Create Posts that Look Great- Every time
As bloggers, we have a love-hate relationship with social media. We love the idea of our content going viral but hate the fact viral status is so hard to achieve.
Nonetheless, we continue to pour ourselves into new social posts hoping for a few likes, new followers, and if we are lucky, a share. Endlessly wishing we knew the trick to social success.
Here it is, the trick we all wish we understood, metadata.
Meta, what?
Simply, metadata ensures your content is presented attractively regardless of the outlet it is shared on. Instructions invisible to readers explain how to present your content instead of relying on the computer to guess how content should be displayed.
Why Metadata Matters
When a post is shared, the new platform grabs copy from the post trying to extract the useful information. Often social platforms try to grab post title, post description, and an image. If you ignore metadata the platform grabs whatever data it finds relevant- not what you find relevant. Inserting metadata in posts gives platforms the relevant information.
In other words, you are in control of how your data is presented regardless of who is sharing or where they are sharing.
How to Use Metadata
Metadata instructions are inserted in the head of the post’s html.
Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn Metadata: Open Graph
Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn rely on Open Graph for instructions on what your post is about. Open Graph are basic instructions for the html of your post. Open Graph is simple coding everyone can learn.
- og:title – Post Title
- og:site_name –Website Title (not the URL).
- og:url – The URL of your post (not the site URL)
- og:description – A short (less than 200 characters) description of your post
- og:image – Featured image (at least 1,200 pixels x 600 pixels)
Here is an example from River Region Credit Union’s news feed. This is their long form news article. Within their news article they included the metadata cues.
When this news article was shared, it was seamlessly presented.
How Did They Do It?
The metadata that would have been included in the original news article:
- <meta property=”og:title” content=”We are a Toys for Tots Drop Site /
- <meta property=”og:site_name” content=”River Region Credit Union” /
- <meta property=”og:url” content=”https://www.rrcu.org/news/donate-with-toys-for-tots” />
- <meta property=”og:description” content=”Help us spread hope and cheer in the lives of over 56,000 MO children/?
- <meta property=”og:image” content=”http://www.rrcu.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ToysforTots-FacebookAd.jpeg” />
Twitter Metadata: Twitter Cards
Twitter Cards are metadata instructions giving you control over how your content looks specifically on Twitter. Twitter has seven card types depending on the type of content shared.
The most basic Twitter card is a, Summary Card. Summary Cards includes title, description, image thumbnail and Twitter account attribution.
The social metadata tags for a Summary Card include:
- twitter:card – The type of Twitter card
- twitter:site – Twitter @username for attribution
- twitter:title – Post title (70 characters of less)
- twitter:description – A short (less than 200 characters) description of your post
- twitter:image – Featured image (at least 120 pixels x 120 pixels)
Here is an example of a Twitter card from AdWeek. This is their long form news article. Within their news article they included the metadata cues.
When this news article was shared, it was seamlessly presented.
How Did They Do it:
- <meta name=”twitter:card” content=”summary” />
- <meta name=”twitter:site” content=”@AdFreak” />
- <meta name=”twitter:title” content=”Ikea Uses Poorly Assembled Billboards to Admit Its Furniture Is Hard to Put Together”/>
- <metaname=”twitter:description” content=” Everyone else makes fun of how painful it is to assemble Ikea furniture, so why can’t Ikea? And the company does in these fun billboards, from German agency thjnk, that are themselves poorly assembled—to advertise the brand’s assembly service. Such a simple idea.” />
- <meta property=”twitter:image” content=”/files/ikea-assembly-ep.jpg”>
The Bottom Line:
Taking advantage of metadata prevents social posts from being poorly presented. The extra time required writing down your metadata will be time well spent when your content is spread further.
Don’t have time to make your content look great? Let us help. Email us to take your content to the next level.