Trouble Displaying Blog Link Properly on Facebook

  • shannacovey · Member ·

    When I share a blog with an embedded video on Facebook (via copying and pasting my blog link into the Facebook post), the link leads with the option to play the video as opposed to leading the reader to the written part of the blog. How do I change this from occurring? I want to share the blog link such that the reader opens the blog, reads the material, then chooses to watch the video. I don’t want them to skip reading the written part and I only watch the video. I also included an image in the blog in hopes that the Facebook link would grab the image to lead with instead of the video, but that did not seem to work. Please help me in rectifying this as I would love to be able to share a written blog with an attached video, where the reader sees it in the order that I’d like to present it in.

    Also, when I deleted the video, updated my post and, then, posted the updated link to Facebook, it still led with the deleted media file. Why is it doing this?

    Thanks for your assistance.
    Shanna Covey

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • zandyring · Staff ·

    Hi Shanna,

    Have you tried using Publicize instead of pasting the URL into Facebook?
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/publicize/

    Can you include here the specific URL with the deleted video so I can see if there’s an issue with that specific post?

    Cheers!

  • shannacovey · Member ·

    Hi,

    I have used the publicize option, but if possible, I prefer to copy the link into a post so that I can type in a lead in sentence to the blog. I feel that to just publicize it, it takes away a personal touch and I think people tend not to click on it as easily.

    Here’s the link to the blog that I’m trying to post on Facebook:
    http://shannacovey.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/resourcefulness-an-attitude-of-possibility/

    There is no longer a video in the link, but Facebook keeps remembering that there was a link embedded in the blog, such that when I post it, the video still shows.

    This morning I deleted the video from my media library and tried to post it on Facebook and the same thing happened…the video still showed.

    I would really like to figure out how to copy and paste the link to my blog into a Facebook post with an embedded video, such that it doesn’t lead with the video…is there a solution for accomplishing this?

    Thanks for your help!
    Shanna

  • zandyring · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    I was just poking around your blog in the sharing settings, so don’t get nervous if you see me :) I put everything back how you set it.

    In each post you can actually edit how you introduce the post with Publicize. I don’t think many people know about this feature, which is a shame because it’s pretty cool. In the link I sent you about Publicize, you can see this in action. You can click on the Publicize “edit” link next to your post and write in a custom message. If that’s really not what you’re looking for, just let me know! I don’t mean to beat a dead horse about Publicize (but I do like the feature!)

    So the thing with the video… it almost sounds like a browser issue. Could you try clearing your cache and see if that helps? Here is more information about how to do that:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/browser-issues/

    Let me know if you keep seeing the video – I don’t see it when I check out your post.

    I’m checking on if there’s a way to post the link on Facebook without leading with just the video, and I’ll let you know about that.

    Cheers!

  • shannacovey · Member ·

    Thank you so much for helping me. I have cleared the cookies and the cache, but the “phantom” video still appears when I copy and paste the link into Facebook. =(

    I did set up the “publicize” options for future blogs, but now that this one is already posted, I would still like to share it on Facebook without the “phantom” video appearing.

    Should I try restarting my computer to see if the cleared cache and cookies need more time to reset?

    Thanks for all of your help!
    Shanna

  • zandyring · Staff ·

    Before you restart, try a different browser first – that will tell us a lot!

    We usually recommend Firefox (which it looks like you’re already using) and Chrome. So if you could try first in Chrome, we’ll see if this is just a browser thing, or if this goes a little deeper.

    Cheers!

  • shannacovey · Member ·

    Unfortunately, I already restarted my computer. =( I don’t know how to access Chrome, so I tried Internet Explorer and the same thing happened with the “phantom” video…

    Thanks, again, for all of your help.

    Shanna

  • zandyring · Staff ·

    Can you link me to the post that has the phantom video? I want to see if the same thing happens if I copy/paste the link to my facebook account.

    The final word that I got from the internal team is that if there is a video attached to the post, that will automatically get pulled into the Facebook “share” and there is currently no way to change this. It may be something that is tweaked in a future revision of the tool, but right now it’s not possible. I do apologize for the inconvenience.

    So in the meantime, let’s see if we can at least get the phantom gone!

  • shannacovey · Member ·

    Oh man, that’s too bad about Facebook pulling with the video. The same thing as has happened in the past when I’ve initially embedded and image, then deleted it and replaced it with a new image…the Facebook post still leads with the first image—weird, huh?

    Here is what I post to Facebook:
    http://shannacovey.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/resourcefulness-an-attitude-of-possibility/
    It shows a picture of me standing in front of my car…that’s the video that it keeps pulling, but when you open the actual blog, you’ll see that the video has been removed. Ironically, from Facebook, you can still play the video.

    I don’t have it currently posted on Facebook, because I don’t want to confuse people with my intention of sharing the written part of the blog. I’m sure if you post this link into your Facebook account, it will do what’s it’s been doing on mine.

    Regarding this particular blog, a work around would be for me to post my blog from the homepage of my blog instead of the page for this particular post. The difference being that the post no longer leads with the first few sentences of my blog. This is much better than leading with the video, though! I can do this to get this blog out there; I was just hoping to figure out why the heck it does this “phantom” thing, LOL.

    Thanks again,
    Shanna

  • zandyring · Staff ·

    Hi Shanna!

    Great news on the phantom! It turns out Facebook was caching the image with your URL. I thought it might be when I added the link and I also got your video thumbnail (although the video itself didn’t play).

    So I ran the URL through the Facebook Developer debug tool, and viola! Your URL is clean!

    I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help, but I hope that this is some help for you. And happy holidays!

  • shannacovey · Member ·

    Thank you for taking the time to dig into this matter! You were great! Should I run into this issue in the future, is there a way for me to fix it? Or do I need to get you guys to run it through the Facebook debugger? So weird!

    Shanna

  • zandyring · Staff ·

    Hmm, I think we need to debug it, but you can just let us know and we’d be happy to do it!

    You can mention in the thread that you need someone to run the link through the Facebook Developer Debug tool, and they should be able to help you :)

  • shannacovey · Member ·

    Okay, that sounds good! Thank you, again, for helping me out!

    Happy Holidays!
    Shanna

  • zandyring · Staff ·

    Glad to help!

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