Tag Archive for: Facebook
What Does Facebook Know About the Links You Share?
Have you ever wanted to see how well links performed in the past on Facebook? Have you ever posted a link to Facebook and the picture is too small or the text is completely different? Facebook offers a great, free tool that lets you preview a link and tells you what the platforms knows about the link.
Read on to find out what Facebook knows about the links you share:
The Tool
Facebook itself has written that “people often prefer to click on links that are displayed in the link format (which appears when you paste a link while drafting a post), rather than links that are buried in photo captions”. This means that links are one of the most important ways you’re sharing content on Facebook, and, therefore, knowing exactly what Facebook knows about your link is crucial. Luckily, they provide a tool that lets you know exactly what they know about your link: the Sharing Debugger.
What the Tool Shows You
The Preview
It will show you exactly what the link will look like on desktop before you post it.
Likes, Shares, and Comments on Facebook
That’s right. Facebook tracks how many likes, shares, and comments every link gets and stores it for future reference. One of the many reasons you’ll find this tool is useful!
Other Info About Your Facebook Links
The Facebook Sharing Debugger will also pull the URL, title, description, type, tags, site name, author, publisher, and locale from the link, as well as the last time it was updated.
How it Works
The tool identifies information about a link in a very similar to the way that looking at someone’s driver’s license can tell you their age, eye color, and height. When you copy the URL into the Sharing Debugger, it will pull data. Instead of a card, Facebook, along with every other social media site, uses code included in websites called “OG Meta Tags”.
For instance, just like if you have brown eyes, your driver’s license might say “EYES BRN”, if the title of your blog is “How to Natively Schedule Posts on Instagram”, the code simply will say “og:title” and “How to Natively Schedule Posts on Instagram”.
Why is this Significant?
On face value alone, the information the tool shows you is extremely valuable. You can adjust to make sure your link is set up for success and it allows you to see what picture will be used and how it will look. If you see that it has very little engagement in the past, it’s worth refreshing the photo, title, and description – and possibly the content, too!
How to Use this Information
Ensure the Information is Correct
The first thing to do is ensure the information is correct. Ask yourself:
- Is the picture what it should be?
- Is it an image that will perform well?
- Are both the “title” and “description” accurate?
- Is the “type” appropriate?
- If it’s a blog, make sure it says “article”.
- Do the tags make sense?
- For instance, if it’s a winter activities landing page, you want to make sure “summer fun” isn’t tagged.
- Is the site name right?
- Does the locale say “en_us”?
- This means that it’s in English, and its country of origin is the United States.
Optimization
The next step is optimizing the Facebook link. If the picture is too small or generic, swap it out! Make sure the title, or headline, is interesting and actionable. Next month, we’ll dive deeper into the subject of optimizing your links.
How to Change Your Preview
The easiest way to change what your link preview looks like is to talk to your webmaster. However, you might be able to do it yourself, as most website platforms have “Featured Image”, “Title”, and other similar options in the editor.
Want to Do Some Coding?
However, if you’re able to add some code to the “header” section of a single page, Meta Tags is a tool that can be used to debug and generate the Open Graph code for any website. With Meta Tags, you can experiment and edit your content, then preview how your webpage will look on Google, Facebook, Twitter and other sites.
Conclusion
Link-type posts are the best way to drive traffic to your website from Facebook, and this tool gives you an insider look into the social media platform’s data so you can optimize your link for success. If you’re looking for new ways to stay updated on destination marketing, be sure to subscribe to our e-newsletter or follow us across social media at the links below!
Facebook Messenger Games and Tips for 2017 Planning
A belly full of Thanksgiving turkey is a sure sign the new year is on its way. With 2017 just around the corner, how are you evaluating your competitors and effectiveness on social media? Don’t spend all of your time on the new gaming feature in Facebook Messenger, and check out these interesting tips to make 2017 your most successful year.
Hootsuite recently shared an article on how to conduct a competitive analysis on social media. They offer a few key tactics you can easily employ:
- Start by Google searching keywords your brand or destinations hopes to lead, and see who makes it to the top of the search (i.e. “Small town Midwest destinations”, or “Best state to visit in the winter”, etc.) .
- Once you find your competitors, find out what channels they occupy, how often they post, how fast their audience is growing, and where they rank with engagement.
- Conduct a simple SWOT analysis, and use the information to inspire your strategy, not duplicate.
There are several tools listed throughout the blog to make this an even easier process, so be sure to read it before your holiday break. While you are pondering on your competitors, check out these tips from Social Media Today on 6 Tactics to Instantly Boost Social Media Reach For Your Brand or Business. Hint: The first one is video.
Last but certainly not least, have you tried the Instant Games on Messenger feature? Facebook makes another bold move to completely take over the internet by adding Pac Man, Words with Friends, and Space Invaders to Messenger.
Did you come across any interesting articles or social media news? Share them with the TwoSix Digital team by Tweeting us or posting on our Facebook. While you’re there, giver a shout out to the newest member of the TwoSix Digital team – Marissa Conniff. Thanks for reading!
Instagram Live Video, New Status Composer, Snapchat Partnership
Instagram Live Video coming soon
Instagram’s CEO confirmed that the platform will introduce Instagram Live Video in the near future. The feature debuted last month in Russia where an icon marked “Live” next to Instagram Stories.
The process of using Instagram Live Video appears to work similar to Facebook Live where a user’s camera will fire up to broadcast. No word just yet when this feature will roll out globally.
Facebook streamlines Status Composer
Facebook page managers are noticing something new this week: an updated Status Composer.
The change began rolling out this week and is designed to help page owners decide on what their goals for their posts are. Facebook says that this was previously “hidden” behind a click on the “Produce, Offer, Job +” link when posting on their page. Read more
Trump Tourism and New Facebook App
Trump inspires travel searches
Love him or hate him, President-elect Donald Trump victory on Tuesday has reportedly led to a surge in travel searches. People searching for one way flights to Canada jumped more than 1000% after Trump was announced as the winner.
You’ve probably seen people saying they would move to Canada with Trump as the president – which is why searches for Canada, Australia and New Zealand travel skyrocketed.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean people will be moving out of the U.S. The increased interest in travel may actually lead to some vacations and travels that could benefit the tourism industry. Read more
Facebook Loyalty Survey and New Pinterest Ads
Loyalty survey reveals insights into travelers’ choices
A recent Facebook loyalty survey of 14,700 adults in the U.S. uncovered fascinating details on brand loyalty. The survey looked at five verticals, but also included airlines and hotels. Overall, the loyalty survey found 77% of people saying they return to their favorite brands over and over. 37% said they make repeat purchases and are loyal to a brand while 40% indicated they make repeat purchases but are not loyal to a company.
The findings shed some light on loyalty when it comes to travel, including:
- 23% of hotel brand loyalists value service and 21% value trust, while 31% of repeat purchasers value locations and 30% value price
- 23% of hotel brand loyalists are Millennials and 30% are Boomers
A Facebook Halloween and Twitter’s Q3
A very Facebook Halloween
Facebook is getting spooky for Halloween – but Snapchat may be the only one who should be scared. Facebook is allowing users to use animated masks – similar to Snapchat’s animated filters – in Facebook Live. The company says a number of Halloween-themed animated masks are planned for the next few days. However – you can expect to see the animated filters becoming a permanent fixture on Facebook Live videos. The new addition is clear shot at Snapchat, which is famous for animated filters users can play with. Facebook-owned Instagram also recently added its own version of Snapchat Stories.
In addition to the Facebook Halloween masks, the company will also launch Halloween reactions. Look for pumpkins, ghosts, witches and candy corn where your usual buttons normally are and have some spooky fun. Read more
Facebook Groups Getting Ads, Pinterest Users Grow
Are Facebook Groups getting ads?
Credit: TechCrunch
For their next trick Facebook may be rolling out ads to Facebook Groups. People in some overseas countries have reportedly been seeing ads in their Groups – which could mark a new way to earn revenue for the social network.
Facebook confirmed that the ads will look just like the ads seen in News Feeds and utilize the same targeting utilized in other ad types on the site – but also include the ability to target based on Facebook Groups.
This new ad type could be a great way for Facebook to expand given that Facebook expects to hit maximum News Feed ad load in mid-2017. Read more