now.
Under the Select a Facebook Page dropdown, you’ll have to select the Facebook page you’ve previously connected to Uncanny Automator.
Next, you need to set up the Message box.
Uncanny Automator will use the content in this text box and post it on your Facebook page. And you can use static as well as dynamic text in this box.
For example, you can add static text like New Post or Read our new article. The static text will be the same on all your Facebook posts. If you want different static texts for different categories, you’ll have to create new recipes for each category.
What about the post title and URL? They are dynamic texts and can be added using tokens.
To get the token list, you need to click on the asterisk icon:
This will open a list of tokens.
Here you can use the search box to find the Post title and the Post URL tokens. Then, click on the tokens to add them to the Message box.
Here is an example of how the Message box looks like using static text and dynamic tokens:
Finally, you need to click on the Save button to make your action live.
Step 7: Publish Your Recipe
After you’ve set up your trigger and action, you need to make your recipe live.
To do that, you’ll have to use the toggle option in the Recipe box, present on the right sidebar, and change it from Draft to Live.
That’s it! Your recipe is live now.
From now on, whenever a new post is published on your blog, Uncanny Automator will share it on your Facebook page automatically.
Optional Step: Add a Delay to the Action
Do you want to share your newly published posts after a certain time? Maybe you want one Facebook post to go out immediately after the article is published and you want a second post (in a second action, since Automator allows you to add multiple actions) goes out 2 months later as a reminder to the audience.
You can schedule your Facebook post by adding a delay to your action.
First, you need to hover your cursor over the Actions area to see the Delay button:
When you click on that button, a modal window will open up asking you to add a delay or schedule your action. Let’s add a delay of 30 minutes and click on the Set delay button.
That means your newly published posts will be shared on your Facebook page after 30 minutes.
Note: This feature is only available for Uncanny Automator Pro users.
Use Cases for Connecting WordPress to Facebook
As you can see, Uncanny Automator makes it really easy to connect your WordPress site to Facebook. And then, you can automatically share your blog posts to your Facebook page by creating a recipe.
However, the above tutorial was just a starting point.
You can easily automate other Facebook tasks with the help of Uncanny Automator. Here are some use cases:
- When a user completes a series of LearnDash courses, share a picture on Facebook.
- When someone submits a form (built using WPForms or Formidable Forms), share a post link with a message on your Facebook page.
- Schedule a Facebook post (using the delay option) to promote a blog post in a month.
You can also add multiple actions to your recipe to take it to the next level.
For example, you can add another action to tweet about the new post on Twitter. Or, you may trigger a Mailchimp campaign to share the post with your audience. Also, you may connect your WordPress site to Slack and post a Slack message internally when the post is live.
Connect WordPress to Facebook Today
With the help of the Uncanny Automator plugin, you can easily connect WordPress to your Facebook page and share your blog posts, images, or links automatically.
The free version of the plugin provides 250 free app credits and allows you to connect your WordPress site to non-WordPress apps like Facebook, MailChimp, Twitter, and more.
After using up all the free app credits, you can keep using the free plugin without the app integrations. Or, you can purchase the pro version of Uncanny Automator for unlimited usage of third-party integrations.
And of course, you can add delay to your actions and use all the available triggers and actions if you’re an Uncanny Automator Pro user.
So what are you waiting for? Get started with Uncanny Automator Pro today!
And if you’ve any questions about how to connect WordPress to Facebook, please feel free to comment below.
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