Posting links from Wordpress to Facebook etc

[Svea]

Just a question about the technicalities of posting from Wordpress to Facebook. I look after the preschool website and Facebook page. The admin panel in Wordpress doesn't seem to have any easy posting buttons. Is there something I need to download and install on the server? And/or is there a long way around it?

Thanks

[KateGladTidings]

It's under Settings, then Sharing - you should be able to link up a specified fb account to the blog there.

[Svea]

hmm, my settings doesnt have 'sharing'. perhaps i need to run the upgrade... *runs upgrade*

[Svea]

ah hold on, i have to add this as a plug-in. which plugin would you recommend? searching for facebook brings up a lot - with the 'official' facebook plugin only rated 3 stars...?!

[KateGladTidings]

noooo...you shouldn't need this as a plugin! Sharing in fbook should be part of the standard wp package. want me to have a look at your dashboard?

[Svea]

ok, so i think i figured out why this isn't automatic. i am self hosting the wordpress site, i.e. wordpress.org, rather than .com
which means enabling jetpack fails me
or maybe i am just inept.

any tricks? or failing that, a recommendation for a good plugin that does just that: publicize posts to facebook?

[oriel]

Yes, there's an official facebook plugin (written by the facebook people) which will do that. I use it on my site and it's simple to set up. It will tell you how to set up a facebook app on your facebook account, which theplugin then talks to and automatically posts links to every post you make.

Eta it may only have three stars but I find it works fine. It used to be buggier though which is I suspect where the low rating has come from.

[Svea]

I tried that one oriel, but got stumped at the set up. What is the Facebook app ID???? I can tell them what the Facebook ID of the preschool is but that didn't work.

[oriel]

You need to go to your Facebook account and create an app. It doesn't need to do anything but it does need to have permission to post to your timeline or page. Once you've created it, you'll get an ID number for it, and that's what goes in the plugin.

[Svea]

and how do i do that? seriously, is it really this complicated? do i need to register as a facebook developer? why is this so complicated???

[oriel]

It's not really complicated – I did it fairly easily, but it was a while back so I can't remember well enough to give you full instructions off the top of my head (and I'm not really meant to be here at all so don't have time to look up what I did!). If you click on the link in the plugin settings (the one that says 'Create a facebook app blah blah') then it should take you to the correct place in Facebook to set up an app.

The app listens out for messages from other sites (like yours) and posts the links accordingly. You're the only person who knows the app id, so you're the only person who can post automatic links to your page. Otherwise (if all you needed was the link to your page) anyone could do it!