Sharing your news post on Facebook or other social media? Great! The Open Graph protocol is baked right into the news blog and is ready to make you a social sharing star. Why Open Graph? Because it was developed by Facebook and… yeah, that should say it all.
People frequently ask about how images and descriptions appear in social media shares, tips for success with each are listed below.
My image! Where is it?
If you set a featured image, the URL will be set in the Open Graph data and Facebook et al will use the featured image. If you use a big enough image that is!
Note: The featured image will not appear in your post or anywhere else on the news blog.
How big should the image be?
As of September 2018 a quick Google search revealed.
“1,200 x 628 pixels. Whether sharing landscape, portrait, or square images, Facebook will resize it to 500 pixels wide and scale the height accordingly.”
I wouldn’t go smaller than that, and if you are reading this more than nine months after September 2018, you probably want to double-check the size requirements, because you know, Facebook. They can be fickle.
What if I don’t set a featured image?
Facebook et al will take a pass through your posts and may, or may not, grab an image in the body to use. Best to set the featured image unless you like random results.
My description! Where do I curate it?
The description Facebook et al uses comes from the excerpt of your post. The excerpt is automatically generated, however you are free to curate the tightest, word-smithed description by using the excerpt field. Because, you know, auto-generated content kind of stinks and truncation is not good content stra…