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How to Easily Create a Restaurant Website with WordPress

Restaurant, Restaurant Theme, restaurant website, seedprod, smash balloon facebook feed, smash balloon instagram feed plugin, smash balloon twitter feed plugin, Tutorials, wpforms, wpforms lite

Do you want to create a restaurant website with WordPress?

A restaurant website can help attract new customers and grow your business. It can also provide a better experience for your existing customers and keep them coming back to your restaurant, cafe, takeaway, or similar business.

In this article, we will show you how to create a restaurant website with WordPress.

How to easily create a restaurant website with WordPress

Why Create a Restaurant Website?

A website is one of the best ways to market your restaurant to new customers and provide a better experience for your existing clients.

By creating an online presence for your restaurant, you can introduce your business to people who are looking for venues and food just like yours.

An example of a restaurant website

After a potential customer discovers your business, a professionally-designed and helpful restaurant website will tell them everything they need to know about your business. They can then decide whether your restaurant is right for them.

Even if you have lots of loyal customers and a positive reputation in the local area, a restaurant website can help you improve the customer experience.

For example, it can allow customers to book a table online, send you questions using a convenient contact form, check out the latest menu, and much more.

An example of a restaurant online booking form

In this way, a restaurant website can keep your customers happy, so they carry on visiting you for months, or even years to come.

That said, let’s see how you can easily create a restaurant website with WordPress.

Which Is the Best Website Builder for Your Restaurant?

There are many website builders that can help you create a restaurant website but we recommend using WordPress.

According to our blogging research statistics, WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world. It powers nearly 43% of all websites on the internet including many top restaurant websites.

WordPress is also open-source and free. For more on this topic, see our article on why WordPress is free.

However, it’s important to realize that there are two types of WordPress software, so you don’t choose the wrong one.

First, there is WordPress.com, which is a blog hosting platform. Then, there is WordPress.org which is also known as self-hosted WordPress.

For a detailed comparison, you can see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

For a restaurant website, we recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you complete ownership of your site and allows you to install third-party plugins, including plenty that are designed specifically for restaurant owners.

To learn more about why we recommend WordPress to all our readers, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.

Step 1. Setting Up Your Restaurant Website

To create a WordPress website you’ll need a domain name and web hosting.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what customers will type into their browsers to reach your website, such as justeat.com or tacobell.com.

Web hosting is where your website lives online. To help you out, we’ve hand-picked some of the best WordPress hosting that you can buy for a restaurant website.  

Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This is a lot for restaurants that already have bills and expenses to pay.

Thankfully, Bluehost has offers a free domain name, and our readers can get 60% off on web hosting. Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world, and an official WordPress-recommended hosting partner.

They’re also offering our readers a free SSL certificate. If you want to accept payments online, then an SSL certificate will help keep the customer’s credit and debit card information safe.

You can click the button below to get started for as little as $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Once there, you will need to go to the Bluehost website in a new tab and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Bluehost WordPress Hosting offer for WPBeginner Users

This will bring you to a pricing page where you can choose a hosting plan for your website.

We recommend choosing a Basic or Plus plan, as they’re the most popular web hosting plans among our readers.

Bluehost pricing plans

After selecting a plan, click on ‘Continue.’

On the next screen, you’ll need to choose a domain name.

Choosing a domain name for your restaurant website

Ideally, the domain name will be easy to pronounce and spell, easy to remember, and related to your business. The name of your restaurant is a great place to start, but sometimes that domain may already be taken by another business.

In that case, you can try extending the domain name by adding your restaurant’s location, your own name, or the type of food you serve.

Need help choosing a domain name for your restaurant website? See these tips and tools on how to choose the best domain name.

After choosing a name, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

Now you’ll need to provide your account information such as your name and email address. After that, you’ll also see optional extras that you can purchase.

We generally don’t recommend purchasing these extras straight away, as you can always add them later on if you need them.

Bluehost hosting package extras

After that, simply type in your payment information to complete the purchase.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to login to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard where you can manage your restaurant website, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support.

It’s also where you’ll install the WordPress software.

Step 2. Create a New WordPress Website

When you signup with Bluehost using our link, Bluehost installs WordPress on your domain name automatically.

If you want to create a different WordPress website, then you can simply click on the ‘My Sites’ tab in the Bluehost dashboard.

Next, just click on the ‘Add Site’ button and select ‘Create New Site.’

Creating a new restaurant website using Bluehost

The Bluehost wizard will now guide you through the setup process.

First, you’ll need to type in a site title and optional tagline.

Adding a site title and tagline to your new restaurant website

Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

After that, Bluehost will ask you to select a domain name and path for your restaurant website. If you’ve already purchased a domain name, then you can simply select it from the dropdown menu.

Choosing a domain for your new WordPress website

If you don’t have a domain name then you can buy one by visiting the ‘Domains’ page inside the Bluehost dashboard.

After choosing a domain name, you can leave the directory path blank and let Bluehost fill it in for you. The installer will also show a few must-have WordPress plugins that you may want to install on your restaurant website including OptinMonster.

After that, click on the ‘Next’ button and the installer will set up your restaurant site.

Once it’s finished, you’ll see a ‘WordPress installed successfully’ message with information about your new website. You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Log into WordPress’ button.

This will take you to your site’s admin area.

Log into your new WordPress website dashboard

You can also log in to the WordPress dashboard by simply going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser.

If you’re using a different WordPress website host such as SiteGround, Hostinger, HostGator, or WP Engine, then you can see our complete guide on how to install WordPress for all the top hosting providers.

Once WordPress is setup, you’re ready to start building a five-star restaurant website.

Step 3. Select a Restaurant Theme

WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that change how your restaurant site looks and acts.

By default, each WordPress site comes with a basic theme. If you visit your website, then it will look something like this:

The default WordPress theme

This is not very appealing for most customers, so you’ll usually want to replace the default WordPress theme.

There are lots of different premium and free WordPress business themes to choose from. You can generally categorize these as multipurpose WordPress themes, or niche industry themes.

Your typical restaurant website needs special features, like the ability to show a menu, photos, location information, business hours, and more.

With that in mind, it makes sense to look for a theme that’s designed for the food or hospitality industry. To help you out, we’ve collected the best WordPress restaurant themes.

You can also use a website and landing page builder plugin such as SeedProd.

The SeedProd page builder

SeedProd is the best drag and drop WordPress page builder and comes with built-in templates that you can use to build a professionally-designed restaurant website.

These templates include a menu, food photos, pricing, recipes, and more.

One of SeedProd's ready-made restaurant templates

Once you’ve chosen a restaurant theme, please see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

After installing your theme, you may want to customize it by going to Appearance » Customize in the WordPress dashboard.

This will launch the theme customizer where you can fine-tune the theme settings and see your changes in the live preview.

The WordPress theme customizer

If you’re using one of the newer full site editing themes, then you’ll see the option for Appearance » Editor, which uses blocks similar to the content editor to customize your site.

Pro Tip: No matter what theme you’re using, neither the default WordPress customizer nor the full site editing offers a user-friendly drag and drop customization experience. For that reason, we recommend using a page builder like SeedProd to customize your theme.

Just remember that you can always return to this screen and continue customizing your theme. You can even completely change your WordPress theme at any point.

Step 4. Create a Custom Home Page

WordPress has two two default content types called posts and pages.

You’ll typically use posts to create articles and blogs. By default, the home page shows these posts in reverse chronological order, so the newest content appears at the top of the list.

A list of WordPress blog posts

You might use a blog to build a stronger relationship with their customers, improve your WordPress SEO, and get more traffic to your restaurant website. For example, you could write about recipes, share cooking tips, or blog about the latest restaurant industry news.

However, even if you plan to publish blog posts, you typically won’t show these on the home page. Instead, we recommend creating a custom home page that introduces your business to new visitors.

For step-by-step instructions on how to create an attention-grabbing restaurant home page, please see our guide on how to create a custom home page in WordPress.

Once you’re happy with the page’s design, it’s time to set it as your home page. To do this, go to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.

Adding a static home page to your WordPress website

Here, scroll to ‘Your homepage settings’ and select ‘A static page.’

Next, open the ‘Homepage’ dropdown and choose the page that you want to use.

Adding a static home page to your WordPress restaurant website

Then, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’ Now, if you visit your website you’ll see the new home page in action.

If you are going to write blogs, then make sure you create a separate blog page to display your posts. If you don’t, then customers will struggle to find your latest WordPress blogs.

Step 5. Create an Online Restaurant Menu

Even long-term, loyal customers may want to look at your menu from time to time. By publishing your menu online, customers can look at it any time of day or night.

Publishing a menu can also help convince new customers to visit your restaurant.

It is possible to upload PDF files to your WordPress website. However, downloading a PDF menu can be difficult depending on the customer’s data plan and internet connection, and they’re non-responsive so they can be hard to read on some devices.

Plus, if you add new dishes or change your pricing, then you’ll also need to upload a completely new PDF.

For that reason, we recommend using SeedProd to add an online menu to your WordPress website. SeedProd also allows you to create a mobile responsive menu that looks great on every device.

One of SeedProd's professionally-designed restaurant templates

You can also easily update the menu as you add new dishes, change the prices, remove dishes, and more.

SeedProd even comes with a ‘Menu Sales Page’ template that’s perfect for creating a menu.

A restaurant menu, created using SeedProd

For detailed instructions, please see our guide on how to create an online restaurant menu.

Step 6. Set Up Online Food Ordering

Many restaurants allow customers to order food online. For example, you might give customers the option to pre-order their meal or place an order for delivery.

It may sound technical, but you can easily add online food ordering to your website using the WPForms plugin.

The WPForms form builder plugin for WordPress

WPForms is the best WordPress form builder that allows you to create online order forms for all kinds of products and services.

It even comes with a ready-made ‘Takeout Order Form’ that you can customize to suit your restaurant website.

Adding an online takeaway order form to your WordPress website

Every time someone completes the form, WPForms will notify you automatically so you can start working on that order straight away.

If you don’t want to accept cash on delivery, then WPForms supports all of the best payment gateways including PayPal and Stripe. This allows you to accept payments securely online, which is quick and convenient for your customers.

Accepting online payments for your restaurant website

For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to set up food ordering for restaurants in WordPress.

Step 7. Add a Restaurant Booking Form

Today, most people expect to be able to book appointments through an automated system.

By adding a booking form to your restaurant website, you can accept reservations at any time of the day or night. You’ll never lose another customer just because you weren’t around to answer the phone. 

Booking forms can also automate a lot of the booking process. This includes collecting payments and emailing your customers to remind them about their upcoming booking.

You can easily add a restaurant booking form to your website using WPForms. This plugin has a ready-made dinner reservation form template that you can customize for your restaurant.

How to accept online bookings on a restaurant website

WPForms also integrates with all of the top email marketing providers. This makes it easy to send reservation confirmation emails to your customers.

As their booking approaches, you can even send the customer a reminder email, ask them to share any dietary requirements, send a pre-order form, and more.

Creating email notifications for your booking form

To learn more about adding a reservation form to your WordPress website, please see our guide on how to create a booking form in WordPress.

Step 8. Add a Contact Us Form

Even if you use a WordPress appointment and booking plugin, some customers may still need to talk to you directly.

While visitors could ring your phone number or send a message to your business email address, we always recommend adding a contact form to your website.

An example of a contact form

Most of the best contact form plugins come with built-in spam protection, so you won’t get any contact form spam. A form will also collect consistent information from visitors, so you’ll have all the data you need to write a helpful reply.

The easiest way to add a contact form to your WordPress website is by using the free WPForms plugin.

This free plugin comes with a built-in Simple Contact Form template that you can quickly customize using the drag and drop editor.

WPForms' contact form template

Then, simply add the form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the ready-made WPForms block.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

Step 9. Add a Navigation Menu

Once you’ve added some content to your restaurant website, you’ll want to help visitors find their way around those pages and posts by adding a navigation menu.

An example of a restaurant menu, created using WordPress

No matter what theme you’re using, WordPress makes it really easy to add menus and sub-menus to your restaurant website.  

For a complete guide, please see our post on how to add a navigation menu.

The WordPress menu settings

Step 10. Add Social Proof to Your Restaurant Website

Social proof is one of the best ways to earn customer trust, and convince new people to visit your restaurant. After all, we’re more likely to try things that we see other people buying, using, or recommending.

People love sharing food photos on sites like Instagram and Facebook. With that in mind, we recommend adding social media feeds to your WordPress website.

Smash Balloon Instagram Feed is one of the best Instagram plugins for WordPress, and it allows you to easily show other people’s photos on your site.

Using this plugin, you can create a hashtag feed and show photos that customers have tagged your account in. This includes photos of your food, venue, and shots of customers having fun at your restaurant.

A food hashtag Instagram feed, created using Smash Balloon

For detailed step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress.

If your customers regularly tweet about your restaurant, then Smash Balloon Twitter Feed also lets you create hashtag and mention feeds.

A Smash Balloon Twitter feed

For more instructions on adding a Twitter feed to WordPress, see our guide on how to embed tweets in WordPress.

Step 11. Show Customer Reviews

Customer reviews and testimonials can provide visitors with more information, and may even solve any question or worries customers have about visiting your restaurant.

If you already have a Facebook page, then it’s easy to display your Facebook reviews in WordPress using Smash Balloon Facebook Feed.

Facebook reviews, embedded in a WordPress website

If you want to show reviews from other platforms like Yelp or Google My Business, then there’s also plenty of customer review plugins for WordPress that you can use.

These plugins will collect reviews automatically and then organize them into a nice layout on your restaurant website.

Customer reviews embedded on a WordPress website

If you do add a customer review page in WordPress, then don’t forget to add it to your navigation menu too.

Don’t have any reviews to feature on your website? Then it’s time to start asking for them.

WPForms has a a ready-made Restaurant Review Form template that you can add to your website.

A restaurant review form, created using WPForms

Bonus Tips to Grow Your Restaurant Website

Now that you have setup your restaurant website, here are some top tips that you can use to grow your online business:

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to create a restaurant website with WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide and our expert pick of the must have WordPress plugins that you should install on all business sites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Create a Restaurant Website with WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed Issue in WordPress

Embed, Facebook, instagram, oembed, smash balloon facebook feed, smash balloon instagram feed plugin, smashballoon, Tutorials

Do you want to learn how to fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress?

If you’ve previously added Facebook or Instagram content to WordPress using the default oEmbed or Embed block, then this feature no longer works. This can cause errors and missing content on your WordPress website.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to fix the Facebook and Instagram embed issue, so visitors can enjoy social content on your WordPress website.

How to fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress

What is the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed Issue in WordPress?

In the past, you could easily embed Instagram and Facebook posts in WordPress using a protocol known as oEmbed.

However, Facebook changed the way that oEmbed works so you can no longer easily embed videos, pictures, updates, and other content from Facebook or Instagram.

Instead, you now need to register an app and use a client token to get data from the Facebook Graph API, before you can embed Facebook or Instagram content on your WordPress blog.

This would take a lot of time and effort, especially if you want to show lots of different social posts across your website. With that in mind, the people behind WordPress decided to remove the Facebook and Instagram embed feature.

If you previously added any Facebook content to your website using oEmbed, it’ll now look something like the following image.

An example of an oEmbed error in WordPress

If you embedded any Instagram posts using oEmbed, then you’ll get a similar error.

This is a bad user experience, and some visitors may assume that your website is broken, no longer maintained, or that you’re not a trustworthy or reliable business.

There are ways to fix the problem manually. For example, you might go through each page and post and delete the embedded content. However, this would take a lot of time and effort, and there’s no guarantee you’ll manage to find every broken embed.

With that being said, let’s see how you can easily fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue on WordPress.

How to Fix the Facebook & Instagram oEmbed Issue

The easiest way to fix the oEmbed issue is by using one of the free Smash Balloon plugins.

If you want to embed Instagram posts in WordPress, then you’ll need the Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed plugin.

An instagram post, embedded in a WordPress website

Want to embed a Facebook post in WordPress? Then you can use the free Smash Balloon Social Post Feed plugin instead.

First, you need to install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After installing either plugin, simply head over to Instagram Feed » oEmbeds or Facebook Feed » oEmbeds, depending on the plugin you’re using.

We’re using the Social Photo Feed plugin in all our images, but the steps will be exactly the same no matter what plugin you’re using.

Enabling the oEmbed feature for Instagram and Facebook

On this screen, simply click on the ‘Enable’ button.

That’s it. You can now embed Facebook and Instagram posts on your WordPress website.

How to Embed Instagram or Facebook Posts in WordPress

Whether you’re using Facebook or Instagram, you can embed a specific post in any page, post, or widget-ready area, such as the sidebar.

One option is to open the page or post where you want to show the social content. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon and type in ‘Embed.’

When the right block appears, click to add it to the page or post.

Adding the Embed block to a WordPress page or post

In the ‘Embed’ field, simply paste the URL of the Instagram or Facebook post that you want to show on your website.

Then, click on ‘Embed.’

Embedding an Instagram post in WordPress

WordPress will now show that specific post. When you’re ready to make the post live, simply click on ‘Update’ or ‘Publish.’

Now when you visit the page, you’ll see the social media post live.

An example of an Instagram post in WordPress

Another option is adding the Instagram or Facebook post to a widget-ready area such as the sidebar. That way, you can promote the same post across every page of your website.

For example, you might embed your most popular Instagram post or a post promoting a sale or social media contest you’re using to grow your site.

Adding an Instagram post to a widget-ready area such as the WordPress sidebar

To add a Facebook or Instagram post to a widget-ready area, simply go to Appearance » Widgets and click on the blue ‘+’ button.

In the search bar, type in ‘Embed’ to find the right block.

Embedding an Embed block in WordPress

When the ‘Embed’ block appears, drag it onto the area where you want to show the Facebook or Instagram post.

In the ‘Embed’ field, simply paste the URL of the Instagram or Facebook post that you want to show on your website. Then, click on ‘Embed.’

Embedding Instagram photo in Instagram

WordPress will now show that specific post.

If you’re happy with how it looks, then click on ‘Update’ to make it live.

Embedding Instagram post in WordPress

Now, when you visit your website, you’ll see the Instagram or Facebook post live.

How to Add an Instagram or Facebook Feed to WordPress

With the free Smash Balloon plugins, it’s easy to fix the oEmbed issue so you can add Facebook and Instagram posts to your website.

This is great if you only want to embed a small number of posts or you want to control exactly where each social post appears on WordPress. However, you may also want to embed a Facebook or Instagram feed on your website.

By creating a feed, you can show all your latest posts in a nice layout. Even better, the feed will update automatically so visitors will always see the newest posts without you having to update your site manually.

This can keep your site fresh and interesting, even for regular visitors.

If you want to embed Instagram content in WordPress, then you can use the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin.

An Instagram feed, created using Smash Balloon

Want to create a feed showing your latest Facebook status posts, videos, reviews, and more?

Then you can use the Smash Balloon Facebook Feed plugin.

Facebook reviews, embedded using Smash Balloon

Want to add both Facebook and Instagram feeds to your WordPress website? Then you may want to look at Smash Balloon Social Wall.

This powerful plugin lets you combine any feeds you’ve created using the Smash Balloon plugins, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube feeds, and more.

Creating a social media wall using Facebook and Instagram

For example, if you’ve set up the Facebook Feed and Instagram Feed plugins, then you can simply go to Social Feeds » Create a Social Wall in your WordPress dashboard.

Here, you’ll see all the different feeds you’ve created so far.

How to create a social media wall using multiple feeds

Simply select each feed that you want to add to the social wall.

For example, you can combine posts from your Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Combining Facebook and Instagram into a social wall

Small Balloon Social Wall will then create a shortcode that allows you to add the social wall to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

For more information about working with shortcodes, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Social media shortcode, created using the Smash Balloon plugin

After placing the shortcode, simply save or publish your changes to make them live.

Now, if you visit your website, you’ll see a social wall featuring all the latest posts from your different accounts and platforms.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress. You may also want to see our expert pick of the best social media plugins for WordPress, and our guide on how to create an email newsletter.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed Issue in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Embed Facebook Albums in WordPress

embed facebook albums in wordpress, smash balloon facebook feed, Tutorials

Do you want to embed Facebook albums in WordPress?

Embedding Facebook albums is a great way to get more engagement on both your WordPress website and your Facebook page. It can also grow your social media following.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily embed Facebook albums in WordPress.

How to embed Facebook albums in WordPress

Embedding a Facebook Album in WordPress

Showing albums on your WordPress website can make your pages more engaging.

As you add more photos to Facebook, they’ll appear on your site automatically, so it’s also a great way to keep your website fresh, even for regular visitors.

You can even use embedded albums to promote your Facebook page. If visitors see lots of interesting photos then they’ll want to follow you on Facebook. This can get you some extra followers and more engagement.

WordPress used to come with built-in embed support for Facebook albums. Just like you embed a YouTube video, you could simply copy and paste the URL of any Facebook album and WordPress would display that album automatically.

However, Facebook and Instagram have since made changes to their API. These changes make it impossible for WordPress to continue oEmbed support for Facebook and Instagram.

If you try to embed a link to an album, then WordPress will tell you that ‘Sorry, this content could not be embedded.’

The Facebook album embed error

Thankfully, there is a way to fix Facebook and Instagram embeds in WordPress using a plugin.

Let’s see how you can easily embed Facebook albums in WordPress, including how to show a specific album on any page or post.

Installing a Facebook Album Plugin

The best way to embed Facebook albums in WordPress is by using the Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin.

This plugin lets you show Facebook albums, comments, reviews, community posts and more on your site.

How to embed Facebook photos in your WordPress website using Smash Balloon

It also lets visitors take a closer look at your photos and images without having to visit Facebook, by opening a lightbox popup on your website.

In this guide, we’ll be using the pro version of Smash Balloon as it allows you to embed Facebook albums, display videos, show photos in a custom Facebook feed, and more. However, there’s also a free version that allows you to create a custom Facebook feed for WordPress, no matter what your budget.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Facebook Feed » Settings and enter your license key into the ‘License Key’ field.

Adding your license key to Smash Balloon

You’ll find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.

After entering the key, click on the ‘Activate’ button.

Connect Your Facebook Page or Group to WordPress

Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed allows you to embed albums from your different Facebook pages and groups. You can even show the latest comments in a dropdown box below the photo, along with the like and shares.

To connect your Facebook page or group to WordPress, go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then click on ‘Add New.’

Adding a Facebook group or page to WordPress

Smash Balloon lets you show posts from your photo albums, timeline, events, and more.

To embed your Facebook albums, you’ll need to click on ‘Albums’ and then click on ‘Next.’

Choosing the Smash Balloon 'Albums' template

Now, you need to select the Facebook page or group where you’ll get the albums from.

To get started, click on ‘Add New.’

Choosing a source for your Facebook album

On the next screen, choose whether you want to show albums from a page or group.

After that, just click on ‘Connect to Facebook.’

How to connect Smash Balloon and WordPress to Facebook

This opens a popup where you can log into your Facebook account and choose the pages or groups where you want to embed albums from.

After making this decision, click on ‘Next.’

Choosing Facebook pages and groups to embed albums from

Once you’ve done that, Facebook will show all the information that Smash Balloon will have access to, and the actions it can perform.

To restrict Smash Balloon’s access to your Facebook account, just click any of the switches to turn it from ‘Yes’ to ‘No.’ Just be aware that this may affect the albums and photos that you can embed on your WordPress blog or website.

With that being said, we recommend leaving all the switches enabled.

Giving Smash Balloon access to your Facebook page

When you’re ready, click on ‘Done.’

After a few moments, you should see a message confirming that you’ve connected your WordPress website to Facebook. With that done, it’s time to click on ‘OK.’

How to connect Facebook albums to your WordPress website

Smash Balloon will now take you back to the WordPress dashboard automatically.

How to Embed Facebook Albums in WordPress

You will now see a popup with the group or page you just linked to your website. Simply select the radio button next to your source and then click on the ‘Add’ button.

How to embed albums from a Facebook page or group

If you accidentally closed the popup, then don’t panic. You can simply refresh the tab to reopen the popup.

After that, WordPress will take you back to the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page automatically. Just like before, click on the ‘Add New’ button, select ‘Albums’ and then click on the ‘Next’ button.

Now, select your Facebook page or group, and click on ‘Next.’

Selecting a source for your Facebook album

On this screen, you can choose the template you’ll use as the starting point for your feed. All of these templates are fully customizable so you can fine-tune the design depending on how you want to show the Facebook albums on your website.

We’re using the ‘Default’ template, but you can choose any template you want.

Choosing a template for your Facebook albums

With that done, click on the ‘Next’ button.

Smash Balloon will now go ahead and create an album feed based on your source and the template you’ve chosen. This is a good start, but you may want to fine-tune how the albums appear on your WordPress website.

How to Customize Your Embedded Facebook Albums

The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin gives you lots of ways to customize how the albums are displayed. With that in mind, it’s worth seeing what changes you can make.

On the Facebook Feed » All Feeds screen, find your album feed and then click on its ‘Edit’ button, which looks like a small pencil.

Customizing your Facebook albums feed

This opens the Smash Ballon feed editor, which shows a preview of your Facebook albums to the right.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see all the different settings you can use to customize how these albums appear on your site. Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover some key areas.

Editing the Facebook albums feed

To start, you can change how the albums are displayed by clicking on ‘Feed Layout.’

On this screen, you can switch between different layouts, such as masonry and grid, and change the feed height. As you make changes, the preview will update automatically so you can try different settings to see what looks the best.

Choosing a new feed layout in WordPress

By default, the feed will show the same number of posts on desktop computers and mobile devices such as smartphones.

You can preview how your albums will look on desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.

Choosing a new feed layout in WordPress

Mobile devices usually have smaller screens and less processing power, so you may want to show fewer albums on tablets and smartphones.

To do this, just type a different number into the ‘Mobile’ field under ‘Number of Posts.’

Changing how your embedded Facebook albums appear on mobile devices

By trying out different layouts you can create a custom feed that looks great, no matter what device the visitor is using.

By default, the Facebook feed shows less columns on smartphones and tablets, compared to desktop computers. This helps all your albums and photos fit comfortably on smaller screens.

After testing the mobile version of your WordPress website, you may be unhappy with how the columns look on smartphones and tablets. If this is the case, then you can show fewer columns by changing the numbers in the ‘Columns’ section.

Changing the column layouts using Smash Balloon

When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, click on the ‘Customize’ link.

This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, ready for you to explore the next settings screen, which is ‘Color Scheme.’

Changing the color scheme for your Facebook photo feed

By default, Smash Balloon uses a color scheme inherited from your WordPress theme, but this screen allows you to switch to a ‘Light’ or ‘Dark’ look,

You can also create your own color scheme by selecting ‘Custom’ and then using the controls to change the background color, change the text color in WordPress, and more.

Adding a custom color to your Facebook album feed

By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to your feed, which is your Facebook profile picture and the name of the page or group.

To change how this section looks, click on ‘Header’ in the left-hand menu.

Customizing the header of your Facebook album feed

On this screen, you can change the size of the header, its color, hide or show your Facebook profile picture, and more.

If you want to remove the header completely, then click to turn off the ‘Enable’ toggle.

How to embed Facebook albums in WordPress

By default, Smash Balloon shows the title of each album. If you want to hide the title, then select ‘Posts’ from the main Smash Balloon editor menu.

Then, click on ‘Post Style.’

Changing the style of your Facebook album feed

Here, you can remove the album titles by clicking on the ‘Show album title’ slider.

This can be useful if your album titles distract attention away from the photos, or they don’t make sense when embedded on your website.

Showing the album title in your WordPress Facebook feed

On this screen, you can also choose whether to show how many photos are in each album.

To add this number, simply click on the ‘Number of posts in album’ toggle.

Adding the number to Facebook albums in WordPress

By default, Smash Balloon doesn’t include the Facebook ‘like’ button in your feed. To get more Facebook followers, you may want to add this button by selecting ‘Like Box’ from the editor’s left-hand menu.

After that, simply click on the ‘Enable’ button so that it turns blue.

Adding a 'like' button to your Facebook albums feed in WordPress

By default, Smash Balloon adds this button below your embedded photo albums, but you can change this by opening the ‘Position’ dropdown and choosing ‘Top.’

On this screen you can also change how the ‘like’ section looks including adding a custom call to action, showing how many people follow you on Facebook, and more.

Customizing the Facebook follow button in WordPress

When you’re happy with how the ‘like’ button looks, you can move on to the ‘Load More Button’ screen.

The Load More button encourages visitors to scroll through more of your Facebook feed, so Smash Balloon adds it to your embedded photo albums by default.

Adding a 'Load More' button to a custom Facebook photos feed in WordPress

Since it’s such an important button, you can help Load More stand out by changing its background color, text color, and label.

Another option is to remove the button completely, by clicking the ‘Enable’ toggle.

Removing the 'Load More' button from embedded Facebook albums

By default, Smash Balloon allows visitors to look through your Facebook albums without leaving your website.

They can simply click on any album to open a lightbox, as you can see in the following image.

Smash Balloon's lightbox feature

The visitor can then use the arrows to scroll through the album.

If they want to like a photo, leave a comment, or share the image with their Facebook friends, then they can click on the ‘View on Facebook’ link.

Visiting a Facebook group or page from the lightbox

There are a few different ways that you can customize the default lightbox.

To see your options, click on ‘Lightbox’ in the left-hand menu.

Customizing the Facebook photos lightbox

Here, you can change the color of the lightbox’s text, links, and background colors.

The lightbox feature makes it easy for people to engage with your photos, but it also allows people to scroll through your albums without visiting your Facebook page. If you want to get more visitors to your Facebook page then you can disable the lightbox feature by clicking on the ‘Enable’ toggle.

Disabling the lightbox feature on your WordPress website

Now, if a visitor clicks on an album they will be redirected to your Facebook page in a new tab.

When you’re happy with how the photo albums look, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

You’re now ready to add these albums to your WordPress website.

How to Add Facebook Albums to WordPress

You can add your Facebook albums to WordPress using a block, widget, or shortcode.

If you’ve created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you’ll need to know the feed’s code if you’re going to use a block or widget.

Simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then look at the feed="" part of the shortcode. You’ll need to add this code to the block or widget, so make a note of it.

In the following image, we’ll need to use feed="4".

Embedding Facebook albums using code

If you want to embed your Facebook albums in a page or post, then you’ll typically use the Custom Facebook Feed block.

Simply open the page or post where you want to embed your albums. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block and start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed.’

When the right block appears, click to add it to your page or post.

How to add a Custom Facebook Feed block to WordPress

The block will show one of your Smash Balloon feeds by default. If you want to use a different feed instead, then simply find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.

You can now add the feed="" code to this box. After that, click on ‘Apply Changes.’

Embedding Facebook photos in WordPress

The block will now show the albums from your Facebook page or group. Just publish or update the page to make the albums live on your website.

Another option is to add the feed to any widget-ready area, such as the sidebar or similar section. This allows visitors to see your Facebook photos from any page of your site.

Simply go to Appearance » Widgets in the WordPress dashboard and then click on the blue ‘+’ button.

Adding Facebook albums to your website's sidebar

Once you’ve done that, find the Custom Facebook Feed widget.

Then, just drag it onto the area where you want to show the feed.

How to embed Facebook albums and photos in WordPress

The widget will show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon.

To show a different feed instead, type the feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

Showing different Facebook feeds in a Smash Balloon block

You can now click on the ‘Update’ button to make the widget live. For more information, please see our step by step guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

Finally, you can embed your albums on any page, post, or widget-ready are using shortcode.

Simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and copy the code in the ‘Shortcode’ column. You can now add this code to your site.

For more information, please see our detailed guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Add a Specific Facebook Album in WordPress

Smash Balloon also allows you to embed a specific Facebook album anywhere on your WordPress site. This allows you to show your latest or best album to visitors, or to display an album that’s relevant to the rest of the page’s content.

To embed a particular Facebook album, you’ll need to buy and install the Album extension by going to Facebook Feed » Extensions.

Here, find the ‘Album’ extension and click on its ‘Add’ button.

The Smash Balloon Single Album extension

This will open the Smash Ballon website in a new tab, with instructions on how to purchase the extension.

Once you have the extension, you can install it in exactly the same way you install a plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After activating the plugin, go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and click on ‘Add New.’

Under ‘Advanced Feed Types,’ select ‘Single Album’ and then click ‘Next.’

Showing a specific album on your WordPress website

You can now choose the page or group that you want to use as your source, and choose a template by following the same process described above.

On the next page, you’ll need to enter the ID of the album that you want to embed.

Embedding a specific album in WordPress

In a new tab, simply open the Facebook album that you want to display.

You can now copy the numbers after the = symbol, and inbetween the first two periods. For example, in the following image we need to copy 447443907512397.

Getting the ID of a Facebook album

You can now paste these numbers into the WordPress dashboard.

After that, click on ‘Next’ and Smash Balloon will fetch the album.

Adding a Facebook album ID to WordPress

After that, you can style the album and add it to your site following the same process described above.

We hope this article helped you learn how to embed Facebook albums in WordPress. You may also want to check out our guide on how to create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress, and how to create an email newsletter to connect with your visitors after they leave your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Embed Facebook Albums in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress

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Are you looking for a way to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress?

Facebook statuses are an easy way to share important updates and time-sensitive information with your audience. By embedding your Facebook timeline in WordPress, you can get more engagement, let people know what’s happening on your Facebook page or group, and grow your followers.

In this article, we will show you how to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress.

How to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress

Why Embed Facebook Status in WordPress?

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world and has billions of active users. For website owners, Facebook is a powerful way to connect with a new audience and engage with the people who already know about your brand.

Facebook is also perfect for sharing time-sensitive information in real time. In this way, you can use FOMO to create a sense of urgency.

For example, you might post a status about how visitors are running out of time to enter your giveaway in WordPress, or take advantage of your flash sale.

However, people won’t see your Facebook status if they just visit your website. This makes it difficult to grow your Facebook following and build a relationship with your audience.

By embedding your Facebook status posts in WordPress, you can promote your social media page and encourage more people to follow you on Facebook.

As you post new statuses, they’ll appear on your site automatically, so it’s also a great way to keep your website fresh, even for regular visitors.

That being said, let’s see how to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress.

Adding a Facebook Status Plugin to WordPress

The easiest way to embed your Facebook status feed in WordPress is by using the free Smash Balloon Social Post Feed.

This plugin lets you display text and links from your Facebook page or group.

A Facebook post timeline, embedded on a WordPress website.

In this guide, we’ll be using the free version of Smash Balloon as it allows you to embed Facebook statuses no matter what your budget. However, there’s Smash Balloon Facebook Feed that lets you embed different kinds of content. For example, you can embed a Facebook video in WordPress, and show images and videos in a lightbox popup on your site.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Smash Balloon Social Post Feed plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After that, you’ll need to connect Smash Balloon to your Facebook page or group, by going to Facebook Feed » All Feeds. Here, click on ‘Add New.’

How to create a custom Facebook feed

Smash Balloon pro lets you show posts from your photo albums, timeline, events, and more.

However, the free version only allows you to embed your Facebook statuses so click on ‘Timeline’ and then select ‘Next.’

The free Smash Balloon WordPress plugin

Now, you need to select the page or group which you’ll get the Facebook statuses from.

To get started, click on ‘Add New.’

Adding a Facebook page or group to your WordPress website

On the next screen, choose whether you want to embed the feed from a Facebook group or Facebook page.

After that, go ahead and click on ‘Connect to Facebook.’

How to connect a Facebook page or group to a WordPress website

This opens a popup where you can log into your Facebook account and choose the pages or groups which you want to get the status updates from.

As soon as you’ve done that, click on ‘Next.’

Giving Smash Balloon access to your Facebook posts

Facebook will then show all the information that Smash Balloon will have access to and the actions it can perform.

To restrict Smash Balloon’s access to your Facebook account, just click any of the switches to turn it from ‘Yes’ to ‘No.’ Just be aware that this may affect the content that you can embed on your WordPress blog or website.

With that in mind, it’s a good idea to leave all the switches enabled.

Connecting Facebook and WordPress using a free plugin

When you’re happy with how your Facebook permissions are set up, click on ‘Done.’

After a few moments, you should see a message confirming that you’ve connected your WordPress website to Facebook. With that done, click on the ‘OK’ button.

Connecting Smash Balloon and Facebook successfully

Smash Balloon will now take you back to the WordPress dashboard automatically.

How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress

You will now see a popup with the source you just linked to your website. Simply select the radio button next to your Facebook page or group and then click on the ‘Add’ button.

Selecting a page or group as your Facebook source

If you accidentally closed the popup, then don’t worry. You can simply refresh the tab to reopen the popup.

After that, Smash Balloon will take you back to the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page automatically. Just like before, click on the ‘Add New’ button, select ‘Timeline,’ and then click on the ‘Next’ button.

Now, select your Facebook page or group, and click on ‘Next.’

Embedding Facebook status posts in WordPress

Smash Balloon will now go ahead and create a timeline feed from the Facebook page or group you’ve chosen.

This is a good start, but Smash Balloon has lots of settings that you can use to customize your embedded timeline.

How to Customize Your Embedded Facebook Status Posts

To fine-tune your timeline, go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds in the WordPress dashboard.

Here, find the timeline feed you just created and click on the ‘Edit’ button next to it.

Customizing the Facebook status timeline feed

This opens the Smash Balloon feed editor, which shows a preview of your timeline to the right.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see all the different settings you can use to customize how the timeline looks on your site. Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover all the main areas.

Customizing Facebook status posts in WordPress

To start, you can change how the statuses are displayed by clicking on ‘Feed Layout.’

On this screen, you can switch between list and masonry layouts, as well as change the feed height. As you make changes, the preview will update automatically so you can try different settings to see what looks the best for your website.

Smash Balloon's Feed Layout settings

You can preview how your status feed will look on desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.

Mobile devices usually have smaller screens and less processing power, so if you’re not happy with how the feed looks then it’s smart to show fewer statuses on tablets and smartphones.

Testing your Facebook post status on mobile devices

To make this change, just type a different number into the ‘Mobile’ field in the ‘Number of Posts’ section.

By trying out different layouts you can create a Facebook status feed that looks great across all devices.

How to create a responsive social media layout for mobile

By default, Smash Balloon feed shows fewer columns on smartphones and tablets, compared to desktop computers. This helps your Facebook statuses fit comfortably on smaller screens.

After testing the mobile version of your WordPress website, you may want to show fewer columns on smartphones and tablets.

To do this, simply change the numbers under ‘Columns.’

Adding and removing columns in a Facebook status feed

When you’re happy with how the feed looks, click on the ‘Customize’ link.

This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, ready for you to explore the next settings screen, which is ‘Color Scheme.’

Changing the color scheme in your Facebook status feed

Smash Balloon uses a color scheme inherited from your WordPress theme by default, but on this screen, you can switch to a ‘Light’ or ‘Dark’ look.

You can also create your own color scheme by selecting ‘Custom’ and then using the controls to change the text color in WordPress, change the background color, and more.

Creating a custom color scheme using Smash Balloon

By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to your feed, which is your Facebook profile picture and the name of the group or page.

To customize this section, click on ‘Header’ in the left-hand menu.

Changing the Facebook custom feed header

Here, you can change the header size and color, hide your Facebook profile picture, and more.

If you would prefer to remove the header entirely, then click to turn off the ‘Enable’ toggle.

Adding a header to the Facebook status feed

Next, you can change how the individual posts look inside your feed by selecting ‘Post Style’ from the left-hand menu.

After that, click on ‘Post Style’ again.

Customizing a Facebook status feed with Smash Balloon

On this screen, you can choose between a regular and boxed layout.

If you select ‘Boxed’ then you can create a colored background for each Facebook post.

Adding colored box backgrounds to your embedded Facebook post statuses

If you choose ‘Regular’ then you can change the thickness and color of the line that separates your different social media posts.

In the following image, we’ve added a thicker line to our Facebook status feed.

Adding borders to a Smash Balloon Facebook feed

You can also customize the individual parts within each status by going back to the main settings screen.

Once again, select ‘Post Style’ but this time choose ‘Edit Individual Elements’ instead.

Customizing the posts inside a Facebook status feed

You will now see a list of all the different content that Smash Balloon includes in each post, such as the date, post author, and event title.

To remove a piece of content from your feed, simply click to uncheck its box.

How to remove content from a live Facebook feed

You can also customize how each type of content looks by clicking on it.

For example, in the following image, you can see settings to change the size and color of the author text.

Customizing how the post author is displayed in WordPress

By default, Smash Balloon doesn’t include the Facebook ‘like’ button in your feed.

This button makes it easier for visitors to follow you on Facebook, so you may want to add it to your status feed by selecting the ‘Like Box’ settings.

Adding a like button to the Facebook status feed

After that, simply click on the ‘Enable’ button so that it turns blue.

You can now use the settings to change where the link box appears and the kind of content included in the box, such as your Facebook cover photo and total number of followers.

Adding a like button to an embedded Facebook status page

If you upgrade to Smash Balloon premium, then there are some more settings to explore. This includes a lightbox feature that allows visitors to explore your content in a popup.

Since you’re using the free version of Smash Balloon for now, you can go ahead and click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

The next step is adding the Facebook status feed to your WordPress website.

How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress

You can add your Facebook status feed to WordPress using a block, widget, or shortcode.

If you’ve created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you’ll need to know the feed’s code if you’re going to add it using a block or widget.

To get this information, simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then look at the feed="" part of the shortcode. You’ll need to add this code to the block or widget, so make a note of it.

In the following example, we’ll need to use feed="8".

Adding Facebook content to WordPress using a shortcode

If you want to embed your Facebook statuses in a page or post, then we recommend using the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ block.

Simply open the page or post where you want to embed the status feed. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block and start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed.’

When the right block appears, click to add it to the post or page.

Adding a Facebook timeline to your website using a WordPress block

The block will show one of your Smash Balloon feeds by default. If you want to use a different feed instead, then simply find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.

You can now add the feed="" code to this box. Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Apply Changes’ button.

Showing different Facebook feeds using shortcode

The block will now show all the status updates from your Facebook page or group. Just publish or update the page to make the feed live.

Another option is to add the feed to any widget-ready area, such as the sidebar or similar section. This allows visitors to see your latest Facebook updates across your entire website.

Simply go to Appearance » Widgets in the WordPress dashboard and then click on the blue ‘+’ button.

The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed widget

Now, start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ into the search bar to find the right widget.

You can now drag it onto the area where you want to show your Facebook status updates. By default, the widget will show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon.

Adding a social media widget to your WordPress website

To show a different feed instead, type the feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

You can now click on the ‘Update’ button to make the widget live.

How to publish a Facebook feed to your website

For more information, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add and use widgets.

Finally, you can embed your status on any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode. To get the shortcode, simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and copy the value in the ‘Shortcode’ column.

You can now add this code to your site. For more information, please see our detailed guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter and the best WordPress Facebook plugins to grow your blog.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Add Your Social Media Feeds to WordPress (Step by Step)

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Do you want to add your social media feeds to a WordPress website?

Showing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram feeds on WordPress can get you more followers and engagement on social media. It’s also a great way to keep your website fresh and interesting.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to add custom social media feeds to WordPress and even create a social wall that brings all your social content together in one place.

How to add your social media feeds to WordPress (Step by step)

Why Add Social Media Feeds to Your WordPress Site?

Billions of people use social media every day to connect with family, friends, and even brands. According to our marketing statistics research, people spend around 2 hours and 29 minutes on social media every day. That’s plenty of time to promote your content to existing followers and connect with new people.

If you have one or more social media accounts, then you’re already off to a good start. However, it’s also smart to add these social feeds to your WordPress website.

By embedding social media posts in WordPress, you can promote your different accounts to the people who visit your website. This can get you more likes, shares, and engagement.

Adding a Facebook social media feed in WordPress

If visitors like what they see, they might even decide to start following you on different social networks.

Once you’ve embedded a social feed, new posts will appear on your website automatically. This can be a great way to keep your website fresh and interesting, even for regular visitors.

If you run an online store, then a social media feed can even help you get more sales. In fact, 43% of people use social media to make purchasing decisions.

With the right plugin, you can display your Facebook page reviews in WordPress, or add shoppable Instagram images to your website.

Adding a shoppable link to an Instagram post

With that being said, let’s see how you can add different social media feeds to WordPress.

How to Add Social Media Feeds to WordPress

The best way to add social media feeds to your WordPress blog is by using Smash Balloon.

It’s the best social media feed plugin for WordPress and it’s trusted by over 1.5 million users. With this plugin, you don’t have to spend time dealing with jQuery code, APIs, or trying to arrange your social posts in a nice layout. Everything just works.

Smash Balloon has separate plugins for all the major social networks including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. It even allows you to combine multiple social networks and show all of your posts in a single feed.

With that being said, let’s see how you can add different social feeds to your WordPress website. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the social network that you want to add.

Adding a Facebook Social Media Feed in WordPress

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world, with 2.9 billion monthly active users. No matter whether you have a small business website, a personal blog, a WordPress membership website, or something else, it’s very likely that your target audience are familiar with Facebook.

When you add a Facebook feed to WordPress, new posts will appear on your website in real-time. Visitors can also like, share, and comment on your WordPress posts, so this is a great way to get more engagement on Facebook.

An example of an embedded Facebook feed, created using Smash Balloon

The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin allows you to embed Facebook videos in WordPress, show photos and videos, and more.

You can even create a custom lightbox popup so visitors can see your full-sized images and watch your Facebook videos, without having to leave your WordPress website.

An embedded Facebook video, seen in a lightbox on a WordPress website

If you host regular in-person or online events, then it’s a good idea to create them as Facebook events on your page or group. Visitors can then mark themselves as interested or going to the event, invite other people, and share the event on their own Facebook page.

Once you’ve added these events to Facebook, you can easily promote them to the people who visit your website. Simply create a feed of your upcoming Facebook events and then add it to your WordPress website.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to add a Facebook event calendar in WordPress.

Adding a Facebook event calendar to your WordPress website

No matter what kind of Facebook feed you create, you can fine-tune how that feed looks and acts using the intuitive Smash Balloon editor.

Here, you can change the feed’s color scheme, design a custom header, add ‘like’ and ‘load more’ buttons, and much more.

The Smash Balloon Facebook feed editor

For detailed step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom Facebook feed in WordPress.

Adding an Instagram Social Media Feed in WordPress

With more than 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram is a great place to promote your website, products, and services.

Depending on your industry, Instagram may even be the most important part of your social media strategy. For example, Instagram is particularly popular among top fashion blogs, lifestyle, cooking, and photography websites.

If you’re posting beautiful photos and engaging videos to Instagram, then it makes sense to post that content to WordPress too.

An Instagram photo feed, created using Smash Balloon

By adding your Instagram social feed to WordPress, you can offer visitors a highly engaging and visual experience directly on your website. This can increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.

You can add images in WordPress manually, but you’ll need to keep adding new photos as you post them to Instagram. This can take a lot of time and effort.

Since there’s no link between your WordPress website and your Instagram account, visitors can’t easily like or share these photos on Instagram. As a result, you may miss out on lots of social media engagement.

The easiest way to add an Instagram feed to WordPress is by using the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin. This plugin allows you to embed a beautiful and professionally-designed Instagram feed on your website.

An example of an Instagram feed, created using Smash Balloon

The feed updates automatically every time you post to Instagram, so visitors always see the latest photos.

You can even show other people’s photos on your site by creating a hashtag feed or displaying the posts that other people have tagged your account in. This can be a powerful form of social proof that encourages people to trust your website or business.

In the following image you can see an example of an online store that uses a custom Instagram feed to show user-generated content.

An example of Instagram user-generated content

In this way, you can use a custom Instagram feed to create customer trust and make more money online.

For detailed step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress.

Adding a Twitter Social Media Feed in WordPress

WordPress lets you manually embed tweets in WordPress blog posts and pages using the built-in Twitter block.

A single tweet, embedded using the WordPress Twitter block

However, this block only lets you embed a single tweet at a time. This is a quick and easy method if you just want to show a small number of tweets. However, if you want to embed multiple tweets then we recommend using Smash Balloon Twitter Feed.

This plugin allows you to create a Twitter feed that updates automatically as you post new tweets. You can then add this feed to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

Adding a Twitter feed to your WordPress website

Smash Balloon Twitter Feed also lets you create hashtag feeds.

This is useful for adding context and third-party content to your blog posts. For example, if you’re starting a fashion blog then you might create feeds for popular fashion-related hashtags such as #lookbook or #OOTD.

Creating a hashtag Twitter feed in WordPress

You can even use Smash Balloon to show the Twitter feed from a third-party account. This is perfect if you have a relationship with an influencer or affiliate marketer, and want to show their tweets on your website.

For more instructions on adding a Twitter feed to WordPress, see our guide on how to embed tweets in WordPress.

Adding a YouTube Social Media Feed in WordPress

Blog posts with videos get 83% more traffic than those without videos. With that in mind, we recommend adding your YouTube videos to WordPress, too.

If you run an online store using a plugin such as WooCommerce, then videos can even get you more sales. In fact, 88% of people have bought a product or service after watching a video.

If you’ve created any YouTube videos showing your products or services, then adding them to your website could boost your profits.

If you only want to add a small number of videos to your site, then it’s easy to embed YouTube videos in WordPress blog posts. However, if you want to show more than one video, then it’s difficult to create a nice gallery layout using the built-in blocks and tools alone.

That’s why we recommend embedding your YouTube channel feed using Feeds for YouTube by Smash Balloon.

Embedding a YouTube feed in WordPress using a free plugin

For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to show the latest videos from your YouTube channel in WordPress.

After connecting WordPress to your YouTube channel, you can customize how the videos look with Smash Balloon’s user-friendly editor.

Customizing the YouTube video feed using Smash Balloon

When you’re happy with how the feed looks, you can easily add it to any page, post, or widget-ready area using shortcode.

The Smash Balloon plugin also comes with a ready-made Feeds for YouTube block.

The Feeds for YouTube WordPress block

The free plugin has everything you need to create a YouTube video gallery in WordPress, but if you want more advanced features, then there’s also a premium Smash Balloon YouTube Feed plugin that you can use.

This plugin allows you to show videos from your favorites list, embed live streams, and more.

Adding a Combined Social Wall in WordPress

So far, you’ve seen how to add individual feeds from different social media platforms. However, many websites have multiple social media accounts, such as a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and a Twitter profile.

If you create unique content for each platform, then you may want to combine all of that content into a single social media feed. This kind of social wall can convince visitors that you have a big presence on social media, and that you’re creating all kinds of interesting and varied content across the different platforms.

This single feed can get you followers and engagement across multiple platforms. It’s also a good choice if you have limited space, and don’t want to fill up your website with lots of separate social media feeds.

If you want to combine several social media accounts into a single feed, then we recommend the Smash Balloon Social Wall plugin.

It’s the best social stream plugin for WordPress and allows you to combine Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube social content into a single feed.

A social wall, created using Smash Balloon

Already used the Smash Balloon plugins to create separate Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube feeds? Then you can add these feeds to your social wall with a few clicks.

Social Wall will then take your settings and automatically create a shortcode that you can add to any page, post, or widget-ready area. Simply publish your changes, and the social wall will appear on your website.

Note: To use this plugin, you’ll need to install and activate at least one of the Pro Smash Balloon plugins mentioned above. For example, if you wanted to show Facebook and Instagram content on your social wall, then you’ll need both the Social Post Feed and the Social Photo Feed plugins.

To get started, you’ll need to install and activate the Smash Balloon Social Wall plugin. For more information, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, go to Social Feeds » Create a Social Wall.

Creating a social wall in WordPress

Simply select each feed that you want to add to the social wall.

For example, you can combine posts from your Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Adding multiple social feeds to a social wall

On this screen you can also connect any extra social accounts that you want to use.

Simply click on a ‘Connect…’ button and then follow the onscreen instructions to connect the social media account.

Adding a Facebook feed to a social wall

After that, click on the ‘Customize’ tab.

Here, you can change the number of posts to show in the social wall, the feed layout, how often it updates, and more.

How to customize a social wall in WordPress

There are other settings you can use to change the wall’s color scheme, background color, button text, and more. Most of these settings are fairly self-explanatory, so it’s worth looking through them to see what changes you want to make.

When you’re finished, click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Configure Wall’ tab. Here, you’ll see a shortcode that allows you to add the social wall to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

Configuring the social wall in WordPress

For more information about working with shortcodes, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

After that, simply publish the page or post, or update the widget-ready area to make your social wall live.

We hope this article has helped you add social media feeds to WordPress. You may want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter, or our expert pick of the best live chat software for small businesses.

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The post How to Add Your Social Media Feeds to WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.