social media

How to Correct Your Website Facebook Share Image

November 5, 2016 by Brent Peterson

When you or someone else shares a link to your website on the largest social media platform on the planet, Facebook will automatically attempt to associate an image with the page address.

If it’s a blog post (e.g. https://gracefulresources.com/errors-in-email-sign-up-incentives/) or specific page (e.g. https://gracefulresources.com/about) , Facebook will typically recognize the featured image associated with the content. It will also display the Meta Description – a fancy tech term for the text (up to 156 characters) that display under the link title in search engine results and on social media platforms like Facebook.

But when it’s your overall website address (e.g. https://GracefulResources.com) that is being shared, Facebook can get confused on what image and text to display and if it can’t find an image, it will display a big empty box (which doesn’t exactly inspire people to click on the link).

This happened to a client site I just launched and it was my error.

Here is how it looked on Facebook:

The good news is that I humbly share my missteps here so you can put to practice the corrections I learn.

How to Correct Your Website Facebook Share Image

There are three steps to test and (if necessary) fix your own website Facebook share image when your URL is shared.

STEP ONE: Preview Your Website Content with the Facebook Debugger

Facebook has a free publicly-available page that lets you preview what your website content looks like when it is shared and it lets you reset (or scrape) what Facebook is seeing.

Here is the web address: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/.

Simply enter your website address and then click “Debug” to preview your site:

Technically speaking, Facebook looks for Open Graph (og) tags on your website to know what title, description, and image to display. If they are not explicitly set on your website, Facebook will guess at this information.

STEP TWO: Correct Your Website Image, Title, and/or Description (If Required)

If you discover your intended image, title, or description is incorrect or missing, you’ll need to fix it within your website dashboard. If you are using WordPress, I use and recommend the free Yoast SEO plugin to fix this problem.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, click on Social in the new SEO menu and then the Facebook tab to specify the Frontpage Settings:

At the end of the same Yoast settings page, you may also need to enter a Facebook app ID. For more information and instruction for the app ID, please reference this article.

If you are running your WordPress website on the Rainmaker Platform, you can simply email their helpful customer support team with your front page image and description, and they will set it up for you free of charge. That’s what I did for this website and here is how it looks on Facebook:

If you using another platform service, I recommend reviewing your social media metadata settings within your account or contacting the corresponding customer service for assistance.

STEP THREE: Reset (or Scrape) What Facebook is Seeing

Once you make an adjustment on your website back-end, you can accelerate the time it takes Facebook to take another look at your website content by asking Facebook to scrape your address again.

If everything looks good, your website is now ready to be shared on Facebook!

In the case of my client’s new website SoftballPitchingTools.com, the correct results are now confirmed:

Hope this helps,
Brent

Other Resources for Your Online Success

Lead Magnet Project (an interactive online project for professionals building relevant email lists)
Lead Magnet Survey (share your own opinion about email sign up incentives and discover what other entrepreneurs recommend)
Lead Magnet Guide (5 essential characteristics for email sign up incentives)
Lead Magnet Examples (Graceful Resources email subscribers can add their own web address for free)
Recommended Website and Email Software Resources (you’ll also discover why these resources are recommended)

Cheering for your online success – one project step at a time!

Brent

3 Content Marketing Tips from an Expert Blogger

October 23, 2016 by Brent Peterson

I’m admittedly still in the analysis (what do I need to do next) stage from my trip to Denver for the Digital Commerce Summit. The event was hosted by Rainmaker Digital (formerly known as Copyblogger Media), the company behind the Rainmaker software I use to run this website.

(Here’s a summary of why I recommend trying out Rainmaker free of charge.)

Content marketing was a big theme of the event and, by Copyblogger’s definition, content marketing means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.

As mentioned in my last journal entry about the event, content marketing is often in written form (e.g. blogs and emails), verbal form (e.g. podcasts and webinars), and visual form (e.g. online videos and infographics).

One guest speaker at the event knows a thing or two about blogging. He is Kevan Lee, the director of marketing for Buffer, a popular social media publishing tool for brands, agencies, and marketers. The Buffer app blog is very popular, to say the least.

The blog attracts the right customers to their company site leading to daily sales of their app. It’s a business model that over time delivers solid financial results.

So what is their secret sauce?

3 Content Marketing Tips

According to Kevan, their blogging success is based on three simple content marketing tips. By writing it down here on this online journal, I’m confident I will be less likely to forget these tips, and I hope they are of value to you as well.

Content Marketing Tip #1: Be Authentic

Since online marketing really is just our best effort at the time, be honest about it.

Don’t try to be someone else. Be yourself.

People connect with real people more so than with brands.

That’s why big corporations often rely on individual (non-celebrity) personalities in TV commercials. We are in the marketing age where small businesses are the greatest threat to big companies because of the authentic human factor.

Here’s a snapshot I took of Kevan’s notes with my phone about this tip:

Content Marketing Tip #2: Be Objective

When you share content on your blog, do so without a bias toward knowing the only answer.

Yes, demonstrate authority on the subject, but avoid absolute certainty.

It’s attractive to be open-minded.

To be suggestive rather than prescriptive.

It’s ok to hedge by saying “could be” rather than “it is”.

Content Marketing Tip #3: Be Empathetic

Lastly, understand and recognize other people’s feelings.

Listen to what people are saying.

It’s never been easier to scan comments on social media, but more importantly, ask questions every chance you get online and off. People want to and deserve to be heard.

The entrepreneurs who are listening will succeed. The online tool I love to use to ask questions of clients is Typeform (here’s a summary of why I use and recommend Typeform – plus a discount).

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

~Lou Holtz, College Football National Champion Coach, ESPN Analyst

3 Content Marketing Tips from an Expert Blogger

So in summary, here are three basic but powerful tips as you share your voice with the world, and that is to simply be:

Authentic
Objective
Empathetic

I’m cheering for you!

Commerce may be increasingly online but it thrives on human connections.

Hope this helps,
Brent

FREE QUICK REFERENCE TECH GUIDE (click here): Discover the Graceful Resources I use and recommend for websites, including the reasons why, plus the mistakes to avoid when starting out in digital commerce.

Please let me know if you have any questions via my contact form or in direct response to my free Graceful Journal email mailing list.

I’m here to take away the pain of figuring out how to use new web technologies so you can gracefully profit online from your passion in life.

4 Lessons Learned from the Digital Commerce Summit

October 16, 2016 by Brent Peterson

I just returned home to Virginia from a trip out west to Denver, Colorado for the 2016 Digital Commerce Summit. The Summit was hosted by Rainmaker Digital (formerly known as Copyblogger Media). This is the same company behind the Rainmaker software platform I use for this website.

The 2-day conference at the old Paramount Theatre in Denver was well organized. As a technology project manager by trade, I have a big heart for events that communicate and stick to a daily schedule from start to finish.

There were also several social opportunities to “work the room” each evening, but I will confess that I’m terribly shy in a crowd of strangers (even with a shared interest) so that aspect of the event was admittedly difficult for me.

But I’m a better person from the overall experience.

I also arrived a day early in Denver to participate in a workshop on developing online courses.

One of my intentions with Graceful Resources is to offer online classes for entrepreneurs that outline easy-to-follow actionable steps for web/email design, setup, and integration.

If technology is not really your thing, then you are my target audience! 🙂

I now have a journal full of notes from the event, but let me start with my four main lessons learned and then follow with more conference insights via this blog (click here to stay connected to my upcoming posts and announcements).

4 Lessons Learned from the Digital Commerce Summit

Lesson Learned #1: Rainmaker Digital Team is Made Up of Good People

In Denver, I got a chance to meet members of the Rainmaker Digital leadership and support team and the experience reinforced my trust in Rainmaker (the company and the product). They were approachable, friendly, and sincere. As someone who has been burned by software developers and so-called marketing experts in the past, I believe the right people are more important than the right solutions.

Yes, good software (and hardware) is critical in today’s digital economy, but don’t underestimate the value of people you can trust. If interested, here are 9 more reasons I use and recommend Rainmaker for my online business.

Lesson Learned #2: Email is Still King for Online Commerce

As a Gen-X professional, I’m hopelessly addicted to email and I assumed Gen X’ers (ages 35-50 as of 2015) and Baby Boomers (ages 51-69) were the last generations to actually use email on a daily basis. Wrong.

Millennials may be more social media savvy than my generation, but there are also habitually reliant on email in their professional and social lives. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur like me (whether part-time or full-time), you have to build your email list every day through your website (as outlined in this earlier post I wrote).

By the way, millennials (ages 18-34) are now the largest living generation in the U.S.

Lesson Learned #3: Conversions Occur Primarily on Mobile Devices

If you are planning to sell new digital products online (like an online course) to people who would benefit from your knowledge and approach to solving problems, the conversion of a business lead to a paying consumer will likely occur over a mobile device.

Any conversion process takes time, and all generations today are using their phones and tablets to first exchange information via email, blogs, podcasts, and social media communities (plus countless messaging apps).

That being said, it is imperative that your initial online content and conversations are “mobile friendly” (especially your website). If not, someone else with similar authority to you may win the trust of your audience simply out of convenience.

Lesson Learned #4: Content Marketing is Critical for Your Success

Content marketing is a bit of a buzz term, but according to Copyblogger, it means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.

In other words, it means choosing your online messages strategically. There is an art and science to content marketing (especially the use of buyers’ emotional triggers like scarcity – we buy more because of the fear of missing out).

Online content marketing is often in written form (e.g. blogs and emails), verbal form (e.g. podcasts and webinars), and visual form (e.g. online videos and infographics).

Good content marketing doesn’t happen overnight for any of us just because we have something to sell. Like anything worth pursuing, it takes practice and coaching. And your own blog is great place to practice (see also 3 Benefits of Blogging).

In my next journal entry, I plan to share a new post titled “3 Content Marketing Suggestions from an Expert Blogger“. It will be based on insights from one of the Digital Commerce Summit guest speakers Kevan Lee. Kevan is the director of marketing for Buffer, a popular social media publishing tool for brands, agencies, and marketers.

4 Lessons Learned from the Digital Commerce Summit

So in summary, here are my main lessons learned from the October 2016 event in Denver:

Rainmaker Digital Team is Made Up of Good People
Email is Still King for Online Commerce
Conversions Occur Primarily on Mobile Devices
Content Marketing is Critical to Your Success

These lessons may align with your experience and research as well.

Hope this helps,
Brent

Please let me know if you have any questions via my contact form or in direct response to my free Graceful Journal email mailing list.

I’m here to take away the pain of figuring out how to use new web technologies so you can gracefully profit online from your passion in life.

How to Remove Counts on Social Media Share Buttons

August 25, 2016 by Brent Peterson

You may also have a love/hate relationship with the counts on social media share buttons. Thanks to the Rainmaker Digital Support Team – the true techies behind this site running on the Rainmaker Platform (here’s why Rainmaker is recommended), there’s an easy way to remove social share counts.

So what exactly are the counts on social media share buttons?

The counts on social media share buttons are the public scorecards on blogs that display how many times your post is shared across different social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The buttons also serve to help site visitors share your content across the social media channel of their choice (and that is a very good thing).

Here’s a social media button count example from the popular Copyblogger blog (the same team behind the Rainmaker Platform):

As you can see in this example, this post has already been shared a total of 1390 times. Wow!

The Bright Side of Counts on Social Media Share Buttons

Social share counts demonstrate “social proof” that your content is worthy of sharing. More importantly, it also gives a usually-reliable perception that the author is an authority on the subject matter.

The logic is that if the author’s blog posts are well written, the author’s current and future products for sale (e.g. books, courses, membership programs) are also worthy of consideration.

It’s good logic and one that I subscribe too as a blogger and entrepreneur myself.

The Dark Side of Counts on Social Media Share Buttons

Social share counts indirectly punish the people just starting out (or starting over). A compelling blog post with just three shares is still a blog post with just three shares (and one of the shares may be your own and another is from your best friend).

As a result, it can create an often false perception the person behind the content is not noteworthy.

The counts on social media share buttons can also be inflated by bots and hired hands. In fact, less than a year ago Twitter announced on its blog that it will be shutting down the tweet count feature. That’s why you may now see count totals on social media share buttons on a post for Facebook but not Twitter.

You can still tweet the post like this one, but you can’t see the number of tweets.

How to Remove Counts on Social Media Share Buttons

The code to remove social share counts is quite simple and the social share buttons still appear and work as designed (which is very important).
To remove social share counts on blog posts, you will need to enter a simple code into your website theme CSS file. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is used to describe how web elements are displayed on the screen.

Here is the code to remove the counts on social media share buttons:

.content .share-filled .count {

display: none;

}

If you are using the Rainmaker Platform, here are your steps:

1. Select Design and then Custom CSS:

2. Paste the code at the end of your Custom CSS and then click Save Stylesheet:

3. Refresh one of your blog posts to see if the share counts are now hidden but the share buttons are still working:

If you are familiar with WordPress (but not using the Rainmaker Platform at this time), you probably noticed some similarities to native WordPress. That is because Rainmaker is based on a WordPress foundation (but designed to be more user-friendly on the inside).

How to Remove Social Media Button Counts on Other WordPress Sites

To remove social media share counts using native WordPress, you also want to update your theme Stylesheet (style.css).

To access this file, select Appearance and then Edit CSS (you can also select Editor and then your style.css file):

Important Note: Test your changes in a staging environment or create a production backup before you make any changes.

(For non-Rainmaker sites for my family and clients, I use and recommend WP Engine for hosting WordPress sites that are built on the Genesis Framework. WP Engine provides customers with both a staging environment and real-time backups for their WordPress sites. Here’s a complete summary of why I use and recommend WP Engine.)

When to Remove Counts on Social Media Share Buttons

In summary, removing counts on social media share buttons is a strategic choice based on where you are on your online platform journey.

If you already have a sizable mailing list audience, it probably doesn’t make sense.

But if you are just starting out (or starting over like me), removing social share counts may be a smart strategic move.

You don’t need to compare your social media button counts to those on blogs that have been growing for years. And you don’t need other people to make the same comparison.

You just need to focus on delivering great content on your website every week. That is what should be judged by others (not the number of shares on your brand new website).

Hope this helps,
Brent