I have a client who has a website that was built several years ago on the WordPress platform. In the interim, much of the hosting environment and platform became outdated. The version of PHP that the server was running was outdated, WordPress was outdated, and most of the plugins the site used were outdated. Needless to say, I had some work to do.
One piece of functionality that the site had at one time that no longer worked was the ability to automatically update his Facebook Page whenever he posts a new blog post on his website. There are WordPress plugins that accomplish this, but because of technical issues with the site and server, they just didn’t work. So then I researched some other options and discovered this wonderful online service called IFTTT. IFTTT stands for “If This Then That.”
IFTTT is an online platform for connecting services using snippets of code called “applets.” What is fantastic about the way it works is that there is no coding involved. You just tell it what you want to connect and what you want it to do, provide login information for each service, and it does the rest.
So how does this relate to updating Facebook with WordPress blog posts? Because Facebook and WordPress are both services that can be connected with IFTTT. So instead of banging my head against the wall trying to get a WordPress plugin to work, I just created an IFTTT applet to do the work.
IFTTT can do WAY more than just connecting a website to a social media platform. There are a ton of pre-built applets that let you do all kinds of things, such as:
- Track work hours on your phone
- Automatically back up files from your phone to Dropbox
- Turn on your smart TV from Alexa device
- Trigger your coffee maker from Alexa device
- Get notified when the International Space Station passes over your house (not really sure how useful that is, but it’s still pretty cool).
- And, of course, Internet stuff like automatically post your blog post to Twitter or other blogging platforms.
As an Internet marketing guy, I love the fact that I can use this third-party service to connect platforms and social media channels without having to mess with installing a bunch of plugins or junk code. Beyond that, I just think this thing is very cool and something fun to play with. So check it out at https://ifttt.com.
And as always, please get in touch with Work Media if you need any help implementing Internet marketing strategies in your business.