Neither could I.
Wanting wider promotion of my WordPress blog, I used the native IMPORT BLOG feature in the MY NOTES settings on Facebook. This worked, on the first occasion, importing all posts prior to that date. And according to the settings, FB would check my blog regularly and update my page as I published new posts. It seemed too good to be true and, as things turned out, it was.
Time passed but no new posts appeared. A quick check of FB indicated I was importing from an external blog. So what was wrong? I cancelled the import and re-entered the settings. We couldn’t find a feed using the URL you provided was the message that came back to me. Sound familiar?
Thinking there might be a typo, I cleared the settings and tried once again. And once again, the same result: We couldn’t find a feed using the URL you provided. This did not compute. I know the address of my own site.
What to do? I tried all the combinations I could think of, in the illogical hope that something different might work. In the end, incredibly, it did and all updated posts were imported to FB. Not a very scientific way to solve the problem but hey, that’s me. As long as the thing works, I don’t care how it does it.
Problem solved? I wanted to think so but something was telling me it wasn’t! And sure enough, it happened all over again. No updated posts appeared on FB. I went through the whole deal again, even trying chants, incantations and different ways of holding my mouth while entering my URL. Eventually, the URL was accepted and the posts appeared.
Bear in mind, each of these episodes consumed considerable time and a serious chunk of patience, so when posts failed to appear for yet a third time, I was ready to burst! And this time, no amount of trying overcame the problem. I tried Facebook Help without success; no surprise there. I checked with my web host regarding conflicting security settings; there were none. Eventually, I gave up and looked for another way to show my posts on FB.
That’s when I discovered Add Link to Facebook. Now, when I publish a new post to my blog, this WordPress plugin automatically displays a link on my Facebook Profile page that connects to the post on my blog site. The plugin doesn’t work exactly as I would like, and it does have a few flaws, but it promotes my blog to a wider audience so I’m going with it.
The principal flaw with the Add Link to Facebook plugin is the link itself, which appears on Facebook as an unformatted excerpt from the post. Only the first image in the post is displayed, along with the title of the piece, and both link to the post. That’s fine, provided the reader selects either of those options. However, there is a third option in the form of a SEE MORE tab at the bottom of the excerpt which, when selected, displays the entire post, but still as unformatted text. The absence of formatting is untidy and difficult to read, let alone comprehend. To make matters worse, no other images from the post are displayed, but their captions, if any, are inserted as text in the excerpt. This makes no sense at all to the reader.
The plugin also interferes with the MENUS settings in WP. I have been able to overcome this problem by deactivating the plugin when editing menus.
If you are at your wits end, as I was, you might consider these snags acceptable, as I did.
To find the plugin, go to ADD NEW in your WP PLUGINS settings. In the search field, enter Add Link to Facebook and click on SEARCH PLUGINS.
There is a newer version of Add Link to Facebook that perhaps addresses the issues I have identified. And there are other plugins that do the same job and possibly better. You decide what is right for you. Me, I’ve wasted enough time in the backroom so I’m leaving well enough alone and getting down to the business of writing.
Let me know how you get on.
