I recently posted about linking a Wordpress Blog to Facebook but I have since then discovered two valuable tools that I didn’t know about. Actually, I should say I discovered one tool and rediscovered the other one.  Let’s assume that we have the following goals:

1. Blog posts made on Wordpress Blog are cross-posted to Facebook
2. Cross-posts to Facebook can be commented on within Facebook
3. Comments on post within Facebook are imported back into blog
4. Comments on Blog are also imported into Facebook

Options 1,2, and 4 are currently possible, but option 3 is not.  I greatly anticipate the day when option 3 becomes viable.  There have been some attempts, including the lamentable Facebook Comments plugin that relies on snatching pieces from Facebooks pages and porting it into Wordpress posts. This is a much less-than-perfect solution, since every time Facebook changes their layout (which is often), the plugin is rendered useless. I couldn’t get it to work at all, despite having tried some of the patches available.  Let’s drop option 3 to a later date, then, and focus on options 1,2, and 4.  Now I have examined several possibilities for sending Wordpress posts to Facebook.  In my opinion, the very best option is to tap into the RSS options that your Wordpress blog already has.  Their are some great Facebook RSS readers available from third parties, but actually one of the best RSS options in Facebook is the one that is built into the Wall. It updates automatically (albeit at looong intervals) and integrates well into the Wall’s layout.  In order to add a Blog’s RSS to Facebook, you go to your Wall, click Options, which then transforms into “Settings”. There you can add your RSS feed and update your Wall.  Posts imported this way are basically treated as Notes, a fact which at first I found annoying, but am lately starting to enjoy. In addition, the Notes tab integrates nicely into your Wall’s tabs, and there is a Box to add to the Profile section that can also be put on the Wall sidebar.

Facebook's built in RSS feed in Wall sidebar

Comments made from Facebook can unfortunately not be used back in your Wordpress blog (option 3), but this is still a useful and effective way to get your blog posts to a wider and more reliable audience.  Comments to these posts are done using Facebook’s Notes interface.  Advantages include all the things that go with normal Facebook comment: Interactive discussions, Likes, and the great “View original post” feature that lets Facebook friends go back to your original blog post.

Commenting on Blog posts through Facebook's Notes

Option 4 is where it starts to get exciting, although many things are undocumented and still in Beta.  The goal is to get your Wordpress blog comments and discussions into Facebook.  There are two conversation plugins that claim to have this functionality by using Facebook Connect. They are Intense Debate and Disqus. I’ve been unsuccessful in getting Intense Debate to post comments to Facebook, but I am currently using Disqus, and it posts to the Facebook Wall with a few caveats that I have noticed. (these may be specific to me, or may be Mac-based, I’m not sure) They are:

1. ) You can’t seem to log into Facebook Connect through Disqus if you are currently logged on to Facebook. In order to connect your Blog comments to Facebook, you need to first log out of Facebook, then log in through your Disqus Wordpress login.

Log on to Facebook connect through Disqus comments on your Blog

2.) Users will need to add your “application” in order to connect your Blog to Facebook. I can’t test this without getting another Facebook account, or asking a friend to test it for me.  But it seems that users will need to add your Facebook application in order to cross post comments into Facebook.  Regardless, let’s say that the goal was for you yourself to post comments into Facebook. In this case, you can handle your own settings from Disqus’ interface, make a Facebook App, and get an API key to use in Disqus.  Then all should run smoothly.

Once you connect your Blog using Facebook connect, you should see a checkbox in your Blog’s Disqus “sharing options” pulldown located to the lower left of your comments box.  There, you can check “Share on news feed” and your comments will then be posted to your Facebook Wall.

Blog comment posted to Facebook Wall using Disqus

It seems to me that you could post to your Wall from any other Disqus-enabled blog once you are logged into Facebook Connect, despite this making not much sense. I have been able to do this successfully, but this then begs the question of which application the user needs to add. Is it a specific blog’s Facebook app? Or are they able to just add one arbitrary blog which then enables Facebook Connect on all Disqus-enabled blogs?

I’ve given up searching for an answer today, and I don’t want to burden my Facebook friends with anymore test posts to random blogs, so I’ll have to figure this one out later. Update: more info here

• Why I switched from Disqus back to IntenseDebate (again), and why it’s probably permanent (0)
• Cross-posting Blog comments to Facebook using Disqus and Facebook Connect – from a user point of view and documented with pictures (9)
• (Wordpress) Blog versus Facebook: how they’re different, how they’re similar, and how they can be integrated into one another (3)
• Reformat your Facebook RSS Blog feed into a clean-formatted excerpt with backlink to your Blog (3)
• Run a spam-free Wordpress blog without Captcha tests! (1)