Change og:image for social media posts?

[CherylW7414]

I'm an admin for my company's Facebook page, and I do not want to link that page to our Constant Contact account via my personal account.

Is there any way to specify the og:image for a campaign so that when I copy/paste the link to a Sent campaign to Facebook, the post doesn't use the first image in the email by default?

[CherylW7414]

I'm not aware of any platform that doesn't require explicitly connecting your social account so it can have the permissions to connect with that account and platform's API for pulling metrics and creating posts/replies. If it doesn't require logging into your social account to connect the two, then it would be sending you directly to the platform with a partially pre-built post, which would operate in the same way as if you'd copied the URL and pasted it into a new post directly on the native social platform's site. The point of the social share / inbox system requiring account connections is to 1) make sure we're compliant with the platforms' API expectations and permissions, and 2) make sure we're able to pull the relevant reporting info.

You can always post directly to the platforms using the email's permanent URL, if you'd prefer to not use our system for sharing your emails on social platforms.

- - -

Regarding the topic of the original post, it's been established that the only way to currently workaround the inability to set your email webpage versions' link preview info, would be to include an image with the post, so applicable social platforms' don't try to generate a preview of the link. 

For further voting, voicing of use cases, and other info regarding the development of a link preview setting, I'd advise checking out this Feedback thread.

[William_A]

Hello @CherylW7414 ,

The first image being pulled is simply how Facebook's link preview works. If you won't want that to show, you'd need to manually add an image alongside your Facebook post - whether that's being done through us or directly in Facebook's system. 

If you have additional questions about how Facebook's link preview works, I'd advise reaching out to their support.

[CherylW7414]

Hi William

Facebook doesn't allow you to customize a link image since 2017, unless it's a link from your own website and you've gone through FB's verification process.

For populating the link thumbnail, Facebook can only use what the website (Constant Contact) has designated as the og:image, which on Constant Contact appears to be the first image/header image by default. This can be seen by entering a Sent campaign's Email Link URL into Facebook's Sharing Debugger.

So, I want to specify, in Constant Contact, which image gets used as the thumbnail (og:image) when an Email Link is shared on social media. This is possible to customize on , for example, before a blast is sent. I'm assuming this functionality isn't available on Constant Contact?

[William_A]

Manually add an image to your post, as in actually upload an image alongside making the post. This overwrites the link preview since FB won't have one if other media (such as an actual image) is added alongside the post itself.

The image that Facebook pulls for the link preview is generally derived from the first image that appears in your email's webpage version - i.e. the first image you have in the email upon sending, starting from the top-left.

[CherylW7414]

"Manually add an image to your post, as in actually upload an image alongside making the post. This overwrites the link preview since FB won't have one if other media (such as an actual image) is added alongside the post itself."

Correct, but this also removes the thumbnail and preheader text which is actually a hotlink to the email's webpage version. That's not what I want to do.

"The image that Facebook pulls for the link preview is generally derived from the first image that appears in your email's webpage version - i.e. the first image you have in the email upon sending, starting from the top-left."

And there's no way to change that in Constant Contact in a campaign's settings?

[William_A]

No, you'd need to simply design the email to have the image you want as the very first image in the email.

[ShaunaL40]

I was excited to stumble across this question in a Google search, and hopeful it'd contain a solution. I was disappointed. In an ideal world, the Constant Contact "Email settings" screen would let us enter a link to our open graph image into a box, similar to the Subject, Preheader and From name boxes. Instead, it looks like CC isn't informed about how social media works and has no plans to change that, which is unfortunate.

[SOHO]

Yeah, years ago I could get behind the scenes and change the html and all that. As a webmaster and developer, that was ideal. This wysiwyg way of designing is limiting and sad to say is the way everyone designs now. My hosting company no longer has anyone employed who even knows html. So there we bloody-well are.

[SMNC]

Hoping that Constant Contact enables a separate preview thumbnail setting in each email soon --  has beat you to providing this capability. Most organizations sending emails always lead with their logo as a default header image, thus always their "first picture", and unfortuntely, this translates into a very generic social media visual. I often create a work-around by duplicating my Constant Contact email, deleting the header logo, blasting it to an email list of one contact (me), and using the url generated through this jerry-rigged fake email as my destination for social media. Which is really unfortunate. 

[William_A]

Hello @SMNC ,

Are you selecting a specific image from your library when setting up your email's social share, or are you typically relying on what the social site chooses to show for the auto-generated link preview on its side?

[CherylW7414]

"Relying on what the social site chooses to show for the auto-generated link preview on its side?"

It's not "choosing," tho. The social site is relying on the og:image data/tag it's being fed by Constant Contact. And as was stated much earlier in this thread by an Admin, CC defaults to using the first image in the email as the og:image, with no way for the sender to choose, customize or reassign the og:image. I know CC has a "social share" component for sharing directly from CC but it's clunky, not very useful, and requires linking your social accounts to your CC account.

I think what everyone expects is that CC will at some point add functionality that allows the sender to customize the og:image, header, and text excerpt that will populate when an email link is pasted into a post on Facebook, Twitter, etc. This is something your competitors have offered for years.

Are we ever likely to get that functionality?

[William_A]

I'm not aware of any platform that doesn't require explicitly connecting your social account so it can have the permissions to connect with that account and platform's API for pulling metrics and creating posts/replies. If it doesn't require logging into your social account to connect the two, then it would be sending you directly to the platform with a partially pre-built post, which would operate in the same way as if you'd copied the URL and pasted it into a new post directly on the native social platform's site. The point of the social share / inbox system requiring account connections is to 1) make sure we're compliant with the platforms' API expectations and permissions, and 2) make sure we're able to pull the relevant reporting info.

You can always post directly to the platforms using the email's permanent URL, if you'd prefer to not use our system for sharing your emails on social platforms.

- - -

Regarding the topic of the original post, it's been established that the only way to currently workaround the inability to set your email webpage versions' link preview info, would be to include an image with the post, so applicable social platforms' don't try to generate a preview of the link. 

For further voting, voicing of use cases, and other info regarding the development of a link preview setting, I'd advise checking out this Feedback thread.