How to Set Up an RSS Feed to Post on Facebook

Gone are the days when you could search for an RSS application within Facebook itself to set up automated RSS posts to your profile or page. Bummer, huh?

Luckily for busy people who still love RSS enough to auto-post to their favorite social networks, there's at least one easy workaround, and it's with a third-party tool called IFTTT (If This Then That). IFTTT is a service that works with all your favorite apps, allowing you to connect them so that when something is detected on one app, it triggers an action on another app.

So, for example, if you use IFTTT to connect an RSS feed to your Facebook profile, IFTTT will look for updated posts on that RSS feed and automatically post them to your Facebook profile as soon as they're detected. It's just that simple and straightforward.

Follow the steps below to learn how to use IFTTT to set up your RSS feed on Facebook in as little as a few minutes.

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Sign Up for a Free Account With IFTTT

You can sign up for a free IFTTT account instantly through an existing Google or Facebook account, or alternatively do it the old fashioned way via email address.

Once signed up, sign into your account.

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Create a New Applet

Click My Applets in the top menu followed by the black New Applet button.

IFTTT will start you off with the set-up process by asking you to select an "if this" app for your applet, which in this case is the RSS feed because it's the app that's going to trigger another app (which will be Facebook).

Click the blue +if this link in the middle of the page.

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Set Up Your RSS Feed

On the following page, click on the orange RSS feed button in the grid of app buttons beneath the search bar. You'll be asked to choose between two different RSS feed triggers:

New feed item: Click on this one if you want all of your RSS updates to post to Facebook.

New feed item matches: Click on this one if you only want RSS updates containing specific keywords to post to Facebook.

For the sake of keeping this tutorial simple, we'll choose New feed item, but you can choose whichever option you want. Both are very easy to set up.

If you choose New feed item, you'll be asked to simply enter your RSS feed URL into the given field. If you choose New feed item matches, you'll be asked to enter both a list of keywords or simple phrases along with your RSS feed URL.

Click the Create trigger button when you're done.

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Set Up Your Facebook Profile or Page

On the next page, you'll be asked to select your "then that" app, which in this case is Facebook because it's the app that will be triggered to create an automated action. Click on the blue +then that link in the middle of the page.

Next, use the search bar to look for "Facebook or "Facebook page." Alternatively, scroll down and click on either the blue Facebook button or the blue Facebook Pages button, depending on whether you want your RSS feed updates posted to your profile or a page.

If you want them posted to your profile, click the regular blue Facebook button. Otherwise if you're posting to a page, click the blue Facebook Pages button.

In this tutorial, we're going to select the regular blue Facebook button.

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Connect Your Facebook Account to IFTTT

For IFTTT to be able to auto-post to your Facebook profile or page, you'll have to give it permission by connecting your account to it first. Click on the blue Connect button to do this.

Next, you'll be given three different options for the type of post that IFTTT will create for Facebook:

Create a status message: Choose this one if you're fine with your RSS posts being posted as a status. Facebook detects links in posts anyways, so it will likely show up almost exactly as a link post.

Create a link post: Choose this one if you know you want to highlight the post link in your Facebook post.

Upload a photo from URL: Choose this one if you feel confident in the images contained in the post and want to highlight them as photo posts on Facebook, with the link contained in the photo caption.

For this tutorial, we're going to choose Create a link post.

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Complete the Action Fields for Your Facebook Page

IFTTT conveniently gives you the opportunity to customize the setup of your Facebook post using various "ingredients" such as title, URL and more.

You can take ingredients out if you like or add new ones by clicking on the Add ingredient button, but IFTTT will contain basic ingredients such as the EntryURL (the main URL of the post) already in the given fields.

You can also write plain text in the message field, such as "New blog post!" or something similar to let your friends or fans know that your post is a recent update. This is totally optional.

Click the Create Action button when you're done.

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Review Your Applet and Finish

You'll be asked to review your newly created applet and click Finish when you're done. You can also choose whether you want to receive notifications when the applet runs by switching the green button on or off.

Lastly, you'll be taken to your completed applet with an option to turn it off or on with the green button and a link to check now if you want IFTTT to see if there are currently any new RSS posts to trigger a Facebook post. IFTTT checks periodically throughout the day—not every second of the day, which is why the check now option is handy for testing purposes.

Click check now to test your applet. If you have recent posts in your RSS feed, you should be able to refresh your Facebook profile or page and see the automated RSS post appear within a few minutes. If not, you might need to try posting/waiting for a new RSS post to be published and then checking again for IFTTT to detect it.

If you ever want to disable, check, edit or delete your new applet, simply navigate to My Applets in the top menu and click on it to manage it.

Updated by: Elise Moreau