Image Control on Facebook
Facebook can be a great viral marketing tool. A site’s sharing function, which allows Facebook users to post a short summary and a thumbnail of an external page in their news feed, is a good way to increase a site’s exposure. For the Müvmédia site, we wanted to encourage users to share their findings. Facebook offers a choice of images to display—only problem is, they aren’t always the most appropriate ones.
The images Facebook suggested for Müvmédia were a little strange and hardly representative of the site. (Case in point: the Fonds Bell and espresso logos were the only options available.) I’m still not sure how Facebook selects its default images, but after a little research, I’ve learned how to steer Facebook toward more appropriate choices.
Adding the following tag to the html page <head> forces Facebook to use the image of your choice:
<link rel="image_src" href="http://www.votredomaine.com/votreimage.gif">
It’s also possible to upload an image that isn’t already on the page, which opens up many interesting possibilities, such as creating an image specifically suited to the Facebook news feed: A screenshot from your site? A contest announcement? Or just a well formatted image that will stand out on Facebook? The possibilities are endless. For Müvmédia, I created a version of the logo specifically for Facebook. It’s interesting to note that, according to my tests, the image didn’t slow down the page during normal viewing.
The advantage of this technique is clear. First, for the site’s owner, who will have better control over his or her brand image, and second, for the user, who will have a more representative choice of images when he or she promotes the site to friends.
