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Life is rich. Life is risks.

And sharing it with others, even for a brief moment on Facebook or Twitter or elsewhere online, helps remind me of that every single day.

It helps me stop and “smell the roses” as it were.

To slow the moment down and savor it just a little and celebrate it with the kindred spirits I’m blessed to know.

Some say that the virtual social world is a fake one.

I don’t think so.

In some ways, it’s a lifeline for me, in a daily schedule that even a chiropractor would not keep.

We get out of the social experience what we want, what we put in, and how we choose to see that world.

I would argue that you get an authentic experience when you invest one yourself.

But if you’re the kind of person who prefers to put on airs, to alter the tune before you let anyone hear, then that is all you’ll see in the people “around” you too.

Today, thanks to social media…

My day was made because…

a 19 year old kid doesn’t have cancer
a toddler I used to babysit got married
a mom is getting a well deserved vacation
a fellow artist met her goal with selling a clever t-shirt campaign
and a family reports that their local water park really is the bomb

And so I’m smiling….

Life enriched…

And getting back to work, late as it is…

…with gratitude in my heart.

November 19, 2014 · 11:41 pm

Facebook And Blogging: Why Image Size Matters

It’s been a long week of WordPress, graphics and social media work done for others. Sometimes that work is more about growth and progress and sometimes it’s more about problem solving. Lately it’s been an intense mix of both.

One issue that’s been popping up for my clients lately has to do with the images they use in their blog posts and on their websites. And what happens when they want to share their posts to Facebook.

How sharing with Facebook works:

When you share a link from your blog to Facebook (whether you use an automated tool or you live-share it), the system looks for any image associated with the data at the given link. And it runs through this general process:

If you use a “featured image” in your post, that will be what Facebook will look to first.
If you don’t have a featured image, it will look for any other image imbedded in your post.
If there’s no image in your post, then Facebook will attempt to pull an image from your blog in general.

But all of that goes out the window if your images aren’t at least 200 pixels x 200 pixels in size.

Size matters when it comes to images.

It’s not because of impressiveness or simplicity. Although those details may be end factors.

The #1 reason why your image size matters is because your image must meet a minimum size requirement for Facebook to scrape up and display with your share link on their platform. All images must meet this minimum requirement, just to be “seen” in the first place. And 200 pixels x 200 pixels is that minimum necessary size.

There are three main reasons I’ve found as to why this problem pops up frequently:

A lot of people get stuck on using thumbnail images for things. A popular thumbnail size is usually only 150 pixels square, which doesn’t seem all that tiny. But Facebook won’t pick those up for your share, because they’re not at least 200px.
People get confused because Facebook requires your profile image to be 180 pixels x 180 pixels square. And they think that is the minimum requirement for their shares. Yeah, sorry. It’s not big enough.
People also get stuck on trying to reduce the size of their images, because they are afraid they might take up too much room. Chill y’all. 200px square ain’t that big of a file.

So, if you’ve shared your blog posts around the social net, only to wonder why the wrong picture is being grabbed and stuck with your feature? Look to the size of your image for a solution first.

Hope you find this useful! Have a good night y’all.