How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress

Facebook statuses are an easy way to share important updates and time-sensitive information with your audience.

At WPBeginner, we understand the importance of social media platforms and use them ourselves to promote content, share the latest news, and attract more visitors.

We’ve learned that 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 get more followers.

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

Why Embed Facebook Status in WordPress?

Facebook is the world’s most popular social media platform and has 2.9 billion monthly active users, according to our marketing research statistics. This makes Facebook the perfect place to connect with a new audience and engage with 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 WordPress site. By embedding your Facebook status posts in WordPress, you can promote your social media page and encourage more people to follow you on Facebook.

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.

As you post new statuses, they will appear on your site automatically. This is perfect for keeping your website fresh and interesting, even for regular visitors.

In this guide, we will be using the free version of Smash Balloon as it allows you to embed Facebook statuses no matter what your budget.

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

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

Smash Balloon Pro lets you embed Facebook albums in WordPress, add a Facebook calendar, show your entire social media timeline, and more.

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

Now, select the page or group where you will get the Facebook statuses from.

To get started, click on ‘Add New.’

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.’

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

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

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.

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

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

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 Facebook group or page you just added.

Simply select the radio button next to the social media account you want to use, and then click on ‘Add.’

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.’

Smash Balloon will then go ahead and create a social media 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, visit the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page in the WordPress dashboard.

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

This opens the Smash Balloon feed editor, which shows a preview of your Facebook timeline in WordPress.

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

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.

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

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

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.

By default, the Smash Balloon feed shows fewer columns on smartphones and tablets than on desktop computers. This helps your Facebook status 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.’

When you are 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.’

By default, Smash Balloon uses a color scheme inherited from your WordPress theme, but you can also 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.

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.

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

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

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 to open customization options.

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

If you select ‘Boxed’, then you can create a colored background for each Facebook post. You can also add a box shadow or change the border radius.

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 have added a thicker line to the Facebook status 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.

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 the feed, simply click to uncheck its box.

You can also configure 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’s text.

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.

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 the total number of followers. You can also add a custom call to action.

If you upgrade to Smash Balloon Premium, then there are some more settings to explore. These include a lightbox feature that allows you to embed Facebook videos in WordPress. You can also add a ‘Load More’ button so that visitors can scroll through your entire Facebook event calendar, albums, photos, and other content.

Since you are using the free version of Smash Balloon, 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 have created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you will need to know the feed’s embed code if you are going to add it using a block or widget.

To get this information, simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then copy the text under ‘Shortcode.’

In the following image, we will need to use custom-facebook-feed feed=1.

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

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.

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 custom-facebook-feed feed=1 code to this box. After that, click on ‘Apply Changes.’

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bonus: Embed Tweets and Instagram Posts in WordPress

If you want to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress, then Smash Balloon Social Post Feed is a great choice.

However, many websites have multiple social media accounts, such as a YouTube channel, Twitter profile, and Instagram account. If you create unique content for each platform, then it makes sense to show this content on your WordPress website.

You can easily embed Instagram in WordPress using the free Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed plugin.

If you want to embed actual tweets in your posts, pages, or widget-ready areas, then you can use the free Smash Balloon Custom Twitter Feeds plugin.

This plugin allows you to create custom feeds showing different Twitter hashtags, accounts, and timelines.

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 schedule WordPress posts for social media with Buffer and the best WordPress Facebook plugins to grow your blog.

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