How to Automatically Post Steemit Links on Facebook with Zapier

Even though none of us of likes Facebook anymore, most of us still have their friends and colleagues over there. I nearly have one thousand people that follow me there and I want them to know about my posts on Steemit. I could publish them manually but automation will safe me time to concentrate more on Steemit instead.

Zapier to the Rescue

The website Zapier offers many services to connect one app with another. For posting to our Facebook wall we will need to connect the RSS feed of your Steemit profile with the Facebook app on Zapier. the service is completely free up until 100 actions per month. If you post 3 articles a day you will be good. If you are more active than that you should consider the premium plan or manage the remaining posts at the end of the month yourself.

Careful: Your Re-Steemed articles will also be published on Facebook.

Step 1: Choose the Trigger App

After creating the free account, click on "Make a Zapp" and then select the Trigger App. You will need the RSS App for this process.

Step 2: Select "New Item in Feed"

Step 3: Enter your Feed URL

In this step you need to enter your personal feed URL. You can use the wonderful service of Streemian for that. Just enter this and change the username at the end to your username:

https://streemian.com/rss/@flauwy

You should also delete the field with the password. You don't need any. Leave the bottom selection on "smart".

Step 4: Click "View your item"

Step 5: Double Check Your Feed

You can skip this step but it is better if you double check if the feed is being pulled correctly. Check for the URL of your latest post. If that is ok, you are good to go.

Step 6: Add an Action Step

Step 7: Choose your Action App

You can now search for Facebook in the search field. As you can see, besides the normal Facebook App leading to your profile, you can also post in Groups and Pages. But please don't spam in any public group. Make your selection and continue.

Step 8: Select Facebook Action

Select what action on Facebook should tale place. If you just want your post being published than select "Post to Timeline".

Step 9: Connect your Facebook Account

Click on "Connect your Account" and allow Zapier to connect with your Facebook profile. Then select it and continue.

Step 10: Define how each post should look like

In this step you have many options to play with in order to individualize how Zapier creates your Facebook post. Click on the little menu icon on the right of each field and select what you want in the dropdown. I think it can be very simple with just the title as message and of course the link for link. But if you need more complex posts, see for yourself what might fit your purpose best.

Step 11: Test Facebook

This step allows you to test your settings by posting the latest of your articles. This includes your Re-Steemed articles by the way. When you click continue the post will be made. You can skip this but I haven't tested it. It probably just finishes the process and waits for the next incoming RSS feed instead of beginning with an already published one.

Step 12: Activate your Zap

All that is left to do is activating your new Zap. Your automated forwarding from Steemit to Zapier is ready to rumble.

Step 13: Double check on Facebook

As you can see, my first post was successfully posted on Facebook. Now you can focus on Steemit alone instead of going back and forth.

Warning: Facebook doesn't like Steemit-Links

This is just a hypothesis but from my own experience and from what I read on Steemit so far it seems that Facebook is manipulating how your post appears on your friends home wall. The same probably goes for posting to a page on Facebook. I think it might be a better idea to post it into a group because there everybody will get a notification. But again, make sure not to spam into a public group. Only do that in your private groups and even there you should ask yourself if that is the right way.