Updating article information in Facebook with the Sharing Debugger Tool
As you try to optimize you’re content marketing, it’s not uncommon to republish an “old” article or blog post on Facebook with some (minor) changes to its title or featured photo. Facebook, however, tends to ignore such changes to show the old title and/or photo, the ones it already fetched when the article was published for the first time.
Facebook used to allow page admins to change the title and the image of the links they post; is is no longer possible for security reasons. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to ask Facebook to refetch the new content? Of course there’s a way. And in today’s post I’ll teach you how to do just that. Ready? Let’s go!
Facebook created a tool to allow users to ask its platform to fetch a new version of links’ metadata. While this is tool is not perfect (sometimes a takes more than 5 minutes to see the changes detected), but it’s very easy to use.
The Sharing Debugger tool, as it is called, let’s you paste the link of the post you want to update its information. Once you click on the big ‘debug’ button, the tool shows you the information it already has in store. It also show a small ‘Scrape Again’ button, and that’s where you’ll be clicking to ask for the post information to be updated.
Facebook will try to get the new, updated information but most of the time it won’t work from the first try. You’ll find yourself trying more the once to see the new title and/or photo appear. But they do, you’ll be able to repost your article.
Enjoy!
Love it or hate it, Facebook plays a big role in the content distribution chain value. Publishers, no matter how big they are, cannot afford not to be on the most popular platform in the world. It’s then important how to use it to its fullest potential.
