Social media (embedding & curating)

1. 1. Embedding single social media posts
      • Facebook
      • Twitter
      • Instagram
   2. Updating the Facebook Cache
   3. Creating a social story

Embedding single social media posts

Facebook:

Click the three dots (…) at the top-right of the post. Click “Embed” and copy the embed code shown in the pop-up window. If you don’t see the word Embed, it’s not a public post (and therefore not embeddable).

Paste the embed code into the Text (not Visual) editor of a WordPress post. It should like this:

Twitter:

Click the downward arrow in the top right corner of the post. Select “Embed Tweet” and copy the code in the box at the top of the pop-up window. Make sure the “Include media” box is ticked or else the photo won’t appear.

Paste the embed copy into the Text Editor of a WordPress post. It should look like this:

As of Monday, Oct. 14, motorists travelling on Highway 103 eastbound to Highway 102 northbound will use a new ramp and overpass as part of the ongoing Highway 102/103 interchange project. pic.twitter.com/MMZR0Gv9IA

— Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (@NS_TIR) October 11, 2019

Instagram:

Go to the Instagram website and find the post. Click the three dots (…) in the top right corner of the post and then click “Embed.” Copy the code in the pop-up window. Make sure the “Include caption” box is ticked if you want the caption to appear.

Paste the embed copy into the Text Editor of a WordPress post. It should look like this:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Before/after #dorian on Sept. 7, 2019. No damage, fortunately. The neighbour’s maple landed between the two houses. 🍀

A post shared by Terra Tailleur (@tailleurt) on Sep 9, 2019 at 6:47am PDT

Updating the Facebook cache

Facebook caches the Featured Image and the Post Title (SEO headline) the first time a story is shared. So if you change either one in WordPress, you should force Facebook to serve the most recent version.

• Paste the story URL in the Facebook Sharing Debugger and “Fetch new scrape information”

Curating social media posts to tell a social story

Sometimes we tell stories that are rooted in social media. It may be reaction to a viral video, for example. See:

• Teachers document empty classrooms
• How social media turned United into the biggest story in the country

Some advice for creating effective social stories:

• Like any news story, it should have a focus
• Find relevant and appropriate posts before you start writing
• Verify the posts to ensure they are as advertised
• Add text (facts and info) to connect the posts together
• Craft your headline and lead to make it clear to readers that this is a social story and not a typical news piece