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How do I import my blog entries or RSS feed into Facebook?

At Blogworld last week, I heard loud and clear from a number of people that it's a good idea to have my Facebook friends notified when I have new blog entries published. Cool. But how the heck do I do that?


Dave's Answer:

I'm just hooking this up in Facebook myself, so I have similarly spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to do it. Even using the Facebook help system, searching for things like "RSS" produce no good results.

The trick is to know that Facebook considers your external blog entries "notes", so to add it you can't just go to your profile and change a setting or two, you need to go to your "Notes" section in Facebook and tweak it.

Start on your home page in Facebook, then look on the right for "Notes":

facebook main menu (facebook blog rss)

Click on that and you'll be on your Notes area. Look half-way down on the right side and you'll see "Notes Settings":

facebook notes settings (facebook blog rss)

Click on "import a blog" and now you get the key window you seek:

facebook import an external blog (facebook blog rss)

Now, we are talking about your blog, right? :-)

Enter the URL of your blog (you don't have to worry about the RSS/XML/RDF/Atom feed address, it'll figure it out), check the "it's mine" box, and click on "Start Importing".

It'll show you a preview of the import, with a note:

facebook import an external blog preview (facebook blog rss)

Looks good? Scroll down to the bottom and click on "Confirm Import".

facebook notes imported (facebook blog rss)

That's it. You can only import one (unless you're sneaky and create a consolidated feed then import that instead, but that's beyond the scope of this article).

Good luck!

I'd also like to let you know that I have quite a bit of Facebook help here on the site and that I also have an Ask Dave Taylor Facebook Fan Page that I invite you to join.



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Comments

Way to go, Dave!! Good job getting your main blog imported to Facebook. This is one of the first things I encourage peeps to do on Facebook.

You might also like to write one of your awesome simple tutorials for Note tagging at some point.

I talk about how to get more bang for yer buck in this post: Ten Steps to Leverage Your Blog Posts With Facebook Notes: http://whyfacebook.com/2008/06/09/ten-steps-to-leverage-your-blog-posts-with-facebook-notes/

Cheers,
Mari
@marismith
P.S. Truly awesome to meet ya in person last week at the BlogWorld Expo in Vegas. ;D

Posted by: Mari Smith at September 25, 2008 1:22 PM

Thanks Dave!

I have finally started using Facebook and this was a great, quick way to start pulling in content.

Posted by: Susan (5 Minutes for Mom) at October 1, 2008 11:51 AM

I have imported my Rss feed of my wordpress blog in my facebook profile, unfortunately the title of each post are linked to the facebook articles pages instead to the url of my post on my website.

Do you know how I can modify this ?

Thanks

Posted by: binbin at February 8, 2009 11:10 AM

Hey Dave, thanks a ton for not only the step by step here, but the visual aids. I kept reading the instructions elsewhere but never once saw the "import" link on the right until i saw your instructions. I had been going to "notes" from the tab, not my right app options... so thanks for the full "dummy" version - helped ooodles!

Posted by: jgoode at February 9, 2009 9:49 PM

Finally some help. You think facebook would make it easier for their users. Now if only I can get the post to show on the left so that future messages that come in via status will not block the blog entries!

Posted by: Clarissa at March 9, 2009 2:26 AM

Thank you Dave! I've been trying to figure this out for a couple months. LOL

Thanks to a Google search--there you were.Don't know why I didn't think of that sooner.

You made it so easy.

Posted by: Cynthia at March 16, 2009 8:26 AM

thanks - that made it easy, i had been fumbling with facebook for a while.

Posted by: Paul Sterling at March 26, 2009 12:35 PM

Hi,
I just tried this and I'm not getting an option to import a blog. Has something changed??

Posted by: Sweet Serendipity at March 27, 2009 6:54 AM

@Sweet Serendipity... I was unable to find that option too, but after more searching I found it. Start at your Home page, then mouse-over Settings at the top right, and click 'Application Settings'. Then click 'Notes' on the left when the list comes up. Then a little way down on the right you'll see the 'Notes Settings' box with the 'Import a blog' link.

Posted by: Justin at March 28, 2009 12:10 PM

Absolutely spot on. Funny how easy things are when one knows how to do it.

Posted by: Ami at April 11, 2009 12:51 AM

Thanks Dave! Great step by step instructions!

Posted by: Morta Di Fame at May 31, 2009 9:35 AM

Thank you for that - I can see how to get the blog up onto the profile page as you instructed above - It works and no problems.

But I am not able to see how the blog can be put onto the company page that is also on face book - Ideas on how to would be appreciated, Thanks

Posted by: Mark waterfield at June 11, 2009 8:18 AM

Thanks! I just got my blog on facebook! I'm so happy now. :)

Posted by: Sandra Roberts at June 17, 2009 9:26 PM

how do I add a second blog to it?

Posted by: Abhishek at August 12, 2009 7:59 PM

I spend lot of time looking for this
thank you ..

Posted by: Ali at September 4, 2009 8:08 PM

Amazing how the search option on my Facebook couldn't come up with your answer. They couldn't even come up with my questions!

So, now I have another questions. If I import my blog to Facebook, will the Google Analytics be able to track the traffic?

Posted by: Momma Mindy at November 3, 2009 8:30 AM

Thanks, was driving me crazy looking for how to turn this off - it was worthless because no links were included in the feed!

Posted by: Paul B. at November 3, 2009 6:42 PM

This is very useful information. I want to export a blog to another site. How do I do the RSS feed the other direction?

Posted by: Alli at November 13, 2009 8:16 AM

Dave, I'm trying to import a blog onto a Page. There is a notes section, but I couldn't see the notes settings that you mention. Any ideas? I guess I could use an RSS feed, but couldn't figure that out either. Duh!

Posted by: Phil at November 30, 2009 12:19 PM

I need help with some questions concerning Facebook & their website is of no help.

1. Starting 1/4/10, I've noticed that when you import a blog via notes it takes between 4-10 clicks of Start Import over & over for Facebook to actually accept the import. Why is that? Has the redesign affected this in some way?

2. Facebook Fan Pages. If a fan page is setup with a Blog feed going to it & then someone creates a profile from that Fan page, why does the feed stop going to the fan page & only show on the Profile page? How do you reverse the feed back to the Fan Page? Is there anyway to stop it from happening again?

Posted by: Angie at January 8, 2010 7:53 AM

It seems to only import text, not images from the blog, although it does show a space, or an image marker if you will, where the image is supposed to be. Is this happening to anyone else?

Posted by: Maribel at January 11, 2010 1:24 PM


Thanks! I try some RSS apps but built-in Notes works perfect with RSS


Thanks!

Arman

Posted by: Arman Obosyan at January 15, 2010 8:24 AM

Start at your Home page,then mouse-over settings at the top right,and click 'Application Settings'.Then click 'Notes' on the left when the list comes up.Then a little way down on the right you will see the 'Notes Settings' box with the 'Import a blog' link.

Posted by: Frankie at January 18, 2010 5:16 AM

Hey Dave, do you know if it's possible to subscribe to an RSS feed on a group page? Our group, in the link, has a blog that we'd like to hook up to the group's facebook page.

Posted by: Danielle at February 8, 2010 11:26 AM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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