Rating:
Compatible up to: WordPress 6.6.2
Smash Balloon is the best social media feeds plugin for WordPress. Over 1.75 million people use Smash Balloon plugins to display social media content and reviews on their WordPress blogs, websites, or online stores.
Unlike some other social tools, Smash Balloon is a suite of multiple plugins that are optimized for specific platforms. For example, you can use Facebook Feed Pro to display posts from your Facebook page or group.
There are also separate plugins for Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, plus a dedicated Reviews Feed Pro plugin that can embed content from Yelp, Google, Trustpilot, WordPress.org, TripAdvisor, and Facebook.
What Do You Get with Smash Balloon’s Plugins?
Smash Balloon offers 6 different plugins. They are:
- Facebook Feed Pro
- Instagram Feed Pro
- Twitter Feed Pro
- YouTube Feed Pro
- Reviews Feed Pro
- TikTok Feed Pro
You can buy these plugins separately, or you can invest in the ‘All-Access Bundle’ and get instant access to all 6 plugins, plus the exclusive Social Wall plugin.
That said, let’s take a look at the most important Smash Balloon features:
- 100% Responsive and Mobile Optimized – According to our internet usage statistics, mobile internet traffic accounts for almost 55% of total web traffic. With that in mind, it’s vital your content looks just as good on smartphones and tablets as it does on desktop computers. Thankfully, all the Smash Balloon plugins are fully responsive and optimized for mobile. That said, your feeds will look great and function perfectly no matter what device the visitor is using.
- No Technical Knowledge Required – Have you tried to add social feeds to your site before, but given up because the process is so complicated? Integrating and authenticating with third-party platforms such as Facebook and Twitter doesn’t have to be difficult! All the Smash Balloon plugins are designed with ease of use in mind. Smash Balloon even comes with a user-friendly setup wizard that will show you exactly how to integrate your favorite social platforms with your WordPress website.
- Fully Customizable Design – Want to change the colors, font sizes, buttons, and anything else about your feed? With Smash Balloon, you can make changes in the user-friendly editor and then see the results in real time. This way, you can try lots of different settings to see what you like the best.
- Multiple Different Feeds – All the Smash Balloon plugins fetch new posts automatically, but you may want to set some rules about the kind of content you display. In that case, Smash Balloon has built-in filters and moderation tools, so you can easily create curated feeds. You might even create multiple different feeds and then show them in different locations across your website.
- GDPR Compliant – GDPR is a European Union law that aims to give EU citizens more control over their data. If you violate this privacy law, then you may get a fine or even jail time. If you’ve installed one of the popular GDPR consent plugins such as Complianz, then Smash Balloon will automatically show a GDPR-compliant version of your feed until the visitor opts-in to using cookies. In this way, Smash Balloon can help you comply with important privacy laws.
- Improve Your WordPress SEO – Many social platforms provide iFrame code that you can simply paste into your website. However, iFrames prevent search engines from crawling the embedded content. By contrast, Smash Balloon embeds social content directly in your website so search engines can read it. In addition, Smash Balloon fetches new social posts automatically, so your website gets updated more frequently. All this is great for your WordPress SEO and can also help you avoid content decay.
- Optimized For Speed – Smash Balloon is built with performance in mind, and will automatically resize and optimize images before showing them in your feeds. It also stores these images locally, so it can fetch them faster and without having to make external requests. Beyond that, Smash Balloon’s post-caching system intelligently caches different parts of your feed and only loads additional data when it’s needed. This reduces the initial page load time and keeps external requests to a minimum.
- Downtime Prevention – Smash Balloon has a built-in backup caching system. This means the embedded content will continue to appear on your site, even if the original social platform experiences downtime.
- Amazing Customer Support – Smash Balloon’s support team is fantastic. They’ve been getting brilliant feedback for years, and they’re always happy to help if you get stuck. Prefer to find answers yourself? Then there’s also detailed online documentation and a blog, so you can get answers 24/7.
- Always Up to Date – Has your favorite social plugin suddenly stopped working after the social network changed something? Then you’re not alone, as this happens more often than you would think. With Smash Balloon, you can be confident that your plugins are always up to date with the latest changes from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the best features of each individual plugin.
Facebook Feed Pro
You can add a custom Facebook feed to your website using the Facebook Feed Pro plugin.
With this plugin, you can display Facebook status posts, photos, videos, and events, along with the feed from your Facebook page or group.
- Post-Caching System – Smash Balloon’s powerful post-caching system keeps your feed loading super fast by minimizing your Facebook requests. It also has a built-in backup cache, so your feed will remain visible even if Facebook has some issues. Smash Balloon also integrates with the WordPress Site Health Check, so you can easily see if there are any issues with your embedded Facebook feeds.
- HD, 360°, and Live video – Do you post lots of videos to Facebook? Smash Balloon lets your visitors view Facebook videos in full-screen HD. Plus, it supports 360° videos so your viewers can interact with them live on your site.
- Supports Comments and Reactions – You can easily display likes, shares, comments, and reactions in a customizable drop-down box below each post. Smash Balloon will even show replies to comments, image attachments, and stickers.
- Filter Posts by Word or Hashtag – Do you only want to display Facebook posts that contain a certain word or phrase? Alternatively, you may want to filter posts that feature certain words, such as the name of your biggest competitor. Thankfully, Smash Balloon has built-in filters and moderation tools, so you can create curated Facebook feeds with ease.
- Albums, Reviews, Events, and more – Smash Balloon is one of the few WordPress plugins that can reliably embed your Facebook albums, reviews, events, and other content types into WordPress.
Instagram Feed Pro
Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro can show photos from one or more Instagram accounts in a fully customizable feed.
You can even show other people’s photos by creating a hashtag feed or displaying posts you’ve been tagged in.
For example, if you run a restaurant website, then you might create a feed of all the photos that customers have tagged you in, including photos of your food and venue.
- Optimized Images – By default, Instagram’s images are often too large and can negatively affect your page speeds. To combat this, Smash Balloon will resize your images automatically and save them locally rather than using the Instagram CDN. It will then select the optimal image size to display on your site so your images will always look great and load correctly.
- Link Instagram Posts to Pages or Products – A shoppable Instagram feed is a series of photos that link to different product pages. With Smash Balloon, it’s easy to add these Instagram shoppable images to WordPress and then promote your products in an eye-catching feed that updates automatically.
- Instagram Stories – You can use Instagram Feed Pro to display your Instagram Stories in a popup lightbox. This can keep people on your WordPress website for longer and reduce the bounce rate, while also encouraging them to engage with your content.
- Instagram Reels – Based on Smash Balloon’s social media marketing statistics, Instagram reels get 67% more engagement than regular Instagram videos. If you publish Reels, then Smash Balloon makes it easy to add them to your WordPress blog, website, or online marketplace.
- Multiple Layout Options – Smash Balloon can display your Instagram photos in a grid, carousel, or masonry layout, or you can create highlighted Instagram posts. In this way, you can showcase your content in the way that best suits your blog or business website.
- Hashtag feeds – Instagram Feed Pro is an approved Instagram partner and fully compatible with the latest version of the Instagram API. This means you can easily create hashtag feeds or even highlight posts from your customers or users.
- Tagged Feeds – With Smash Balloon, you can display Instagram posts you’ve been tagged in. This can be a fun way to engage with your users, and is also a powerful form of social proof. This kind of user-generated content can also keep your website fresh and interesting without requiring a lot of extra effort.
- Fixes the Instagram oEmbed Issue – In the past, you could easily embed Instagram posts in WordPress using a protocol known as oEmbed. However, the default WordPress oEmbed block no longer works, causing errors and headaches for many WordPress users. If you’re experiencing this problem, then good news: Smash Balloon fixes the Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress.
Twitter Feed Pro
A Twitter feed can provide real-time updates about everything that’s happening with your blog, website, or company.
To help you out, Smash Balloon Twitter Feed Pro can create a Twitter feed that updates automatically as you post new tweets.
You can even use Smash Balloon to show the Twitter feed from a third-party account or tweets that feature a specific hashtag.
- Multiple Tweet Layouts – Smash Balloon can display your content in different layouts, including carousels, slideshows, and multi-column masonry layouts.
- Feed Headers – Smash Balloon can display your total number of tweets and followers at the top of your feed. Going further, it can encourage visitors to start following you on Twitter, by adding a ‘Follow Me’ button to the feed.
- Like, Retweet, and Reply Actions – Visitors can like, retweet, and reply to your tweets directly in the Smash Balloon feed. This is perfect for getting more engagement without visitors even having to leave your site.
- Infinite Loading – Smash Balloon is perfect for displaying lots of recent tweets in a small amount of space. In fact, it supports infinite scroll, so visitors can simply scroll down to load more tweets.
- Display Twitter Cards – When you share links in your feed, the Twitter Feed Pro plugin will automatically create and display a special Twitter card for that link. These Twitter cards look great and really stand out in your feed, so this feature can get you more clicks and engagement.
- Display Tweets That @Mention Your Account – Do you want to share the lovely things that people are saying about your brand? That’s easily done with Twitter Feed Pro. You can create a feed that contains all the tweets from other accounts that mention your Twitter handle.
- Display Third-Party Content – With Smash Balloon, you can create feeds from any public account, including third-party users. This is perfect if you have a relationship with an influencer or affiliate marketer and want to display their posts on your WordPress website.
- Advanced Search Based Feeds – As we already mentioned, Smash Balloon can create feeds featuring any hashtag, search term, user, or tagged account. However, you can go one step further and use multiple search terms and operators to create very specific feeds. In this way, you can construct feeds that contain exactly the kind of content you want to promote.
- Pop-Up Media Lightbox – Sometimes, visitors may want to take a closer look at your photos and videos. Smash Balloon comes with a beautiful popup lightbox so visitors can get the full Twitter experience without leaving your site.
YouTube Feed Pro
According to our blogging statistics research, posts with videos get 83% more traffic than those without videos. If you run an online store using a plugin like WooCommerce, then videos can even boost your sales. In fact, 88% of people have bought a product or service after watching a video.
That said, you may want to look at Smash Balloon’s dedicated YouTube Feed Pro plugin.
With this plugin, you can embed all the latest videos from your YouTube channel. You can also embed videos from a YouTube playlist, show your latest livestreams, and more.
- Customizable Pause and End Actions – Smash Balloon can display custom actions when a YouTube video is finished. For example, you might display a link for a popular product or show the thumbnail for a related video.
- Load More and Subscribe – By default, Smash Balloon adds ‘Load More’ and ‘Subscribe’ buttons to your feed. This encourages visitors to explore more of your content while also helping to grow a successful YouTube channel.
- Multiple Feed Layouts – Smash Balloon can display your YouTube videos in multiple layouts, including a grid, gallery, list, or carousel.
- Customizable Header – Want to make sure visitors know where the embedded videos come from? Smash Balloon can display a header above the YouTube feed showing your YouTube profile picture and channel name.
- Curate Content Using Your Favorites List – With Feeds for YouTube, you can display all the videos from your YouTube Favorites list. This makes it easy to share curated content that your audience will love.
- Custom Post Type – Feeds for YouTube can automatically convert your videos into custom posts so they appear in your blog’s RSS feeds and search results on your website. In this way, you can help more people discover your content and get some additional views.
- Embed a YouTube Live Stream – Smash Balloon can broadcast live video or audio content on your WordPress website by embedding your YouTube live videos in real time. This is an excellent way to connect with your audience and reach more users.
Reviews Feed Pro
Positive customer reviews and feedback encourage people to trust your site and buy from your business, so it makes sense to show this content on your website.
That’s where Reviews Feed Pro comes in.
This plugin can embed reviews from Facebook, Yelp, Google, Trustpilot, WordPress.org, and TripAdvisor on your website.
- Multiple Platforms – Smash Balloon can show content from all the major review platforms. Even better, no matter what platform you use, Smash Balloon guides you through the process of connecting WordPress to that third-party platform.
- Display Third-Party Reviews – For some platforms such as Yelp and WordPress.org, you can show reviews for third-party businesses and websites. For example, if you run a business listing blog or membership site, then you might embed Yelp reviews for different local businesses. This is a quick and easy way to generate some extra content for your website.
- Multiple Review Layouts – Reviews Feed Pro comes with pre-designed templates, so you can show the content in different layouts, including showcases, responsive sliders, and grids. This is particularly good for showing lots of reviews in a small amount of space.
- Review Autoplay – If you select the Carousel layout, then you can add navigation arrows or enable autoplay. If you choose autoplay, then you can change the interval between each slide so visitors have the perfect amount of time to read each Google, Facebook, Yelp, or similar review.
- Customizable Header – Smash Balloon can add a header to your review feed showing the average star rating and the total number of reviews. This gives visitors essential information at a glance. Smash Balloon can even display an optional ‘Write a Review’ button, which encourages people to review your website or business.
- Integrates Seamlessly – The Reviews Feed plugin automatically copies your WordPress theme and website’s design so the reviews will look like a natural part of your website rather than content embedded from an external platform. Smash Balloon also has a user-friendly feed editor, so you can fine-tune every part of the feed with ease.
TikTok Feeds Pro
TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms with over 1 billion monthly active users. WordPress comes with a built-in TikTok block, but this method limits you to embedding a single video at a time.
That’s why we recommend using TikTok Feeds Pro instead. With this plugin, you can embed all your latest TikToks in a completely customizable feed.
- Customizable Layouts – TikTok Feeds Pro comes with multiple professionally-designed templates and layouts you can use. You can also change the number of videos that appear in the feed, adjust the spacing and columns, edit the content length, and more.
- Customizable Header – Smash Balloon can display your total TikTok followers and likes above the feed, which may encourage more people to engage with your content. It can also add an optional ‘Follow’ button to help grow your audience.
- Show Unlimited TikToks – By default, Smash Balloon shows the most recent 10 TikToks posted to your account. However, you can change this simply by typing a new number into the plugin’s settings.
For more information, please see our guide on how to embed TikTok videos in WordPress.
Smash Balloon Social Wall
Do you want to display posts from multiple social media platforms?
The Smash Balloon Social Wall plugin lets you create a smart community page that combines content from your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube channels.
Even better, it arranges all this content in a nice layout and pulls new posts from all these third-party platforms automatically.
Note: To use Social Wall, you’ll need to install and activate at least one of the Pro Smash Balloon plugins mentioned above. For example, if you want to show Facebook and Instagram content on your social wall, then you’ll need to install both the Social Post Feed and Social Photo Feed plugins.
Bonus: Free Smash Balloon Plugins
On a tight budget? Then, you can download lite versions of all the Smash Balloon plugins from WordPress.org. These free plugins don’t include all the advanced features, but they can still display your latest posts in a nice layout that updates automatically:
- Smash Balloon Social Post Feed
- Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed
- Custom Twitter Feeds
- Feeds for YouTube
- Feeds for TikTok
- Reviews Feed
Discount: Do you want the full set of advanced features? WPBeginner users can get 50% off using our Smash Balloon coupon code.
→ Get This Great Deal on Smash Balloon’s Plugins ←
Note: Smash Balloon’s plugins are maintained by WPBeginner’s founder, Syed Balkhi and the awesome team at Smash Balloon.
Rating:
Compatible up to: WordPress 6.6.2