Configuring Social Media
Facebook and Instagram share a single connection: your group's Facebook Page, authorised once in System Settings. That one connection powers all four things the website can do — the Facebook feed, the Instagram feed, and publishing walk photo albums to either network.
Connect it once using the steps below, then use the pages at the bottom for whatever is specific to each network.
Before you start
You will need:
- A Facebook Page for your group or area — a Page, not a personal profile and not a Facebook Group. Meta does not allow posting to Groups.
- A Facebook login that is an admin of that Page. The connection only offers Pages you manage.
- A Meta app, with its App ID and App Secret to hand. Creating one is a one-off job, covered in the setup guide.
- Administrator access to your site's System Settings.
If you also want Instagram, you need an Instagram professional account (Business or Creator, not personal) linked to that Page. See Configuring Instagram.
Connect your Facebook Page
Go to Admin → Settings → System Settings → External Systems → Social Media.
Enter your Facebook App ID and Facebook App Secret, click Connect Facebook and authorise. If your Facebook account manages more than one Page you will be asked which to use. Any linked Instagram account is found automatically — there is nothing else to paste in.
If you would rather not use the Connect button, Advanced: paste an access token lets you paste a Page or system-user token and find your Pages that way.
System Settings → External Systems → Social Media, before connecting. Enter the App ID and Secret, then use Connect Facebook.
Choose what to switch on
Once connected, the panel shows the connection status and two switches:
- Publish walk albums to Facebook
- Publish walk albums to Instagram
Turn on whichever you want, use the Test buttons to confirm, then Save. Leave them off until you are ready — connecting on its own does not publish anything.
You should also set Web Url under Area & Group to your public site address, because Meta fetches your album photos over the public web.
If connecting fails
| What you see | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| No Pages offered after connecting | The Facebook login is not an admin of the Page |
| An error mentioning scopes or permissions | A permission is missing on the Meta app — see the setup guide |
| Connection succeeds but publishing fails on images | Web Url is wrong or empty, so Meta cannot fetch the photos |
| Connection drops after a while | The Page access token needs renewing — use Check token |