Publicize
Facebook, LinkedIn, Messenger Connect, Twitter, yahoo updates
Contents
- Publicize Posts
- Facebook Pages
- Yahoo!
- Messenger Connect
- Video
- Per Blog and Per User
- Setting Up Non-Administrator Users
- Reconnecting Facebook
- Reconnecting Twitter
- Reconnecting LinkedIn
- Troubleshooting
Related
Publicize makes it easy to share your WordPress.com posts on Facebook, Twitter, Messenger Connect, Yahoo!, and LinkedIn.
WordPress.com also sends your published blog posts to several places to automatically promote them for you. For example, your posts end up in WordPress.com’s global tag pages, are sent out to many search engines via Ping-o-Matic!, and sitemaps pings notify search engines of new updates.
If you want other tips and ideas for getting more visitors to your site, try Getting More Views and Traffic.
Publicize Posts
Once you’ve approved a connection to any of the below services, you’ll see a Publicize section in the Publish box on your post writing screen each time you write a new post.
Just publish the post as usual, and you’ll see it show up on the services you enabled. It’ll look something like this:
If you want to opt out from any of the Publicize services for a specific post, just click the Publicize Edit link. You can then uncheck whichever services you want.
You can also customize the message that gets sent by typing it in to the Custom Message box after you click the Publicize Edit link.
If you don’t already have a Facebook account, sign up for one.
To connect your blog to your Facebook account, go to Settings > Sharing in your site Dashboard..
At the top of the screen that appears, you will see a list of the services to which you can share your posts.
Find the block for Facebook and click Connect to Facebook.
A message will appear asking you to authorize the connection between your WordPress.com blog and your Facebook account.
Click the authorization button and you’ll be taken to Facebook where you’ll be asked to approve several different pieces that are necessary for the connection between your WordPress.com blog and your Facebook account. Approve them all.
Facebook Pages
If you would like to Publicize your posts to your Facebook page, instead of your Facebook profile, click on the “Set Options” link underneath Facebook on your Settings > Sharing page. You will need to connect your blog to Facebook first. You will need to use a Facebook account that has a Profile with administrative rights to the Page.
Note: A Page-only account can not be used with Publicize. The Facebook account must have a profile.
In the pop up box that appears, select the Facebook profile or page that you would like to connect to your account and then “Save these Settings.”
If you don’t already have a Twitter account, sign up for one.
To connect your blog to your Twitter account, go to Settings > Sharing in your site Dashboard..
At the top of the screen that appears, you will see a list of the services to which you can share your posts.
Find the block for Twitter and click Connect to Twitter.
A message will appear asking you to authorize the connection between your WordPress.com blog and your Twitter account.
Click the authorization button and you’ll be taken to Twitter where you’ll be asked to approve the connection between your WordPress.com blog and your Twitter account. Click Allow.
Yahoo!
If you don’t already have a Yahoo account, sign up for one.
To connect your blog to your Yahoo account, go to Settings > Sharing in your site Dashboard.
At the top of the screen that appears, you will see a list of the services to which you can share your posts.
Find the block for Yahoo and click Connect to Yahoo! Updates.
A message will appear asking you to authorize the connection between your WordPress.com blog and your Yahoo account.
Click the authorization button and you’ll be taken to Yahoo where you’ll be asked to approve the connection between your WordPress.com blog and your Yahoo account. First sign into your Yahoo account.
Then click Agree on the following screen.
Messenger Connect
If you don’t already have a Windows Live Messenger account, sign up for one.
To connect your blog to your Windows Live Messenger account, go to Settings > Sharing in your site Dashboard..
At the top of the screen that appears, you will see a list of the services to which you can share your posts.
Find the block for Windows Live Messenger and click Connect to Messenger Connect.
A message will appear asking you to authorize the connection between WordPress.com and your Messenger Connect account.
Click the Authorize button and you will be redirected to a log in form for Messenger Connect. Fill in your Windows Live Messenger account information and click the Connect button.
If you don’t already have a LinkedIn account, sign up for one.
To connect your blog to your LinkedIn account, go to Settings > Sharing in your site Dashboard..
At the top of the screen that appears, you will see a list of the services to which you can share your posts.
Find the block for LinkedIn and click Connect to LinkedIn.
A message will appear asking you to authorize the connection between WordPress.com and your LinkedIn account.
Click the authorization button and you’ll be taken to LinkedIn where you’ll be asked to approve the connection between your WordPress.com blog and your LinkedIn account. Click OK, I’ll Allow It.
Video
Here’s a quick video walkthrough of activating Publicize:
Per Blog and Per User
For maximum flexibility, these connections between WordPress.com and our Publicize services are configured per blog and per user. If you have several blogs you want to connect, you’ll need to connect each one separately. For multi-author blogs, each user that wants to connect to a Publicize service will need to do so separately as well.
Setting Up Non-Administrator Users
The above steps are described for Administrator, Editor, or Author user roles. If you’re an Contributor for a blog, you cannot use Publicize.
Reconnecting Facebook
Sometimes, the connection between Facebook and WordPress.com might get disconnected. Not to worry, the following steps should get you up and running again quickly.
- Log into your WordPress.com blog. Go to your blog’s dashboard -> My Blogs and uncheck Facebook under Publicize.
(On the My Blogs page, make sure you’re looking at the correct row for the blog in question.) - Reload the page and confirm that the Facebook checkbox is unchecked.
- Log into your Facebook account. Click on the arrow next to Home on the upper-right side of the page. Then, go to Privacy Settings and then click ‘Edit your settings’ under ‘Apps and Websites’ at the bottom-left of the page. Remove WordPress.com by clicking the X in its row. (If there is no WordPress.com row, don’t worry, just skip this step).
- Log back into your WordPress.com blog. Go to your blog’s dashboard -> My Blogs and recheck Facebook under Publicize.
- Wait for the pop-up to appear that says, Authorize connection with Facebook. Click that button.
- You’ll be taken to Facebook and asked to allow several pieces. Allow them all.
Reconnecting Twitter
If the connection between Twitter and WordPress.com gets disconnected for some reason, don’t worry, just follow these steps and you’ll be back on track again in no time.
- Log into your WordPress.com blog. Go to your blog’s dashboard -> My Blogs and uncheck Twitter under Publicize.
(On the My Blogs page, make sure you’re looking at the correct row for the blog in question.) - Reload the page and confirm that the Twitter checkbox is unchecked.
- Clear your browser’s cookies (this clears some cookies that Twitter sets which are likely part of the problem).
- Log back into your WordPress.com blog. Go to your blog’s dashboard -> My Blogs and recheck Twitter under Publicize.
- Wait for the pop-up to appear that says, Authorize connection with Twitter. Click that button.
- Sign in to Twitter and click Allow.
Reconnecting LinkedIn
If your LinkedIn connection gets disconnected for some reason, don’t worry, just follow these steps and you’ll be back on track again in no time.
- Log into your WordPress.com blog.
- Go to your blog’s dashboard -> My Blogs and uncheck LinkedIn under Publicize.
(On the My Blogs page, make sure you’re looking at the correct row for the blog in question.) - Reload the page and confirm that the LinkedIn checkbox is unchecked.
- Clear your browser’s cookies (this clears some cookies that LinkedIn sets which are likely part of the problem).
- Log back into your WordPress.com blog. Go to your blog’s dashboard -> My Blogs and recheck LinkedIn under Publicize.
- Wait for the pop-up to appear that says, Authorize connection with LinkedIn. Click that button.
- Login to LinkedIn on the next screen.
(If you are logged into LinkedIn on your computer you may just get a Click Continue screen to grant LinkedIn access.)
Troubleshooting
- Static pages will not be publicized.
- After connecting/re-connecting the services, you will need to publish a new post in order to publicize it.
- If you see the message “Error – See Support” (see image below) after connecting to Facebook, there is a problem with the Facebook account being used. Only Facebook Pages that have an associated Profile can be used with Publicize. Follow the Reconnecting Facebook steps above and connect to a Facebook Profile that has administrative rights to the Page.
Last modified: May 31, 2012
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