Nooby Questions

[SteveP-UK]

Hi Folks. Just installed Blog2Social and am currently trying out the Smart version on a trial. Everything seem to be working as it should and I'm pleased as to how easy it was to set up. I have a few nooby questions - if I've posted this in the wrong Forum, please let me know.

1. In the FREE version, I can see it supports 14 social media networks whilst the 'Smart' version allows 17. What are the three that I'd lose if I went back to using the FREE version?
2. In the PRO version, the plugin serves 18 social platforms - what is the extra social network that's included over and above Smart?
3. I want to check my understanding of how Instagram posting works: I've set things up and it's posting OK. Am I right in thinking, that because of the way Insta works, there's no way to cross-post my blog there WITH a clickable link to the actual blog post on my site (like say a Blog2Social Twitter post)
4. Does the FREE version support INSTANT SHARING
5. I have two Facebook 'identities'. One is a Facebook PAGE and one is a PROFILE. Am I right in thinking that because of the way Facebook functions, I *can't* auto post my Blog Post to my Facebook feed on my PROFILE page like I can on my Facebook PAGE?

Thanks for developing this Plugin! I love it!
Steve

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello Steve,

Thank you so much for reaching out and thanks for your interest in Blog2Social.
I will try to answer your questions regarding Blog2Social one by one:

1. In the FREE version, I can see it supports 14 social media networks whilst the 'Smart' version allows 17. What are the three that I'd lose if I went back to using the FREE version?

The Free license of Blog2Social includes the following networks:

1. Facebook profiles
2. Facebook pages
3. Twitter profiles
4. VK profiles
5. LinkedIn profiles
6. XING profiles
7. Pinterest
8. Flickr
9. Medium
10. Tumblr
11. Torial
12. Diigo
13. Bloglovin
14. Reddit

The Smart license of Blog2Social includes more features and available networks as:

• Instagram – Business
• Blogger
• Telegram (With unlock Add-On)
• Instapaper
• Ravelry

2. In the PRO version, the plugin serves 18 social platforms - what is the extra social network that's included over and above Smart?

The Pro license of Blog2Social has additional networks as:

• Facebook groups
• Google Business profiles
• VK pages
• VK groups
• LinkedIn pages
• XING pages
• XING groups
• Telegram (With unlock Add-On)

3. I want to check my understanding of how Instagram posting works: I've set things up and it's posting OK. Am I right in thinking, that because of the way Insta works, there's no way to cross-post my blog there WITH a clickable link to the actual blog post on my site (like say a Blog2Social Twitter post)

Yes, this is correctly. Instagram does not allow sharing clickable links in posts on the Instagram platform. Blog2Social still allows attaching a none clickable link to Instagram posts via the Post-Templates automatically. In Instagram only clickable links can be added to your Profile-Bio. This specific rule is decided by Instagram and is out of the influence f Blog2Social.

4. Does the FREE version support INSTANT SHARING

Yes, the Facebook-Instant-Sharing feature is available in the Free version of Blog2Social as it is required to share content on Facebook profiles that are available in the Free version of Blog2Social.

5. I have two Facebook 'identities'. One is a Facebook PAGE and one is a PROFILE. Am I right in thinking that because of the way Facebook functions, I *can't* auto post my Blog Post to my Facebook feed on my PROFILE page like I can on my Facebook PAGE?

Yes, the sharing process to Facebook profiles is a semi-automatic process as Facebook has restricted automatic posting on personal Facebook profiles for all social media tools. However, you can still auto-post on Facebook sites and in groups.

This is a decision made by Facebook and is out of the scope of the influence of Blog2Social. As an official Facebook business partner, Blog2Social compiles with Facebook's community rules.

To help you to continue sharing content easily on your Facebook profile and to schedule your content as for all your other social media accounts Blog2Social provides you with the Facebook Instant Sharing function.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions about Blog2Social.
I will gladly support you further.

Best regards
Alexander

[SteveP-UK]

Great reply Alexander! Thank you!

I'm just checking my understanding here: If FB only allows 'semi-autoposting' PROFILES, what is meant by 'semi-automatic'? Up til now, the only way I've gotten around it is to do what I've done for a while - just take the blog url and paste it in manually?

Regards
Steve

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello Steve,

Thank you so much for your reply and this feedback.

With the Instant-Sharing feature you can share a post on your Facebook profile immediately, or you can schedule your post with a premium license of Blog2Social.

When you scheduled a post, you will find it in the menu bar by clicking the “Scheduled Posts” tab. On your scheduled date the post will be moved to the "Instant Sharing" section. If you wish your post to be published now, you can simply click on "Share" which is a semi automatic process as you manually need to click on share to publish the post as soon as it becomes available in the "Instant Sharing" section.

The following step-by-step guide will show you how to work with the Instant-Sharing feature in Blog2Social in detail:
How to share on Facebook Profiles with Facebook Instant Sharing

Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions about Blog2Social.
I will gladly support you further.

If you like Blog2Social and our support, we would greatly appreciate a 5-star rating on WordPress.org.
Link: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin...iews/?filter=5

Best regards
Alexander

[SteveP-UK]

Thanks again Alexander. So, to confirm: I CANNOT 'Auto-Post' to a FB Profile, but I CAN 'Instant Share' that same Post to a FB Profile? Have I got that right?

Sorry for my slowness in understanding the concept!

Steve

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello Steve,

Thank you so much for your reply and this feedback.
Additionally, we would like to thank you for your awesome WordPress review.

To clarify your question:
You can still use the regular Facebook profile to be used in the Blog2Social Auto-Poster which is likely included in the default network collection called “My profile” (If you connected a Facebook profile).

Example:
Lets assume you currently have a Pro license of Blog2Social for example, and you schedule a WordPress post to be published in three days. With the Auto-Poster enabled, by default Blog2Social will automatically publish your post to all connected social media networks which are included in the network collection called “My profile”. Since your Facebook profile is also connected in this list for example, your post will then (in three days) be available in the “Instant Sharing” section in Blog2Social, awaiting your manual share (By clicking on “Share” on the related post that you wanted to share). All other connected social media networks will receive your automatic posting without any further interaction.

This is only due to the Facebook rules that restricted automatic publication on personal Facebook profiles for all social media tools to ensure that communication on Facebook profiles remains at a personal level. Since Blog2Social is an official Meta/Facebook business partner it complies with this community rule. To allow Blog2Social users still to continue sharing content with their profile followers via Blog2Social, we provide you with Blog2Social Facebook Instant Sharing.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions about Blog2Social.
I will gladly support you further.

Best regards
Alexander

[SteveP-UK]

All good Alexander - thanks for your detailed explanation. I just tried a Post that cross-posted to my Social media platforms. They pretty much worked as expected EXCEPT for the LinkedIn Post. What happened was that it posted the content OK, but it used the first image in the Post as the Featured Image rather than the image I specified from within WP. Not a deal breaker, but slightly confusing. Any thoughts?

Links

Original WP Post
https://stevepalmertheblogger.com/20...s-all-we-know/ (featured image is the Who logo that I set within WP)

https://www.facebook.com/UKStevePalmer (showing correctly the new Doctor Who Logo - set as featured image within WP)

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update...3634352668672/ (Showing Nkuti Gatwa that was the first image in the Post NOT THE SAME IMAGE as above)

Thanks, Steve

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello Steve,

Thank you for your reply and this feedback.

I checked your original WordPress post URL and noticed that you are currently using an external WordPress plugin (Yoast SEO plugin v19.14) to set your Open Graph parameter. These are used for the image preview of a link post as the one you shared on LinkedIn.

Would you mind to work with the Open Graph (Social Meta Data) settings instead in Blog2Social?
This could help to avoid any occurring issues.

Open Graph tags (OG tags) and Twitter Cards are one of the most important things to make your blog or website social-media-ready. OG tags / Twitter Cards define how your link preview (snippet), containing your title, description and image to give a preview of your article, is presented in your social media posts.

The following step-by-step guide will show you how to use Open Graph settings in Blog2Social:
What are open graph tags and what do I use them for?

You can find it in Blog2Social by following this path:
Your WordPress dashboard -> Blog2Social -> Settings -> Social Meta Data

Make sure to avoid that you are using multiple plugins that implement OG tags / Twitter Cards within your website source code.
Duplicated OG tags / Twitter Cards can cause that the wrong title image or description is shared on social media.

Furthermore:
With the LinkedIn Post Inspector you can also check how your WordPress post is getting cached by LinkedIn for its link-preview.

You can find it in Blog2Social by following this path:
Your WordPress dashboard -> Blog2Social -> Help & Support -> Sharing debugger -> LinkedIn Post Inspector

Link:
https://www.linkedin.com/post-inspec...all-we-know%2F

Please retry that sharing process once again afterward and let me know if this solution resolved this case or if you require further assistance regarding this matter.

Thank you for your effort and understanding.
I am looking forward to your reply.

Best regards
Alexander

[SteveP-UK]

Hi again Alexander. Thanks again for the comprehensive reply. I hadn't fully appreciated how many variables there are to getting this right! . I've followed your instructions to the letter and I think things are now where they should be. If you take a look at the enclosed screenshot, does that suggest that all is well (I'm encouraged by the Featured Image now being the same across all SM platforms). I probably won't repost it all again but, for future reference, is what I see in the screenshots strong enough evidence that the featured image will look like this when the Post is shared?


Just one last question. I use the 'debugger' to check the Twitter post - see attached - any reason why it would say it 'unable to render card preview' when the screenshot ABOVE suggests all is well?


PS You mentioned about not having 'multiple OG Tags'. How do I ensure that other plugins aren't using OG Tags too? Do I need to somehow switch them off, or does Blog2Social take priority? Currently, I have Yoast and JetPack installed, which I think you said they also use them???

EDIT: I found a setting in Yoast that enables or disables opengraph metadata - should I disable these? Couldn't find an equivalent setting for JetPack though.

Thanks for your expertise!

Regards, Steve

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello Steve,
Thank you for your reply and this feedback.

Yes, you post preview looks setup correctly.

However, please note that your Open Graph parameter are currently still configured to be set by Yoast SEO. You can disable the Yoast SEO Open Graph settings at any time and enable the “Social Meta Data” settings in Blog2Social as explained previously.

And it is possible that the Twitter preview itself in the validator is unable to generate a preview because of the image file you have set in your Yoast SEO configuration.

For example:
<meta property="og:image" content="https://stevepalmerblog.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/2022/12/whologo2023.webp" />

Some networks also face issues to publish/share this image file format. Please consider to work with .jpg / .png images instead if you face further issues while sharing posts on social media with a wrong link preview image inside the post.

Furthermore:
You can also use external free services to check your URLs about how your Link preview will look like.

For example:
https://www.opengraph.xyz/url/https%...all-we-know%2F


I would suggest sharing a few more posts with adjusted settings if necessary to get to know the functionality and the individual settings/configuration that can be set.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions about Blog2Social.
I will gladly support you further.

Best regards
Alexander

[SteveP-UK]

Thanks again Alexander. Great support! Out of interest, long term, what might happen if I left the Opengraph settings ENABLED in Yoast? (they were still enabled when I sent you the screenshot of the Who logos across all my platforms - and the right images seemed to display OK in the preview). In other words, does Opengraph in Yoast make any difference? Does Blog2Social kinda override their settings. Thanks, Steve

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello Steve,

Thank you for your reply and this kind feedback.

No, basically you can choose any WordPress plugin or theme based settings that implement pen Graph settings/tags into your WordPress environment.

Just make sure to only have one of these plugins to implement settings otherwise duplicated values in your website source code can cause unintended issues when sharing content.

Duplicated OG tags / Twitter Cards can cause that the wrong title image or description is shared on social media.

I just recommended this in case you continue facing issues while sharing content on social media with the wrong image preview.
As usually the parameter that are implemented by Blog2Social are known to work without any conflicts or similar.

However, if you tested a few posts and everything looks correctly as you configured it you can surely stick to the tool you are currently using.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions about Blog2Social.
I will gladly support you further.

Best regards
Alexander

[SteveP-UK]

Hi Alexander. Thanks for clarifying. Actually, I wasn't suggesting that I stick with Yoast's - I prefer to use YOURS as I'd like to minimise any conflicts. So, I've turned them off in Yoast. Do I need to turn anything off in JetPack? Thanks, Steve

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello Steve,

Thanks for your reply.

Please be so kind as to make sure to use only one plugin for setting your metadata so the social networks can retrieve your images correctly. Therefore, I would recommend also adjusting your JetPack settings regarding your metadata / open graph tags.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Best regards
Alexander

[SteveP-UK]

Hi Alexander. Apologies, I'm new to this. I can't see any way to turn it off in JetPack - should I just disable the 'JetPack Social' plugin completely to avoid any chance of conflict?

Thanks

Steve