WHAT is a Twitter Card?
Have you heard talk about Twitter Cards? Do you know what they are?
When you’re posting or reading tweets, do you ever wonder why some links create a preview with an image and a credit to the author’s twitter account and others don’t? Maybe you’ve seen this and haven’t even noticed! Well this is all done using twitter cards and you won’t believe how easy it is to set it up! Firstly I’ll talk about why you would want to use twitter cards, what is the benefit to you?
WHY use Twitter Cards?
So what’s the benefit?
Well the main purpose is to ensure that your content is always credited to you. Without them, if anybody posts a link to your website it shows as just a link in twitter and the person reading that tweet probably won’t know who wrote it.
With Twitter Cards enabled on your website, if somebody posts a link to your website it still shows the link but now also shows a credit to your twitter username and an image, depending on how you set it up. You can also include a video, gallery, etc.
This means that links to your site really stand out in the twitter feed, with an eye catching image and information about you, the author of the original content which is being shared.
So HOW do I set this up?
Basically what you need to do is add a few lines of code to your website. However, if you are not familiar with code and are using a WordPress site then the easiest way is to install a plugin! JM Twitter Cards is a great option, it is extremely easy to set up, can be set up quickly and has video tutorials included so you can be confident that you are doing it correctly.
Once you’ve installed the plugin you can select the type of Twitter Card you want to display and set a default image to use if the content doesn’t have an image. There are further options if you’re feeling creative!
At this point, it’s always a good idea to check that this is doing what you want it to do and luckily Twitter provides a card validator tool – use this to check out how your card will look in Twitter. It is also important when you first set up your Twitter cards to whitelist the card with Twitter as otherwise they will not display. This can also be done at the card validator tool
Here’s how the Coppertops Twitter Card looks in the validator:
Twitter also provides a great guide to Twitter Cards here, where you can find more information on setting up and customising Twitter Cards for your website.
Do I have to do all of this myself?
Never! Of course we are happy to help you to set up Twitter Cards on your website, just contact us to find out more and get a proposal. We promise, as always, not to rip you off and to give you a truly professional result. In addition, if you would like us to create a customised default image to use on your Twitter Cards we can include that for you.