How to Add Social Share Buttons to Your WordPress RSS Feed

Following our guide on ditching Feedburner, many readers have asked how to add social share buttons to their WordPress RSS feeds, just like they had before. While most modern feed readers offer built-in sharing, here's our proven step-by-step method to embed Facebook and Twitter buttons directly in your feeds.

First, download free social media icon sets that match your site's style. Head to Media » Add New in your WordPress dashboard and upload your Facebook and Twitter icons to the media library.

Next, grab the direct URLs for these icons. In the Media Library, click Edit under each icon to find and copy the file URL. Paste them into a note—we'll use them shortly.

Leverage WordPress's built-in content filters to append these buttons to every RSS post. Add the following code to your theme's functions.php file or a custom site plugin for better portability.

function wpb_add_feed_content($content) {
    if (is_feed()) {
        $permalink = get_permalink();
        $title = get_the_title();
        // Replace these with your uploaded icon URLs
        $fb_icon = 'YOUR_FACEBOOK_ICON_URL_HERE';
        $tw_icon = 'YOUR_TWITTER_ICON_URL_HERE';
        $content .= '<p>';
        $content .= '<a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=' . urlencode($permalink) . '" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="' . $fb_icon . '" alt="Share on Facebook" /></a> ';
        $content .= '<a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=' . urlencode($permalink) . '&text=' . urlencode($title) . '" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="' . $tw_icon . '" alt="Share on Twitter" /></a>';
        $content .= '</p>';
    }
    return $content;
}
add_filter('the_content_feed', 'wpb_add_feed_content');
add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'wpb_add_feed_content');

This snippet checks for RSS feeds, then injects clickable share buttons with your custom icons below each post's content. We've tested it across multiple sites for reliable performance.

This should get your social sharing up and running seamlessly. For more WordPress tips, subscribe to our YouTube channel for video tutorials. Follow us on Twitter and Google+ too.