How does Publicize Map blog Text & Images to Facebook?

  • Resolved ah0265

    (@ah0265)


    8 years, 10 months ago

    When cross posting a blog entry to Facebook, Publicize obviously has some rules for deciding what text (and how much text) to use. The same is obviously true for images. However, after spending an afternoon comparing blog entries with how they are rendered on Facebook after cross posting I’m very confused. Are there some published guidelines outlining how this decision is made? (There should be! Documentation on this aspect of this plugin appears very sketchy to me).

    For the benefit of those struggling with this issue here is what I think I know so far:

    The image you use should be as square as possible (not rectangular) and must be at least 200 x 200 pixels. Smaller (or rectangular) images will be cropped (and you may not like the results).

    The ‘Featured Image’ will be ignored if specified.

    If multiple images are included, it appears that the first/top one will be used.

    The Custom Message (available under Settings in the Publish area of the WordPress page where you create your blog) can be used to create a different title on Facebook (different from your WordPress blog post title).

    Using the Excerpt field allows you to create and use a summary of your blog post on Facebook.

    If you do not provide text in the Excerpt field your post will instead use some portion of the content area of your blog post for part of your Facebook page (~ the first 75 words/400+ characters), and even less for the summary of your blog post below it (maybe 30 words/200 characters).

    Now for the questions I still don’t have answers for…

    What is the maximum number of words/characters I can use in the Excerpt field if I want them all to appear in Facebook? It appears to be on the order of 200 characters or so if the title is not too long…)

    Does the Blog Title and/or Custom Message length have an impact on this count?

    Does the location of the image in the blog post (lets assume there is only one for purposes of this discussion) have an impact? I have had good results with the image being the first thing in the blog content. I have had mixed results with the image being embedded further down in the content. It usually comes across fine, but sometimes it does not (does not appear in the proper location: ends up in the middle of the text, and much too large).

    When I do provide an Excerpt in my blog post I get mixed results with the content… sometimes it (the content) comes across, and sometimes it does not. (To me, this ought to work as it does elsewhere in WordPress: if you specify the Excerpt, the contents ought to be suppressed/ignored).

    If I don’t provide an Excerpt, how can I tell how much of the content will be used? Is it based on a character count? A Word count? Does the blog Title figure into the calculation at all? How is an embedded URL handled in this case?

    Does sending (or not) to Twitter at the same time have any impact on how the Facebook information is mapped?

    We have been posting just about all of our blog posts to Facebook, so if you are interested in seeing how they are translated here are the relevant links:

    Blog: https://dallasgenealogy.com/news/

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DGStx/

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/jetpack/

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Author Jeremy Herve

    (@jeherve)

    Jetpack Mechanic ??

    When you share a post on Facebook, or when Jetpack Publicize publishes a post to your Facebook page, Facebook crawls the page and looks for Open Graph meta tags in the head to build a complete post preview (with an image, title, description, …).

    Jetpack automatically creates these Open Graph Meta tags for you unless you already use another Open Graph plugin, in which case we let the other plugin handle things.

    You can see what Facebook sees by entering one of your posts’ URLs in Facebook Debugger:
    https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug

    Are there some published guidelines outlining how this decision is made?

    Yes, they’re available here:
    https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/best-practices#tags
    https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/best-practices#images

    The image you use should be as square as possible (not rectangular) and must be at least 200 x 200 pixels. Smaller (or rectangular) images will be cropped (and you may not like the results).

    The minimum image size is indeed 200 x 200 pixels. However, Facebook doesn’t mention any image ratio limits:
    https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/best-practices#images

    The ‘Featured Image’ will be ignored if specified.

    That will depend on the plugin you use to generate Open Graph Meta Tags on your site. If you don’t use any other plugin, Jetpack will use the Featured Image in the Open Graph Meta Tags.

    Looking at your site, I don’t see any specific Open Graph plugin, and Jetpack seems to be picking the Featured Image as expected.

    If multiple images are included, it appears that the first/top one will be used.

    Yes. Jetpack will output multiple Open Graph Image Tags, allowing users sharing the post to pick the image they want. When the post is shared by an app, like Jetpack, the first Open Graph Image Tag is picked.

    The Custom Message (available under Settings in the Publish area of the WordPress page where you create your blog) can be used to create a different title on Facebook (different from your WordPress blog post title).

    Correct.

    Using the Excerpt field allows you to create and use a summary of your blog post on Facebook.

    Yes. That excerpt will appear right below the post title in the post preview.

    If you don’t define an excerpt, a default excerpt will be built based on the first 55 words of your post content, and added to the post preview.

    If you do not provide text in the Excerpt field your post will instead use some portion of the content area of your blog post for part of your Facebook page (~ the first 75 words/400+ characters), and even less for the summary of your blog post below it (maybe 30 words/200 characters).

    The automatic excerpt displayed above the post on Facebook doesn’t come from the excerpt. If you don’t define a custom message in the box right above the Publish button in the post editor, Publicize will pick the first 60 words of your post.

    What is the maximum number of words/characters I can use in the Excerpt field if I want them all to appear in Facebook? It appears to be on the order of 200 characters or so if the title is not too long…)

    If your post content is shorter than 60 words, it will app appear on Facebook.

    Does the Blog Title and/or Custom Message length have an impact on this count?

    The blog title doesn’t have an impact, but the custom message will completely replace the automated excerpt.

    Does the location of the image in the blog post (lets assume there is only one for purposes of this discussion) have an impact?

    No. However, if your post only includes an image, or very little text (2 paragraphs or less) and an image, and if you publicize to a personal Facebook Profile (not a Page), the image will be uploaded to Facebook and your Facebook Post will appear as if you had uploaded an image to your Facebook account.

    When I do provide an Excerpt in my blog post I get mixed results with the content… sometimes it (the content) comes across, and sometimes it does not.
    […]
    If I don’t provide an Excerpt, how can I tell how much of the content will be used? Is it based on a character count?

    I covered the differences between the automated excerpt appearing above the post preview and the one appearing in the post preview above.

    Here is a little cheatsheet that could help as well:
    https://i.wpne.ws/ey4A

    If something isn’t clear, let me know!

    Does sending (or not) to Twitter at the same time have any impact on how the Facebook information is mapped?

    No.

    I hope this helps! If you have more questions, or experience issues, I’d suggest entering your post URL in Facebook’s Debugger:
    https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/og/object/

    It will help you see what Facebook’s bot sees when browsing the post and looking for information to build its post preview.

    Thread Starter ah0265

    (@ah0265)

    Wow – what a comprehensive (and quick!) response!

    Lots to digest and play with… I’m sure I will be back with more questions later but for now thank you very much!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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