Automating tasks in WordPress with IFTTT

Sometimes we do not realize the time we spend in performing certain repetitive tasks in our daily lives. For example, to share in the different social networks the new posts that we publish in our blog in WordPress. And it is not something that is done quickly, given the amount of RRSS existing. But thanks to the service offered by IFTTT you will have more time for you.

You know that from Silo Creativo one of our priorities in optimizing our work to become much more productive. And for this, we want to show you how to use IFTTT and apply it in WordPress to automate all those repetitive tasks and better use your time

What is IFTTT?

The acronym itself tells us: If This Then That. It is a free online service that allows us to automate specific tasks. That is, an action will be triggered when certain conditions are met in an app, online service or device. These actions-reactions were formerly known as recipes, but now IFTTT calls them Applets.

But then, how do the old recipes differ from the new Applets? Before, with a recipe an action provoked a reaction. And now with the new Applets, an action is completed with one or multiple reactions. Unfortunately, the Applets service with multiple reactions is currently limited to business accounts, so if you are an individual and want to use IFTTT for your personal use, you will have no choice but to create multiple Applets.

Creating an Applet in IFTTT

As the movement is shown walking, we are going to create our first Applet. As an example, we will automate a task that may be familiar: every time a new post is published in our WordPress, that post will be shared in our Facebook profile, silently and without having to make any extra effort.

For this, the first thing to do is to go to the IFTTT website and register. Thus, all Applets that we create will be in our account, so we can activate or deactivate them more easily. Once you have registered, go to your profile and click on the button New Applet.

new-applet-ifttt

In the next screen, IFTTT asks us what is going to be the action that is going to trigger a reaction. First, we will click on +this and we will go to a new screen that shows us all the services that IFTTT hosts. If we are curious and we scroll, we can even feel dizzy at the multitudes that are available.

choose-services-ifttt

But let’s not distract ourselves and continue with our task: let’s use the search engine and write WordPress, which is the service that we are going to use as a trigger. Once we choose it, we will go to a new screen where we will be told what is exactly what WordPress has to do to serve as a trigger for the subsequent reaction. These options will vary depending on the service we choose. For example, if our choice were YouTube instead of WordPress, the options that would appear would be related to the subscriptions to a video or uploading it.

choose-trigger-wordpress

But with WordPress we have these two options: new post or new post with a certain tag or category. In our case, as we want to share in Facebook everything we publish in our WordPress so our friends and / or followers will be aware of our adventures, we will choose the first option. Perfect, we have reached the equator of our task. It’s not being so difficult, is it?

What we have left is to assign what we want IFTTT to do for us every time we publish a new post in our WordPress. This would be +that from our equation.

applet-reaction

As we see, the +this that appeared at the beginning has disappeared, leaving the place to our beloved WordPress logo, which indicates that what we have done so far has been a successful work. Finally, let’s continue with this tutorial by pressing +that. Again, we will return to the page where IFTTT shows us all its compatible services. As we want to share our publications on Facebook, we will choose this one in the list.

choose-action-facebook-ifttt

In the new window we will have available the corresponding actions with the Facebook service. Of the three that appear, the one that best fits what we want to do is to Create a link post. With this, we will have our applet about to be finalized. We only have one more step.

complete-reaction-applet

You have to give shape to the text that will appear to your Facebook followers. If you look at the field of Message, there is a button that will let you add different elements, such as a link to the post in WordPress, the featured image that it has, a part of the content on Facebook … Also, if you have some knowledge of HTML (if not, I advise you to take a look at our post on HTML,) the degree of personalization is much greater. I leave you the one I created.

message-ifttt-tips

Some useful WordPress applets

And after this brief tutorial, many will ask: Will I have to do all this every time I want to create an applet? Well… No. If you navigate through the IFTTT website, you can reach the page of discoveries that will recommend applets already created based on the ones you have done, or you can directly use the search engine if you want something more specific. Thanks to the existing community, it is very likely that there is already an applet created that meets your needs in WordPress.

ifttt-recipe-discover

That’s why we show you our five favourite applets. Surely they will be of help in your day to day when you manage your WordPress.

I hope you liked it and, even more importantly, you found it useful. If you find some of them interesting or you want to share an applet created by yourself, you have only to put a comment!

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