Facebook And WP Join For Instant Support

Facebook will let any WordPress blog post Instant Articles

Facebook said it would add a Facebook and WP Join for Instant Support plugin that makes it easier to generate and publish Instant Articles from WordPress.

Facebook’s Instant Articles are near-instant loading articles which offer all of the information in an article without loading any additional scripts or content.

To develop and test the new plugin, which essentially adapts Web content for Facebook’s Instant Articles feature, Facebook has partnered with WordPress.com VIP parent company Automattic. Rather than requiring publishers to manually format each article, the plugin for WordPress users will automatically optimize stories to appear as Instant Articles.

According to Facebook, over 25% of the websites on the internet are powered by WordPress, which quite a massive number. Then, it decided to make it easier for some publishers to share their content on the platform.

Automattic is planning to release the plugin as a free option for all WordPress users in time for the broader launch of Instant Articles in April.

The plugin is now available to download from GitHub, but they have revealed that it’ll be coming to the plugin repository soon.

Apple, whose content and social initiatives take a backseat to their software and hardware, jumped into the mix when they replaced Newsstand with News.

Once the plugin is set up, making Instant Articles will be as easily as checking a box.

“We encourage all interested publishers on WordPress to review the plugin’s documentation and FAQs”, the post said. And to increase the number of publishers getting on board with Instant Articles, they have announced their own WordPress plugin to make articles Instant Articles friendly.

Considering the partnership with WordPress, the Instant Articles feature may gain a lot more ground in the near future. Publishing directly to Facebook would keep readers from visiting the site.

It will be interesting to see how Facebook’s Instant Articles play a role and how this feature really ensures that traffic and revenue get to back to the publisher.