So glad to be back here for Techie Tuesday! Facebook has made a lot of changes over the summer, but I wanted to share one with you that’s super cool. No – really, this is pure awesomesauce and bloggers everywhere are going to love it!
You’ve probably heard about Facebook unleashing the ability to embed posts directly from Facebook. Ho hum – people say. What’s the big deal? How does that help me?
The How
Just like you can embed Youtube videos on your blog, you can now embed specific status updates, photos, or links from Facebook onto your blog. This is ridiculously easy. If you can embed a Youtube video, you can do this too.
Facebook will create the embed code for you. You won’t be able to adjust this at all for those savvy enough to try. Just cut and paste the embed code into the blog post.
What’s the big deal?
When you embed the post from Facebook, you take all of the Facebook functionality with it.
All of the people who liked, shared or commented on the post will appear on the blog embed. Instant credibility – this is something people have found interesting. People can like the page or subscribe to the profile from the post on your blog. They can like or comment on the post on your blog, and have those actions appear on Facebook for their friends to see.
This is how things go viral! Plus, they can share the post from your blog to their own Timelines.
The Fine Print
The poster’s privacy settings rule. You can share a post from either a profile or a page, but if sharing from a profile the post must have been made public by the poster.
You can always go back and change the privacy on a post that’s doing well if you want to embed it. There’s an easy toggle menu beside the date. The globe icon means it’s public. Also, you can’t embed a post from a group. If a post gets deleted on Facebook, it will disappear from your blog too.
Here is the biggest bummer: Facebook (as of right now) will not be tracking the interactions from embedded posts, so you won’t see the bump in your page insights on the post.
Some Ideas For Writers
I think there are a bunch of ways writers/authors can use this feature. First, this will help those blog readers who lurk but never comment engage more. If they’re already on Facebook, let them see you’re active there – that you have a community there. One click and they can join the club.
This also lets you extend the discussion from Facebook to your blog. Not all of your blog readers follow you on Facebook, give everyone the chance to weigh in on popular status updates and posts.
Last week my blog broke. 😦 Very sad. It didn’t completely break, but the comments feature stopped working.
I’m still working on fixing that – think it might be a plugin I’m using, BUT in the interim I was able to embed the Facebook post (where I shared the blog update on Facebook) onto the blog and it gave people a way to comment right on the blog. Not a long term solution, but it worked really well in a pinch. And I got a few new subscriptions on my profile as gravy.
Some ideas for writers/authors/bloggers…
- Why not create a round-up post of the popular status updates or photos from your page or profile? Every new action (like, share, comment) bumps the post in Facebook so not only do people get to see it on your blog, their actions will give it new life on Facebook.
- Make an announcement (book release, sale, signing) on Facebook and share it on your blog.
- Take a really popular discussion from Facebook to your blog.
- Curate content from popular news sources or up to date news items
- Test content on Facebook before sharing on your blog
- Why limit it to blog posts? Embed posts in your newsletter from mailchimp or aweber, or emails.
- Incorporate an embedded post in a media release to journalists.
What are some ideas you have for using the embedded post feature? I’d love to hear your thoughts and answer questions down in the comments.
Two ways to get more Facebook magic with Lisa:
Facebook: Start to Finish ~ 6 week class begins September 9th
This class will take you behind the scenes so you can understand all the workings of Facebook so changes won’t leave you in the dust.
Building a Tribe Using a Facebook Profile ~ Live webinar on Sept. 19
(Using a profile to build platform is covered in the 6 wk class so don’t sign up for both.)
Use the code Lisa20 for 20% off either class.
**********
I’ve taken two of Lisa’s classes and she really is ALL THAT. 🙂 Do you have Facebook questions for Lisa? Shake your cowbell in the comments, y’all!
~ Jenny
About Lisa
Lisa writes dark fantasy novels that honestly face harsh struggles, where life is gritty and messy, and change how a character thinks, acts — who they are.
In addition to fiction writing, Lisa is a freelance writer published across Canada specializing in marketing copy for faith-based non-profits, and short non-fiction pieces for magazines and newspapers. She specializes in interviews, profiles, and social justice initiatives. Lisa is passionate about making this world a better place one get-off-your-butt-and-do-something article at a time.
Lisa has won awards at the Canadian Church Press, the Canadian Christian Writing Awards, and her co-written blog (with Marcy Kennedy) was nominated 3 times at the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards. Check out Lisa’s freelance portfolio here or learn more about Lisa Wilson Communications here.
You can also find her Blogging Through The Fire each week or on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Thanks so much for hosting me and my Facebook geekery again 😀 Love hanging out here at More Cowbell.
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We love having you, Lisa! This FB geekery is marvelous, and so are you. 🙂
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Every time I hear about something like this, I don’t know if I should run for the hills or just embrace it. I appreciate your analysis and instructions. Thanks, Lisa.
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Happy to help! Don’t run – this is pretty cool and easy to use. Tried to share it on mailchimp today though and found a hiccup – doesn’t show the box just gives a link. 😦
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Just give your Facebook a hug, Piper…it’s all good.
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Thanks Lisa for the awesome news. I will certainly try this. I have used many of the suggestions you gave me in my critique from Write!Canada. Yes readership is up.
Blessings,
Janis
http://www.janiscox.com
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Awesome! Glad you found it helpful, and beneficial. I love sharing my Facebook geekery around. 😀
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Hi Jenny,
So glad to see Lisa here again.
Lisa, love the new facebook tips, I’ll have to check this out. 🙂
Tracy
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You are most welcome! If you have any problems, send me a message. I’ll see what I can do to help.
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Hi Tracy! I adore having Lisa here. 🙂
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That is absolutely amazeballs, Lisa! Thanks so much for ringing the cowbell.
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Most welcome. Just sharing my happy as Jenny would say.
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I’m completely on board with the amazeballs, Catherine! 🙂
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:0)
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This goes into my file of keeper posts. Thanks so much, Jenny and Lisa! You both rock. If only I could tell you in person, over lunch—which we’d of course Facebook-chat about and then share in our blog posts. 😉
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Two words: Thriller Fest. Already saving up. You going again next year?
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This is wonderful! Now if I just had the vaguest idea HOW to make it work… The concept rocks (even with the small bummers) The how-to little pictures? No, I need step-by-step directions, LOL. Thanks so much for letting us know what we were missing ❤
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This post goes a little more indepth. Hope you find it helpful. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. http://blog.hubspot.com/how-to-embed-post-facebook-quick-tip-ht
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Ooooooooh!
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Bless you! This helps a lot. I am one of those people who needs step-by-step
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I’m a little uncomfortable with scooping up comments made on a Facebook post to include in my blog. When my Facebook followers comment, they are not anticipating that their comments might be used in other settings. My Facebook page is public, but not all of my followers are public people. I would not want to lose them for the sake of marketing.
If at some point I create a fan page, perhaps I would put a disclaimer at the top stating that this is a public page and that I plan to occasionally repost to my blog, including comments. Does this seem fair?
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Or have I misunderstood how this works?
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You’ll have to go with you conscience, I suppose. The commenter’s privacy settings will still be in effect. What I mean by that the embedded post might list the people who liked or commented on the post, but Joe Public lurking through those names won’t see any more than that person wants a stranger to see no matter where they stumbled across their name on Facebook. A public post is a public post. Any comment or like left on a public post is public fodder – so to speak. I’ve had comments I’ve made years ago pop up in Google searches. This is why it’s important to have the privacy settings on your profile up to date.
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Marie,
One of my favorite parts of Lisa’s class was the know-how she gave me on privacy settings. I had no idea there was so much you can do to control who sees what.
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Oh wow! LOVE Techie Tues over here! Learned something while baby is on boob, it’s a good morning 🙂 Thanks for posting. I might have to go check out your facebook class too. I want to build a members section on a page and run contests and send newsletters and anything else that fb can do for my biz, I’m game!
Did I mention that I SUCK at all things computer?!
Hey, my comments section is broken too, so far wordpress is “thinking” about the issue.
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Happy to help 😀 Grrrr about WordPress.
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Facebook is my favorite go to for communicating and promoting. This is great news for me – as soon as I get my blogging behind in gear!
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Hi Cheryl! It’s great to see you here at More Cowbell! (You and I met at a conference a few years back. 🙂 )
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Lisa, I have a question:
Besides the restriction from using this embed feature for a closed group post, are there any other limitations you’ve found? For example, is it equally easy between a personal post and a page post?
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You can’t embed a post from any kind of group – open, closed, or secret. The post has to be public – posts on Pages are public by default. There’s no difference between embedding a post from a Page or Profile that I’ve heard of.
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I will add that the embedded post will stop working if the original post on Facebook is deleted – or the privacy is changed. So, if I shared a post you made that was public, but then you went and changed that post’s privacy to friends only – it would disappear off my blog.
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p.s. I just approved a few comments. They’re up in the middle. 🙂
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Lisa, thanks so much for parsing this out for us. Being the technophobe that I am, I probably wouldn’t have tried it out without this fab explanation.
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For a technophobe, you sure do some amazing things, Kathy! I’d have never guessed.
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Ah, perhaps “phobe” is not quite right…”techno-wary” might be more precise, as in: “Really? Another new feature/social media group/service/overhaul/update? Gahh!” 😉
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I am going to come back and read this when it isn’t the day after I got back from WorldCon. LOL! Thanks for sharing good info, though!
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Happy to spread the Facebook love 😀
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This is very cool. I saw a few articles about it, but didn’t quite understand the benefit. Now I do. Thank you, Jenny & Lisa. 🙂
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I’m interested to see, going forward, how authors/writers innovate with this.
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Great idea! Now I’ll have to think of how I can actually apply it. This could get dangerous.
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Would love to hear any ideas you have – if you’re willing to share.
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Will do!
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Very nice post and very informative. I use Facebook for both personal site and a site for my blog. Always looking to learn a few new things.
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Hmm. I think I’m doing something wrong. When I put the code in where I write the blog, it just showed the code. But when I put it in the text section (HTML, I think), it just gives a link.
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The embed code has to go in your text or html view on your blog post. Try refreshing. Some have been saying they need to try it a couple of times to get it to work.
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Hi Lisa!
I’m really excited about this feature but I’m having a bunch of problems with it. When I copy and paste the code into my wordpress blog post all I see is the code the actual image never appears. Any thoughts as to what I’m doing wrong?
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Very cool! I love that they’re getting more overlap so it won’t feel like so much extra work all the time. I’ll be watching for this more to see how it looks. Thanks for sharing Jenny and Lisa!
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Now I’m confused. I contacted WordPress support and was told that embedding Facebook posts into a WordPress blog is not possible unless you are paying to use the site. I’m using the free hosting site so I guess that means I can’t embed Facebook posts onto my blogs. It’s a shame too because it looks like a nifty feature.
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Hmmm – WordPress.com has a workaround for embedding youtube videos, so hopefully they’ll provide support for this soon. Here’s the thread I found: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-to-embed-facebook-posts
Had no issues with my self-hosted wordpress.org site.
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Thanks for sharing Lisa, great to know … will implement.
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I think this is a great feature. I haven’t used it much, but I can see the value and this post gave me some ideas on how to generate more discussion by embedding posts like this. 🙂 Thanks!
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