While sharing a blog post on social media is possible by directly sharing the link with your followers, that’s not the most effective way of delivering your content. What you need is a more elegant solution for reaching readers.
Enter Facebook’s Instant Articles (IA), a fairly new addition to Facebook’s array of marketing tools. In short, it enables you to share articles from your blog in a quick-to-load format for mobile devices, and there are two main benefits to using it. First, the faster load speeds mean more followers will stick around to read your content. Second, the increased speeds and optimized formatting will enhance the user’s experience.
In this post, we’ll look at how to download and connect the dedicated Instant Articles WordPress plugin to your website, and discuss how to customize, submit, and publish your IA-enabled posts. Let’s get started!
Downloading and Installing the WP Facebook Instant Articles Plugin
Fortunately, getting started with IA is a breeze. Let’s look at how to do it!
Facebook Instant Articles Requirements
Unlike Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), there are more stringent requirements for using IA. First, you’ll need a Facebook page for your website. Additionally, you’ll need a minimum number of articles before being accepted – the requirement has slowly reduced from 50 to five at current writing. Finally, while monetizing your articles is optional, to do so you’ll also need a Facebook Page App.
Sign Up For Facebook Instant Articles
The first step is signing up for Facebook Instant Articles. Click Sign Up and select an available page, or click Create one now and run through the steps if you don’t yet have a page:
With your page selected, you’ll next need to verify ownership of your website. Go to Publishing Tools > Configuration > Tools > Connect Your Site:
Here, copy the code provided, then navigate to Appearance > Editor on your WordPress dashboard. Paste the code at the top, and save your changes.
To finish, go back to Connect Your Site on your Facebook page. Enter your website’s URL, then click Claim URL to display a verification:
With Instant Articles now set up on your Facebook page, let’s look at how to connect to your WordPress site.
Download the Plugin and Add an RSS Feed
The second part of the process requires you to download, install, and activate the Instant Articles for WP plugin on your WordPress website. Once you’re ready, you’ll need to ensure that your website and Instant Article automatically sync by creating an RSS feed, which the plugin carries out automatically once installed.
To locate the feed, simply add /feed/instant-articles to the end of your website’s URL (for example, www.mywebsite.com/feed/instant-articles). Next, copy this URL from the search bar, head back to your Facebook page, open the Production RSS Feed tab, and paste the URL:
Now, any posts published on your WordPress website will automatically appear under Production Articles in your Facebook page’s settings.
Connecting the Instant Articles Plugin to Facebook
Of course, the Instant Articles for WP plugin isn’t very useful if it’s not connected to your Facebook page. Fortunately, it’s very easy to do.
Setting up the Facebook Plugin
Return to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Instant Articles screen. You’ll be brought to a dedicated settings page:
You’ll enter your Facebook Page ID. To find this, go to Publishing Tools > Configuration > Tools > Connect Your Site on your Facebook page. Copy the bold number (it’s located below the code you pasted into your website), then paste it into the relevant field within WordPress:
Once you save your changes, the configuration process is complete!
Creating a Facebook App for your WordPress Page
If you want to monetize your articles with Facebook Ads, there’s one additional step to complete. This involves the creation of a Facebook App (with Facebook Developer), using the Audience Network platform.
To begin, go to Publishing Tools > Configuration > Tools > Audience Network within Facebook. Check the terms and conditions box, then click Get Started:
This step will create a Facebook App for your page. You can configure the settings under Audience Network by selecting your Dashboard:
To configure ad placement, click Audience Network > Placements on the left hand menu. You’ll find your Placement ID under Active Placements:
Copy this ID, then head back to the Instant Articles for WP plugin settings within WordPress. Go to Ads > Ad Type, select Facebook Audience Network, paste the Placement ID into the Audience Network Placement ID field, and then save your changes:
With these settings in place, your articles will now display ads from the Facebook Ads Network. This means you can monetize your articles with no effort on your part.
Customizing Your Instant Articles
One of the great things about Instant Articles is the ability to customize your posts. This extends to style, colors, and similar design elements.
To achieve this, you can use Style Templates. To access them go to Publishing Tools > Configuration > Tools > Styles. Click Add Style, and the Style Editor will appear as a pop-up:
You can add a background color, edit Article Head elements (such as the logo, headline, byline, and more), and edit Article Body elements including headings and article text. You can also customize how captions and quotes appear in your article.
Every change you make will appear in the preview on the right. When you’re happy with the result, name your style and click Create.
Submit Your Facebook Instant Articles Feed for Review
Once the plugin is fully configured, it’s time to submit your articles to Instant Articles for review. However, there are a few requirements to keep in mind as you move forward. First, you’ll need a minimum of five articles in your Production Library before the review process will begin.
Secondly, your articles must contain logos (which can be added within the Style Editor). This is similar to a header image, and they have two requirements: They must be a transparent PNG, and have a minimum size of 690px by 132px.
Once you’ve followed the above, you’re ready to submit your feed. Within Facebook, head to Publishing Tools > Configuration > Initial Setup > Step 2: Submit For Review. If all of the requirements are met, you’ll be able to click the Submit for Review button:
At this point your articles will go through a manual review process, which usually takes between 3–5 business days.
Publishing Your Instant Articles for WordPress
Once the articles in your feed have been approved, they’re finally set to be distributed and read by your followers.
While Instant Articles don’t automatically post to your page, they can be easily shared. Simply create a new Facebook post, include the article link (which will be the link of your WordPress post), and click Share! The article is now available for all your followers to read and distribute across Facebook.
If you want to improve the reach of your content for Facebook users, Instant Articles is the way to go. This easy-to-use and customizable tool can enhance user experience while also boosting engagement.
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