Editor's Note: This post on how to embed Instagram into WordPress was originally published on July 2, 2014. It was updated on October 18, 2018.
If you’re among the estimated 150 million people active on Instagram every month, you realize the potential this increasingly popular social networking site holds for your small business. Recent stats show that 17 percent of all online adults use Instagram. That’s a pretty big number, considering, but what about the 83 percent who don’t filter and tag?
If you’re a big Instagrammer and your fans aren’t, they might be missing out on a fun, visual part of your brand experience. You don’t want to spend your marketing resources on a social platform that a large contingent of your fans will never see, do you?
Luckily, there’s an easy way to rescue your Instagram pictures from your phone app and share them with the world, especially if you’re a WordPress user. There are many ways to embed Instagram into WordPress websites and blogs.
Pin an Instagram badge on it
This is one of the simplest ways to share your Instagram account with your website’s fans, but also one of the least visually appealing. A badge basically encourages your users who already have Instagram accounts to follow you. That’s great for the 17 percent, but for the rest...
Embed a single photo
If you’re blogging about an event or find a photo from your Instagram account to be the perfect complement to a WordPress blog post, then you can embed a single photo into a post, or even into the design of your WordPress website.
Take advantage of WordPress plugins for Instagram
As with most things WordPress, plugins are where the real robust features hang out. Apparently, plugin developers are real Instagram fans, because they have concocted a few ingenious ways to share everything from a single picture to your entire Instagram feed on your WordPress site.
"With a plugin, you get more than just an occasional image to insert into a post. There are plugins to create image sliders, to back up your Instagram photos to your WordPress database, or to place a small gallery of photos in your sidebar; others do even more.” ~ Virginia Debolt
The ever-helpful Virginia Debolt over at Web Teacher delves into some of the basics of adding Instagram to a WordPress blog in this handy tutorial. Virginia’s post is a great place to start if you want to learn how to embed funky tiled Instagram backgrounds, informative slideshows, and even back up your Instagram feed to your blog.
You can also install a number of plugins that will help embed Instagram into WordPress. Here are a few options:
- DsgnWrks Instagram Importer — Import and back up Instagram photos and video.
- Instagram Slider Widget — Shows 20 latest Instagram images with this easy plugin.
- Instagram Feed - Display beautifully clean, customizable, and responsive feeds from multiple Instagram accounts.
- WP Instagram Widget - WP Instagram widget is a no fuss WordPress widget to showcase your latest Instagram pics.
- Instagram Feed and Gallery - 10Web Instagram Feed is a user-friendly plugin to display user or hashtag-based Instagram feeds
- Instagram Gallery - Instagram Gallery is an easy way to display your Instagram pictures on the website.
Instagram continues to grow in popularity, so why not connect it to WordPress to help your website and blog visitors discover all that you have to offer?
If you're an avid Instagram user, head on over and check out GoDaddy's Instagram profile.