Why wont this code display?

get_the_author_meta() is returning false because when using that function outside the loop you need to pass the author id.

There are many different ways to get the author id outside the loop. I like using this method on single posts.

$facebook = get_the_author_meta( 'facebook', get_queried_object()->post_author );

that part works, it’s the code that’s supposed to run that isnt working.

because echo test works where it’s supposed to but displaying the image/link isn’t working

and the image/link works just fine without the “if” statement but i dont know how to combine the two

your posted code is broken – please read the forum guidelines: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Forum_Welcome#Posting_Code

generally, you need to close/open the php tags when switching to html;

example:

<?php
$facebook = get_the_author_meta( 'facebook' );
if ($facebook) { ?>

<a style="margin: 0px 25px" ......</a>;

<?php } ?>

it worked with your test ouptut because this was only one php function.

Thank you kindly