Connect a Facebook Page

Connect Facebook to m18t by generating your own Meta access token and Page ID, then wiring them into the single Meta (Facebook & IG) connection.

What you'll learn

  • Why connecting Meta means generating your own access token rather than clicking a "Log in with Facebook" button.
  • How to get a long-lived Meta access token and find your Facebook Page ID.
  • How to wire it all into m18t's single Meta (Facebook & IG) connection.

The concept

m18t publishes to Facebook (and Instagram) through Meta's Graph API using your credentials — it's BYOK. There's no consumer "Log in with Facebook" shortcut. You create a Meta app, generate an access token, find your Page's numeric ID, and hand those to m18t.

One more thing to know up front: in m18t, Facebook and Instagram are one connection — the provider is Meta (Facebook & IG). You set up the token once, then add a Facebook Page outlet and (optionally) an Instagram outlet on the same connection. This article covers Facebook; Connect an Instagram Account covers the IG side.

This is the most involved setup in m18t. It's tedious, but it's once per brand. Meta also changes their developer tools regularly, so the provider-side steps below are described by intent.

Step 1 — Create a Meta app and get a token

You need admin access to the target Facebook Page.

  1. Go to Meta for Developers and register as a developer if you haven't.
  2. Create a new app of the business type, and associate it with your Business account.
  3. Generate an access token with permissions to read and publish to your Page. For a token that doesn't expire on you, Meta's recommended path today is a System User access token from Business Settings; a short-lived user token must be extended to a long-lived one or your publishing will break when it expires.
  4. Grant the right scopes when you generate the token. Publishing and reading metrics need different permissions, so include all of them — otherwise a token can publish perfectly yet silently fail to sync engagement:
    • To publish: pages_manage_posts, pages_show_list, pages_read_engagement (plus business_management for a System User token).
    • To sync metrics (likes, comments, reactions back onto the post): pages_read_user_content. Meta treats reactions as user content, so pages_read_engagement alone is not enough — without pages_read_user_content the metrics call fails with error (#10).
    • For Instagram (if you'll publish there too): instagram_basic, instagram_content_publish, plus instagram_manage_comments for comment metrics — see the Instagram article.
  5. Copy the token. Treat it like a password.

Step 2 — Find your Facebook Page ID

m18t targets a Page by its numeric ID, not its name.

  1. Open Meta's Graph API Explorer with your app and token selected.
  2. Query me/accounts (or me?fields=id,name) to list the Pages your token can manage.
  3. Copy the id of the Page you want — a numeric string. That's your Facebook Page ID.

Step 3 — Wire it into m18t

  1. Go to Business Settings → Connections (/studio/business/connections).
  2. Click Add Connection.
  3. Pick a brand — connections are per brand. Choose the brand whose Page this is.
  4. Pick a provider — under Social, choose Meta (Facebook & IG).
  5. On the setup step, set the Environment, confirm the Label, and leave the Base URL at its Graph API default.
  6. On the Authentication step, choose + Add new vault key. The wizard suggests META_ACCESS_TOKEN; paste your token. It's encrypted in the Vault before storage.
  7. On the Outlets step, fill the Facebook Page name (a free-text label) and the Facebook Page ID (the numeric string from Step 2). Leave the Instagram fields blank for now if you're only doing Facebook — outlets without IDs aren't created.
  8. Finish with Create connection.

Step 4 — Confirm it works

On the Connections tab, find the Meta card and run its test action. A success result means m18t can reach the Graph API with your token.

FAQ

My token stopped working after a few hours / a day. You used a short-lived token. Generate a long-lived token or a System User token instead, then rotate the value on the Vault tab.

Publishing fails with a permissions error. The token is missing a Page-publishing permission, or the token's user isn't an admin of the Page. Regenerate the token with the right scopes and re-test.

Can I publish to Instagram with this same connection? Yes — that's the design. Add the Instagram outlet on this same Meta connection. Follow Connect an Instagram Account for the prerequisites and the IG Business Account ID.

What about LinkedIn, TikTok, X, or Threads? LinkedIn is a native channel — see Connect LinkedIn. TikTok, X, and Threads aren't natively wired yet; they're on the roadmap and can only be reached via an external automation bridge for now.

Where do I see why a publish failed? Each external push is recorded in the sync log; check there for the raw Graph API response.

What's next

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