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How to Display Twitter Followers Count as Text in WordPress

Displaying your X/Twitter followers count as text in WordPress is a great way to boost your site’s credibility. When visitors see how many people follow you on social media, they’re more likely to trust your website.

Luckily, using text to show your follower numbers is easy and convenient.

You can place this information anywhere on your site, including inside your posts and pages, making it easy to integrate with your content.

In this guide, we will show you how to display your Twitter followers count as text in WordPress.

How to display Twitter followers count as text in WordPress

Why Display Twitter Followers Count as Text in WordPress?

You may have noticed that many popular blogs, influencers, and big brand WordPress sites proudly show how many people follow them on social media.

If visitors see lots of people following you on social media, then they are more likely to trust your business and see you as an expert in your blogging niche.

Now, many of the best social media plugins allow you to show the total follower count in embedded feeds, buttons, banners, and more.

However, sometimes, you may want to show the number as plain text. This gives you the freedom to add the follower count to your blog posts, footer, or anywhere else on your WordPress blog or website.

With that in mind, we will show you how to display your Twitter follower count as text in WordPress. Here’s a quick overview of all the steps we will cover:

Note: As Twitter is now X, we will refer to it as X in the following sections.

Ready? Let’s dive right in!

Step 1: Get an X API Key and Secret

To get your follower count, you will need to access the X API by creating an API Key and Secret.

To get this information, head over to the X Developers Portal and then click on ‘Sign up for Free Account.’

Signing up for an X Developers account

You can now type in some information about how you plan to use the X API. It’s a good idea to provide as much detail as possible, as X will review this information and may delete your account if they don’t understand how you are using their API.

After that, read the terms and conditions. If you are happy to continue, go ahead and click on the ‘Submit’ button.

Agreeing to the Twitter Developers terms

You will now see the Developer Portal. In the left-hand menu, simply click to expand the ‘Projects & Apps’ section.

Then, select ‘Overview.’ You should now be able to see the ready-to-use project app.

How to create a Twitter app

Let’s click the key button to access your API Key and Secret, then the ‘Reveal API Key’ button.

X will now show an API key and API Secret. This is the only time you will see this information, so make a note of it somewhere safe.

Getting a Twitter API key and secret

If you see the ‘Reveal API Key hint’ button instead, you can click the Regenerate button, and X will create a new API Key and Secret for you.

Just remember to store it somewhere safe.

The regenerate button in X developers portal

We recommend adding the key and secret to a password manager for extra security.

Step 2: Add Custom Code to Your WordPress Website

The easiest way to add the X follower count to your site is by using PHP code.

For security reasons, WordPress doesn’t allow you to add PHP code directly to your pages and posts, but it does allow shortcodes. This means you can create a custom shortcode and then link it to your PHP code.

The easiest way to add custom shortcodes in WordPress is by using WPCode. This plugin allows you to create as many shortcodes as you want and then link them to different sections of PHP code.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more details, you can see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, let’s head over to Code Snippets » Add Snippet.

Adding custom shortcode to your WordPress website

Here, you’ll see all the ready-made snippets you can add to your website. These include snippets that allow you to completely disable WordPress comments, upload files that WordPress doesn’t support by default, and more.

Since you are creating a new snippet, you’ll want to hover your mouse over ‘Add Your Custom Code.’

Then, just click on ‘Use snippet.’

Adding a custom code snippet to WordPress using WPCode

To start, you can type in a title for the custom code snippet. This can be anything that helps you identify the snippet in the WordPress dashboard.

After that, you’ll need to open the ‘Code Type’ dropdown and select ‘PHP Snippet.’

Adding a PHP snippet to WordPress using custom code

In the code editor, simply paste the following PHP code:

function getTwitterFollowers($screenName = 'wpbeginner')
{
    // some variables
    $consumerKey = 'YOUR_CONSUMER_KEY';
    $consumerSecret = 'YOUR_CONSUMER_SECRET';
    $token = get_option('cfTwitterToken');
  
    // get follower count from cache
    $numberOfFollowers = get_transient('cfTwitterFollowers');
  
    // cache version does not exist or expired
    if (false === $numberOfFollowers) {
        // getting new auth bearer only if we don't have one
        if(!$token) {
            // preparing credentials
            $credentials = $consumerKey . ':' . $consumerSecret;
            $toSend = base64_encode($credentials);
  
            // http post arguments
            $args = array(
                'method' => 'POST',
                'httpversion' => '1.1',
                'blocking' => true,
                'headers' => array(
                    'Authorization' => 'Basic ' . $toSend,
                    'Content-Type' => 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8'
                ),
                'body' => array( 'grant_type' => 'client_credentials' )
            );
  
            add_filter('https_ssl_verify', '__return_false');
            $response = wp_remote_post('https://api.twitter.com/oauth2/token', $args);
  
            $keys = json_decode(wp_remote_retrieve_body($response));
  
            if($keys) {
                // saving token to wp_options table
                update_option('cfTwitterToken', $keys->access_token);
                $token = $keys->access_token;
            }
        }
        // we have bearer token wether we obtained it from API or from options
        $args = array(
            'httpversion' => '1.1',
            'blocking' => true,
            'headers' => array(
                'Authorization' => "Bearer $token"
            )
        );
  
        add_filter('https_ssl_verify', '__return_false');
        $api_url = "https://api.twitter.com/1.1/users/show.json?screen_name=$screenName";
        $response = wp_remote_get($api_url, $args);
  
        if (!is_wp_error($response)) {
            $followers = json_decode(wp_remote_retrieve_body($response));
            $numberOfFollowers = $followers->followers_count;
        } else {
            // get old value and break
            $numberOfFollowers = get_option('cfNumberOfFollowers');
            // uncomment below to debug
            //die($response->get_error_message());
        }
  
        // cache for an hour
        set_transient('cfTwitterFollowers', $numberOfFollowers, 1*60*60);
        update_option('cfNumberOfFollowers', $numberOfFollowers);
    }
  
    return $numberOfFollowers;
}

echo getTwitterFollowers(); ?>

In the code above, make sure you replace the following placeholders with your own API key and API secret:

    $consumerKey = 'YOUR_CONSUMER_KEY';
    $consumerSecret = 'YOUR_CONSUMER_SECRET';

You will also need to replace wpbeginner with the X account that you want to use. This can be any X account, including accounts that you don’t own:

function getTwitterFollowers($screenName = 'wpbeginner')

To get the X username, simply open the X profile in a new tab.

You will find the username in the URL and in the profile header:

Getting an X username

With that done, you can switch back to the WordPress dashboard. Here, simply click on the ‘Inactive’ toggle so that it changes to ‘Active.’

You can then go ahead and click on the ‘Save snippet’ button.

Displaying the Twitter follower count using WPCode

With that done, scroll to the ‘Insertion’ section.

WPCode can automatically add your code to different locations, such as after every post, front end only, or admin only. To get the shortcode, simply click on the ‘Shortcode’ button.

Adding a Twitter follower count to WordPress using a custom shortcode

You can now use the shortcode to add social proof to any page or post.

In the block editor, simply click on the ‘+’ button and type in ‘Shortcode.’ When it appears, you can then select the ‘Shortcode’ block to add it to the page or post.

How to add a shortcode block to WordPress

You can now add the shortcode to the block.

Just be aware that the shortcode simply shows the total follower count, so you will typically want to add some text explaining what the number means.

Adding a Twitter follower count to WordPress using a custom shortcode

For more information on how to place the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

When you are happy with how the page is set up, you can make the follower count live by clicking on either the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button.

Now, if you visit your WordPress website, you will see the follower count live.

An example of a Twitter follower count, created using WPCode

Bonus Tip: More X Tricks!

Now that you’ve learned how to display your Twitter (or X) follower count on your WordPress site, it’s a good idea to optimize your X marketing further.

Adding X share and retweet buttons to your WordPress site can really help boost your reach and traffic. With over 217 million users on X every month, it’s a great place to promote your content.

Twitter buttons embedded using SmashBalloon

These buttons make it easy for users to share your posts, so you can reach new people beyond your followers. This not only brings more visitors to your blog but also shows others that your content is trusted and liked, which can make your brand look more credible.

To do this, you’ll want to check out our guide on how to add Twitter share and retweet buttons.

Then, you can promote your X page using a popup.

Popups can boost your X profile visibility and increase followers. You can use one for building an email list, offering content upgrades, displaying a contact form, and more. Plus, there’s a way to make your popups less intrusive.

Twitter page in a popup

For more details, you can see our guide on how to promote your Twitter page in WordPress with a popup.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to display your Twitter followers count as text in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to run a social media contest to grow your site or our expert picks for the best Twitter plugins for WordPress.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

29 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
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  2. Jiří Vaněk

    I’ve also set up a Twitter account for my website to increase its reach. It might be nice to use this article and display the numbers in the posts. Perhaps, as part of marketing, it might encourage some readers to also join as followers. It could enhance the integration with social media and improve website traffic.

  3. venky

    Hi used the same code in my site..but its not showing the follower counter of the twitter pages

    pls help me out ..

  4. Noraly

    update: after having one last look I saw I hadn’t activated the access token. So now it does show up, only way at the bottom of my sidebar. How do I move it up to a more logical place? Preferably within the text widget at the top, so I can include it with all my other social media links. Thank you!

  5. Noraly

    Hi all, hope you are still monitoring comments, since it’s an older article. I have copied the code in functions.php, replaced the key and secret (left the ‘ ‘ intact, was I meant to do that?). Then I copied the other bit in sidebar.php. Replaced the yourscreenname with my twittername. This doesn’t make it show up in the sidebar though. Should I do something with a text widget in the sidebar, where I want it to show up? Just putting the last line of code in a sidebarwidget doesn’t seem to be the trick. Would appreciate your help. Thanks!

  6. Jitendra

    Can i use it in other PHP application? I mean any other application which is not WP.

  7. arun

    It is not working for me.
    I have added that code into sidebar template , then i replaced consumer key and secret key with screen name. Still it is not working
    This is my page url

    • WPBeginner Support

      Arun it seems like you resolved the issue, when we visited your webpage it was showing the correct twitter follower count in plain text.

      Admin

  8. Nic Granleese

    Hi,

    Can you tell me if this code works for multiple twitter users.
    I’m trying to make a table with different users on a site with their respective twitter follow count.
    When I tried it seems to display only one twitter user’s count, which I assume is because user one get’s cached, and then the second, third, and n users just display the same result.

    Nic

      • Thomas

        I’ve got the same problem.
        When I ask for the follower count of three different accounts and display it on a page, it displays the same number three times. The number it displays is the exact follower count of the first account.
        Do you know how to fix this? :/
        Thanks in advance.

        Thomas

  9. Julian Lara

    Its possible to get a comma in the number like 140,029. Because actually show like 140029.

    • jahirul

      Would you please share the code of follower count of yours? the function and the activation code, please.

  10. Nazar

    This doesn’t work for me.

    I’ve replaced $consumerKey and $consumerSecret as well as made the Access level to “Read and write” but nothing is happening :|

  11. irfan

    Hey hi,
    Such a great post.
    I have ask a question for you I use twiiter user link (https://twitter.com/screen_name) when i use this link show followers its that possible?
    Any one,
    Thank Advance

  12. Alvin

    Hello,

    we get this error

    Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_option() in line 17

    line 17 is this

    $token = get_option(‘cfTwitterToken’);

  13. Malcom Miles

    Wrapped this tutorial along with the “WordPress Site Specific Plugin” tutorial and worked like a charm.

    Many thanks! :3

    • jahirul

      would you give me the code or the link of your plugin please.

  14. Tyler

    I’ve tried doing this atleast 10 times and can’t get it to work. Is it up-to-date?

      • jahirul

        Does it work in localhost with net connection?

  15. Zulhilmi Zainudin

    How about to display Facebook Fans & Google+ Followers in text?

  16. Chandra

    Thanks for this code. I used this in my site but after sometime, I tested with an addition of follower but that count is not being updated. It still shows old count. Is something missing ? Thanks.

    • Chandra

      Ah, it updated after an hour or so…

  17. regnar

    A little demo would be great.

    • Editorial Staff

      It will show the count as text. For example: if you have 100 followers, then it will output 100. Not sure what you expected in the demo.

      Admin

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