Do you want to embed posts from a Facebook group on your WordPress website?

Promoting your Facebook group on your WordPress site is a great way to get more engagement and grow your followers. The content from your group can also help keep your site fresh, even for regular visitors.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add a Facebook group feed in WordPress.

Why Add Facebook Group Content to Your WordPress Site?

Facebook groups can help you build a community, create a sense of loyalty, and build a positive relationship with your users. After they join your group, you can promote blog posts, company updates, or even WooCommerce products to these people without having to spend any money on online ads.

Our WPBeginner Engage Facebook group has over 89 thousand active users and is growing at an incredible pace.

After creating your Facebook group, you’ll want to promote that group and drive people to it. The best way to grow your Facebook group is by embedding the group feed on your WordPress website.

In this way, the people who visit your site can see all the great content you’re posting on Facebook. This will encourage them to check out your group, engage with your content, and maybe even click on the ‘Join’ button.

After embedding the group feed on your site, new posts will appear on your website automatically. This makes it an easy way to keep your site fresh, even for regular visitors.

With that in mind, let’s see how to embed a Facebook group feed in WordPress.

How to Install a Custom Facebook Feed Plugin

The best way to embed a Facebook group feed in WordPress is by using the Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin.

This plugin lets you embed Facebook albums, comments, reviews, community posts, and more on your WordPress website.

If you embed videos in WordPress, then Smash Balloon lets users watch that media without having to visit Facebook, by opening a lightbox popup directly on your website.

In this guide, we’ll be using the pro version of Smash Balloon as it allows you to show Facebook albums, videos, and photos on your WordPress website. However, there’s also a free version that allows you to easily embed Facebook status posts in WordPress, no matter what your budget.

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

Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Facebook Feed » Settings and enter your license key into the ‘License Key’ field.

You’ll find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.

After entering the key, click on the ‘Activate’ button.

How to add the Smash Balloon App to Your Facebook Group

After that, you’ll need to add Smash Balloon’s Facebook app to the Facebook group that you want to show on your WordPress website.

Note: Due to how the Facebook API is set up, Smash Balloon can only show posts that were made after you added the app to your Facebook group.

With that in mind, let’s go ahead and install the app before we do anything else. In a new tab, log into Facebook and go to your Facebook group.

Then, in the left-hand menu click on ‘Group settings.’

After that, scroll to the ‘Manage advanced settings’ section.

Here, click on the pencil icon next to ‘Apps.’

This opens a popup showing all the apps you’ve already added to this group.

Since we want to install the Smash Balloon app, click on ‘Add Apps.’

In the search bar, type in ‘Smash Balloon WordPress.’

When the right app shows up, give it a click.

A popup will now appear showing all the information the app can access and any actions it can perform.

If you’re happy to go ahead and install the app, then click on ‘Add.’

After a few moments, you should see a message saying that you’ve successfully added the Smash Balloon app to your Facebook group.

Connect Smash Balloon to Your Facebook Group

Now, it’s time to connect your Facebook page WordPress, by going to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and clicking on ‘Add New.’

Smash Balloon lets you show photos, events, videos, albums, and more.

Since we want to embed our Facebook group feed, click on ‘Timeline’ and then select ‘Next.’

After that, you’ll need to select the Facebook group where you’ll get the timeline from.

To get started, click on ‘Add New.’

On the next screen, select the radio button next to ‘Group.’

After that, just click on ‘Connect to Facebook.’

This opens a popup where you can log into your Facebook account and choose the group that you want to use.

After checking the box next to one or more groups, simply click ‘Next.’

You should now see a popup asking you to install the Smash Balloon WordPress app.

Since we already installed this app, you can go ahead and click on ‘Done.’

How to Create a Facebook Group Feed in WordPress

Now you’ve added your Facebook group to Smash Balloon, it’ll show up as an option. Simply click to select the group and then click ‘Next.’

On this screen, you can choose the template you’ll use as the starting point for your Facebook group feed.

All of these templates are fully customizable so you can fine-tune the design depending on how you want to show the status updates, videos, and photos from your Facebook group.

We’re using the ‘Simple Masonry’ template, but you can choose any template you want.

Smash Balloon will now go ahead and create the feed based on your Facebook group and the template you’ve chosen.

This is a good start, but Smash Balloon has lots of settings you can use to customize how this group feed looks on your WordPress blog.

How to Customize Your Facebook Group Feed

The Smash Balloon plugin gives you lots of ways to customize how the feed appears on your website. With that in mind, it’s worth seeing what changes you can make.

On the Facebook Feed » All Feeds screen, find your group feed and then click on its ‘Edit’ button, which looks like a small pencil.

This opens the Smash Balloon feed editor, which shows a preview of your Facebook group feed to the right.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see all the different settings you can use to customize how the posts appear on your site. Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover some key areas.

If you want to change the template you’re using, just click on ‘Template.’

Then, select the ‘Change’ button.

To start, you can change how your group posts are displayed by clicking on ‘Feed Layout.’

On this screen, you can switch between masonry and list layouts, and 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 Facebook group.

By default, the Facebook group feed will show a different number of posts on desktop computers and mobile devices.

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

After testing the mobile version of your WordPress website, you may want to change the number of posts that you show on smartphones and tablets.

To make this change, simply find the ‘Number of Posts’ section and type a different number into the ‘Mobile’ field.

You may also want to show fewer columns on smartphones and tablets by changing the ‘Columns’ settings.

For example, in the following image, we’re splitting the content into 3 columns on desktop, 2 columns on tablets, and 1 column on mobile devices.

When you’re happy with the layout, click on the ‘Customize’ link.

This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, ready for you to move onto the next settings screen, which is ‘Color Scheme.’

By default, Smash Balloon uses the same color scheme as your WordPress theme, but on this screen, you can switch to a ‘Light’ or ‘Dark’ color scheme.

Another option is to design your own color scheme by selecting ‘Custom’ and then using the controls to change the background color, change the text color in WordPress, and more.

You can add a header above your group feed, which can include content such as your group’s profile picture and name. This can help visitors understand the content they’re seeing, and how they can find your group on Facebook.

To add a header section, click on ‘Header’ in the left-hand menu.

On this screen, click on the ‘Enable’ slider to turn it from grey to blue.

After adding a header section, you can use the controls to change the size of the header and its color, hide or show your Facebook profile picture, and more.

If you want to remove the header at any point, then simply click to turn off the ‘Enable’ toggle.

After that, you can change how the individual posts look inside your group feed by selecting ‘Post Style’ from the left-hand menu.

After that, click on ‘Post Style’ again.

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

If you select ‘Boxed’ then you can create a colored background for each post. You can also make the border-radius larger to create curved corners, and add a border shadow.

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’ve added a thicker line to the group feed and changed its color.

You can also customize the individual parts within each post by going back to the main settings screen.

Once again, select ‘Post Style’ but this time choose ‘Edit Individual Elements’ instead.

You’ll now see all the different content that Smash Balloon includes in each post, such as the post author, date, shared link box, and more.

To remove a piece of content from your posts, just click to uncheck its box.

You can also customize 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 ‘post action’ links, such as like, share, and comment.

You can also change the ‘View on Facebook’ text by typing into the ‘Customize Text’ field.

By default, Smash Balloon doesn’t add a Facebook ‘like’ button to your feed. This button makes it easier for visitors to join your group, so you may want to add it to your feed by selecting the ‘Like Box’ settings.

Then, simply click on ‘Enable’ so that the toggle turns blue.

You can now use the ‘Position’ dropdown to add the like box below or above the group feed.

You can also use these settings to change the box’s width, or add the group’s cover photo.

To encourage more people to join your group, you may want to show the total number of followers by clicking on the ‘Show fans’ switch.

When you’re happy with how the ‘like’ button is set up, you can move on to the ‘Load More Button’ settings.

The ‘Load More’ button gives visitors an easy way to scroll through more of your feed. If they enjoy this content, then they might decide to join your Facebook group.

With that in mind, you may want to make this button stand out by changing its background color, hover state, and text color.

This button shows ‘Load More’ by default but you can add a custom message by typing into the ‘Text’ field.

Smash Balloon has a lightbox feature that allows visitors to watch your group’s videos and take a closer look at your photos without leaving WordPress.

Visitors can simply click on any video or photo thumbnail to open the lightbox popup.

They can then scroll through the rest of the images and videos in the feed using the arrows.

To customize the default lightbox, simply select ‘Lightbox’ from the left-hand menu.

Here, you can change the color of the lightbox’s text, links, and background colors.

The lightbox popup makes it easy for visitors to explore your feed, but it also allows people to scroll through your photos and videos without visiting your Facebook group.

If you want to get more visitors to your Facebook group then you may want to disable the lightbox feature. To do this, simply click on the ‘Enable’ toggle so it turns from blue to grey.

Now, if a visitor clicks on any photo or video in the group feed, they’ll be taken to your Facebook group in a new tab.

When you’re happy with how the Facebook group feed looks, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

You’re now ready to add this feed to your WordPress website.

How to Embed Your Facebook Group Feed in WordPress

You can add your Facebook group feed to WordPress using a block, widget, or shortcode.

If you’ve created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you’ll need to know the feed’s code if you’re going to use a block or widget.

To get this information, go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then look at the feed=”” part of the shortcode. You’ll need to add this code to the block or widget, so make a note of it.

In the following image, we’ll need to use feed=”1″.

If you want to embed your Facebook group feed in a page or post, then you can use the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ block.

Simply open the page or post where you want to embed the Facebook feed. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block and start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed.’

When the Facebook block appears, click to add it to your page or post.

The block will show one of your Smash Balloon feeds by default. If this isn’t your Facebook group feed, then find the ‘Shortcode Settings’ section in the right-hand menu.

You can now go ahead and add the feed=”” code, then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

After that, just publish or update the page to make the group feed live on your website.

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 group feed no matter where they are on your website.

To get started, simply go to Appearance » Widgets in the WordPress dashboard and then click on the blue ‘+’ button.

Once you’ve done that, start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ into the search bar.

When the right widget appears, drag it to where you want to show the feed.

The widget will show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon.

If this isn’t your Facebook group feed, then type the feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box. Then, click on ‘Apply Changes.’

You can now click on the ‘Update’ button to make the widget live. For more information, see our complete guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

Finally, you can embed the Facebook group feed on any page, post, or widget-ready area using shortcode.

Simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and copy all the code in the ‘Shortcode’ column. You can now add this code to any shortcode block.

For more information, please see our detailed guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Note: If you are using a block-enabled theme, you can use the full-site editor to add the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ block anywhere on your site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a Facebook group on your WordPress website. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress, or see our expert pick of the best Facebook plugins for your blog.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Embed a Facebook Group Feed in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to create a thank you page for your WordPress website?

Showing a customized thank you page can help you build a strong relationship with your audience. You can keep people engaged, bring them back to your site, and boost sales.

In this article, we will show you how to create a thank you page in WordPress, step by step. Plus, we’ll also show you when to display your thank you page such as after someone submits a form, makes a purchase on your site, and more.

Why Create a Thank You Page in WordPress?

A thank you page is a web page you can show to your users when they perform an action or complete a task on your WordPress website.

For example, you can show a custom thank you page on your online store after a customer purchases a product. This allows you to cross-sell and upsell your best products and offer exclusive discounts on subsequent purchases.

Similarly, a thank you page can help build an email list and grow your social audience. You can show social sharing buttons to promote your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media channels.

Another situation where a thank you page is helpful is when a user submits a form or leaves a comment on your site. You can show your most popular posts on the thank you page and drive more traffic to your important blog posts.

That said, let’s look at how you can easily create a thank you page in WordPress and how to trigger it in different situations.

Simply click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:

Creating a Thank You Page in WordPress

The best way to create a thank you page in WordPress is by using SeedProd. It is the best website builder and landing page builder plugin for WordPress.

The plugin offers drag-and-drop functionality and lots of customization options. Plus, you get to choose from pre-built templates to edit the thank you page according to your liking.

For this tutorial, we will use the SeedProd Pro version because it offers pre-built templates, email integrations, WooCommerce blocks, and more. You can also use the SeedProd Lite version for free.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can go to SeedProd » Settings from your WordPress admin panel. From here, enter the license key and click the ‘Verify key’ button.

You can find the license key in your SeedProd account area.

After the verification, you’ll need to head to SeedProd » Landing Pages from the WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Create New Landing Page’ button.

Next, SeedProd will show you different page templates.

You can filter them from the top to view thank you page templates. From here, simply hover over a design you’d like to use and click the orange tick button.

A popup window will now open. Go ahead and enter a name and URL for your thank you page.

Once that’s done, you can click the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button.

This will launch the SeedProd drag-and-drop page builder.

You can now customize your thank you page by adding new blocks from the menu on the left or rearranging the existing blocks.

For instance, there are blocks for images, text, headlines, videos, contact forms, social profiles, and more.

If you click on a block in the template, then you’ll see more options for customization.

For example, you can edit the text, changing its font, size, spacing, color, and more.

When you’ve made the changes, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top.

Next, you can click the ‘Connect’ tab and integrate email marketing services. This is useful if you’ve added a contact form to your thank you and would like to collect leads from customers.

After that, you’ll need to head to the ‘Page Settings’ tab at the top.

Here, click the Page Status toggle to change it from ‘Draft’ to ‘Publish.’

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top when you’re done.

You can now visit your website to see the thank you page in action.

Now, let’s look at different situations when you can trigger the thank you page so that your visitors see it.

Show a Thank You Page After Form Submission in WordPress

After creating a custom thank you page, you can display it when a user submits a form.

For example, you can show social media icons when a visitor signs up for an email newsletter using a form. This way, they can also follow you on different social platforms and help grow your followers.

Similarly, if a user fills out a feedback form, then you can show useful guides, videos, or promote your best content on the thank you page.

With WPForms, you can easily create all types of forms on your website and show a custom thank you page. It is the best WordPress contact form plugin that offers pre-built templates and lots of customization options.

For more details, please see our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

To display your custom thank you page, go ahead and edit a form in WPForms. When you’re in the form builder, simply go to the Settings » Confirmations tab.

Under the Confirmation Type dropdown menu, simply select the ‘Go to URL (Redirect)’ option.

After that, enter the URL for your thank you page in the ‘Confirmation Redirect URL’ field.

Whenever a user fills out and submits a form on your website, they’ll see the custom thank you page you created.

Show a Thank You Page Upon Product Purchase in WooCommerce

If you have a WooCommerce store, then you can show your custom thank you page when a customer purchases your product.

WooCommerce has a default thank you page, but it’s not optimized for conversions. However, you can replace it with your own to get more sales.

For example, you can upsell products on a thank you page, offer exclusive discounts, display the latest promotional campaigns, and more.

We have a full guide on how to easily create custom WooCommerce thank you pages that will walk you through the entire process, step-by-step.

Show a Custom Thank You Page on Your Membership Site

You can also display your thank you page on a membership website when someone purchases a subscription to access exclusive content or enrolls in an online course.

With MemberPress, you can easily set up a membership site. It is the best WordPress membership plugin, and you can use it to sell premium content, subscriptions, digital downloads, and more.

You can learn more by following our ultimate guide to creating a WordPress membership site.

Once you’ve set up memberships, all you have to do is head to MemberPress » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and select the ‘Pages’ tab.

From here, you can click the ‘MemberPress Thank You Page’ dropdown menu and select the custom thank you page.

This way, customers will be redirected to your thank you page whenever they complete the registration or subscription process.

Show a Thank You Page After Comment Submission

Another situation where displaying a custom thank you page is beneficial is after comment submission.

When a visitor submits a comment on your WordPress blog, you can take this opportunity to show your most popular articles or evergreen content through a thank you page.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Yoast Comment Hacks plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can go to Settings » Comment Hacks from your WordPress dashboard.

Next, scroll down to the ‘Redirect first time commenters’ section. Now, click the ‘Redirect to’ dropdown menu and select your custom thank you page.

Save your settings, and the thank you page that you selected will appear any time a visitor leaves a comment for the first time.

You can see our detailed guide on how to redirect users after form submissions in WordPress for more information.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a thank you page in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners and the must-have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Thank You Page in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to use WordPress recovery mode to fix an error on your website?

The recovery mode feature was introduced in WordPress 5.2, and it allows you to easily to fix fatal errors on your site that can make WordPress’s backend or frontend inaccessible.

In this article, we will show you how to use recovery mode in WordPress.

What is WordPress Recovery Mode

If you’re encountering a WordPress error that’s preventing you from logging into your website, then WordPress will automatically shift into recovery mode.

Recovery mode allows you to access your WordPress admin dashboard by sending a link to your administration email. This email contains details about the error that’s preventing users from accessing their WordPress website.

You can use the link to access your admin dashboard and fix the issue.

For example, your WordPress site may show you a critical error and blocks you from logging into your dashboard.

This is when you can use the WordPress recovery mode feature to regain access. Let’s see how you can use the WordPress recovery mode.

Method 1. Using Recovery Mode Through The Email Link

If a WordPress plugin or theme causes an error, then recovery mode can be used to fix it.

You might see a plain white screen when trying to access your account. Sometimes, a message is also shown on the screen.

If that is the case, immediately log in to your administrator email account. Keep in mind to check the inbox of the email address that you provided as the administrator email address to WordPress.

You will receive an email to your WordPress email address that will inform you about the specific error on your website. If WordPress can determine the cause of the outage, this email will have that information.

For example, if there is a file corrupted in your theme directory or a plugin incompatibility, WordPress may be able to tell.

The email will also give you a link to access your WordPress admin dashboard.

Simply click the provided link, and you will be taken to the WordPress admin area. Here, you will see a banner telling you that Recover Mode has been initalized.

You can then log in as normal.

Once in your admin panel, you can deactivate the theme or plugin that’s causing the issue.

Simply go to Plugins » All Plugins and then click the ‘Deactivate’ link under the right one.

If the email sent by WordPress did not specify the plugin or theme that’s causing the error, then you should deactivate all the plugins. After that, try logging into your account.

You can figure out the faulty plugin by then activating the plugins one by one. Once you find the faulty plugin that’s causing the issue, you can find an alternative plugin for it or get support from the plugin developers.

If for some reason your website is showing a plain white screen but you haven’t received any email from WordPress, then you can try method 2 to use recovery mode.

Method 2. Using Recovery Mode Without Email Link

You can use this method to access recovery mode without any email link. You can simply create a WordPress recovery mode link by following the link below to access recovery mode.

example.com/wp-login.php?action=entered_recovery_mode

All you have to do is replace example.com with your own site’s domain name.

This URL will take you to your WordPress admin area where you’ll be asked to log in.

Here you will see an alert that you are logging into Recovery Mode.

Now you can fix any error on your site.

Keep in mind that if you use this method to manually access the Recovery Mode login page, WordPress won’t locate the plugin or theme that’s causing the error itself. You will need to do some work to figure that out on your own.

You can start by simply changing your theme or deactivating all your plugins. This should fix whatever error was occurring and you will be able to access your WordPress website.

From there, you can reactivate plugins one by one to find the issue, or you can even roll back your theme or WordPress version to an earlier one that wasn’t incompatible.

Bonus: Additional Recovery Mode Options

If you’re not clear about the error on your website that’s preventing you from logging in, then you can also try these two options in recovery mode to solve your problem:

Download a site health plugin to diagnose issuesRun a malware scan to be sure your site or server hasn’t been compromised

For example, you can install and activate the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin. For more instructions, see our guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Once you activate this plugin, it will perform a number of checks on your WordPress site and will detect common errors that may be causing the fluctuation.

Sometimes, malware on your website may be causing the error. You can use recovery mode to scan your website for malicious code and create a completely secure website. For help, you can check out our ultimate WordPress security guide.

You can also ask your WordPress hosting provider for support. If you’re using a top WordPress hosting company like Hostinger, Bluehost, WPEngine, and SiteGround, then their support team will be able to help you resolve the issue.

That’s it! We hoped you learned how to use recovery mode in WordPress. You may also want t check out our pick of the best WordPress SEO plugins and our tutorial on how to fix the critical error in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Use WordPress Recovery Mode (2 Ways) first appeared on WPBeginner.