WP Facebook WordPress PluginChris Wallace from UpThemes recently announced the beta release of a fantastic new Facebook plugin for WordPress called WP Facebook. There are a lot of useful Facebook plugins in the official plugin directory though WP Facebook is definitely one of the best boasting several great features.

Allow Facebook Users To Leave Comments

One of my favourite features is the ability to let Facebook users leave comments on your blog. Most people access Facebook every day therefore they will probably already be signed in to the social networking site. This feature is the only one which requires you to set anything up; everything else is set up automatically or set in your widget page.

You need to setup an application in the developers area of Facebook to add comments to your site. This can be setup in 2 minutes.

WP Facebook Application Registration Page

Once you have created an application for your comments take a note of the application secret and ID keys. You will need to enter these in the settings area on your site.

WP Facebook Settings Area

You then need to choose whether to replace WordPress comments with Facebook comments completely or add Facebook comments beneath WordPress comments.

Facebook Comments Replacement

Login To WordPress With Facebook

The plugin automatically adds a Facebook login link to your WordPress login page. The great thing about this feature is that the plugin will automatically create an account for those who login this way.

WP Facebook Login

Open Graph Protocol Compatibility

Open Graph Protocol allows greater integration between your website and Facebook. The WP Facebook plugin is integrated with this new protocol so that fans of your site will see updates of newly updated pages.

Facebook Open Graph Protocol

Facebook Widgets

The plugin comes with 7 Facebook related widgets. These can easily be added to your widgetized areas such as a sidebar and footer.

Widgets can easily be added added to articles and posts using short code.

WP Facebook Widgets

Overview

I’ve looked at several Facebook plugins over the last few months and WP Facebook WordPress Plugin rightly deserves to be mentioned with the best of them.

The plugin is free to download however support is reserved for those who purchase a theme or club membership from UpThemes (Themes start from $50 whilst a club membership will set you back $79 up front or $9.99 a month).

I recommend checking it out if you are looking to integrate Facebook more on your website.

Good luck,
Kevin

Download: WP Facebook WordPress Plugin