How to Add a Social Media Feed to WordPress

Adding a live social media feed to your WordPress site is one of the quickest ways to keep your content fresh and bridge the gap between your website and your social channels. It turns your static pages into dynamic showcases of your brand's personality, all with minimal effort. This guide will walk you through exactly how to do it using user-friendly plugins, with no coding required.

Why Place a Social Media Feed on Your WordPress Site?

Before jumping into the how-to, let's cover a few reasons why this is such a powerful strategy for creators, marketers, and business owners. Displaying your live social posts on your website does more than just fill space, it serves several tangible marketing goals.

• Boosts Social Proof: A vibrant, active social feed filled with comments and likes is a form of social proof. It shows visitors that you have an engaged community and that people are talking about your brand. This instantly builds credibility and trust with new audiences who land on your site.
• Increases Follower Count: Not every website visitor is a social media follower - yet. By showcasing your excellent Instagram, TikTok, or X content directly on your site and adding a prominent "Follow" button, you create a direct path for website visitors to join your social community without ever leaving the page.
• Keeps Your Website Content Fresh: One of the biggest challenges for any website owner is keeping the content updated. A social media feed automates this process. Every time you post on Instagram, Facebook, or X, your website automatically updates with new content, keeping your site looking active and relevant to repeat visitors.
• Improves Engagement Across Channels: A social media feed works both ways. It drives website visitors to your social profiles and reminds your social followers about your website. This cross-promotion strengthens your brand across multiple touchpoints and encourages users to interact with you on whichever platform they prefer.

The Easiest Method: Using a WordPress Plugin

While you could technically embed social media posts manually using code provided by the platforms, it’s a clunky, time-consuming process. Each post has to be embedded individually, you have little control over the styling, and it won't update automatically. Frankly, it's not a sustainable approach.

The best and most popular way to add a social media feed is with a WordPress plugin. Plugins handle all the heavy lifting for you:

• They connect securely to your social media accounts via an official API.
• They automatically pull in your latest posts in real time.
• They offer extensive formatting options to make the feed match your website's design.
• They provide simple shortcodes or blocks so you can place the feed anywhere on your site.

There are dozens of fantastic plugins available, many of which offer a robust free version that’s more than enough to get started. For this guide, we'll use one of the most popular options, the "Smash Balloon Social Post Feed" plugin, as our primary example. While the steps might vary slightly with other plugins, the core process is nearly identical.

How to Add a Social Feed to WordPress: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to get your feed up and running? Let’s walk through the process from start to finish. It should only take about 10-15 minutes.

Step 1: Install and Activate Your Social Feed Plugin

First things first, you need to install the plugin. From your WordPress dashboard:

1. Navigate to Plugins >, Add New on the left-hand menu.
2. In the search bar at the top right, type "Smash Balloon Social Post Feed" (or the name of the plugin you’ve chosen).
3. Find the plugin in the search results (it’s usually the first one) and click "Install Now."
4. After a few seconds, the button will change to "Activate." Click it.

Once activated, you’ll find a new menu item for the plugin in your WordPress sidebar - in this case, "Facebook Feed."

Step 2: Connect Your Social Media Account

With the plugin activated, it's time to link it to your social media profile. This process uses an official and secure authorization method (called OAuth), so your login credentials are never shared with the plugin developer.

1. Click on the new "Facebook Feed" (or Instagram, X, etc.) menu item in your WordPress dashboard.
2. This will typically bring you to a setup wizard or a settings page. Look for a button that says "Add New" or "Connect a New Source."
3. The plugin will ask you what type of feed you want to create (e.g., Timeline, Photos, Videos). Select your preference and click "Next."
4. You’ll be prompted to log in to your social media account (e.g., Facebook). A pop-up window from the social network will appear, asking you to grant the plugin permission to access your profile and posts.
5. Approve the connection. The plugin will confirm that the account has been successfully linked.

Your WordPress site is now officially connected to your social media profile and can pull in your latest posts.

Step 3: Customize the Look &, Feel of Your Feed

This is where the magic happens. A great social feed shouldn't look out of place, it should feel like a native part of your website's design. Plugins like Smash Balloon give you a surprising amount of control over the feed's styling, even in the free version.

After connecting your account, you’ll be taken to the feed editor. Here are a few common settings you can adjust:

• Feed Layout: Choose how you want your posts displayed. Common options include a standard Grid, a horizontal Carousel slider, or a Masonry layout that adapts to different image sizes.
• Number of Posts: Decide how many posts you want to show at one time. A good starting point is between 6 and 9 posts. You don't want to overwhelm visitors, but you want to show enough to look active.
• Header: Toggle the header on or off. The header usually displays your profile picture, account name, and a "Follow" button - all highly recommended for driving follower growth.
• Color Scheme: Don't settle for the platform's default colors. You can typically set a custom color for text, links, and backgrounds to perfectly match your site’s branding. Some plugins can even inherit the colors from your active WordPress theme.
• Like &, Comment CTA: Choose whether to show the "like" and "comment" count on posts. Displaying this is great for social proof, especially if your posts get decent engagement.
• Load More Button: Tweak the text and colors of the "Load More" button that appears at the bottom of the feed, allowing users to browse your older content.

Take a few minutes to play with these settings. Your goal is to create a feed that feels seamless, professional, and completely integrated with your brand’s visual identity.

Step 4: Embed Your Feed on a Page or Post

Once you’ve saved your customization settings, the final step is to display the feed on your site. The plugin generates a unique "shortcode" for your feed, which is a small snippet of text that acts as a placeholder. WordPress replaces this shortcode with your live social feed.

Using the Shortcode Method

1. In the feed editor, click the "Embed" button, usually located in the top-right corner.
2. A pop-up will appear with the feed's shortcode. It will look something like [smash_feed id="1"]. Click to copy it.
3. Navigate to the page or post where you want the feed to appear, or create a new one.
4. In the WordPress editor, paste the shortcode directly into a Shortcode block or a standard paragraph block.
5. Click "Update" or "Publish."

Using a Gutenberg Block

Most modern social feed plugins come with a dedicated block for the WordPress editor, which is even easier.

1. Edit the page or post where you want the feed.
2. Click the "+" icon to add a new block.
3. Search for the name of your plugin (e.g., "Facebook Feed").
4. Click the block to add it to your page. It will automatically detect your saved feed and display it.

That's it! Visit your live page to see your beautiful, dynamic social media feed in action. It will now automatically update whenever you publish new content on your social channels.

Best Practices for an Effective Social Media Feed

Just having a feed isn't enough, you want it to be an asset. Here are a few final tips to make sure it delivers real value.

• Place It Strategically: Don't hide your feed. Common high-impact locations include the footer of every page, in the sidebar of your blog, or on your "About Us" page to add a touch of personality. Some brands even create a dedicated "Community" page to feature it.
• Curate Your Best Content: While feeds update automatically, the content you share on social media matters most. Ensure the posts appearing on your site are visually appealing, on-brand, and add value. A feed full of low-quality or off-topic posts can do more harm than good.
• Encourage Interaction: Pair your feed with a clear call-to-action like, "Follow us on Instagram for daily tips!" Nudge visitors to not just look, but to engage and follow.

Final Thoughts

Integrating a social media feed into your WordPress site is a straightforward process that offers significant benefits, from boosting social proof to keeping your site endlessly fresh. With the help of a quality plugin, you can set it up in minutes and forge a stronger, more dynamic connection between your website and your social media communities.

Of course, an engaging website feed starts with great, consistent social media content. Keeping that pipeline full, especially with the demanding pace of short-form video for Reels and TikTok, can be a challenge. At Postbase, we built our tools specifically to solve this problem. We focused on making the planning, scheduling, and management of your social media marketing feel simple and uncluttered, so you can focus on creating great posts. With a reliable workflow keeping your social channels active, your new website feed will always have fresh content to show off.