We recently started testing out HootSuite here at Digital Firefly Marketing in order to determine if it could be an effective tool for managing our social media accounts. While that tool is a great time-saver when it comes to posting content, we did find some problems with our posts on Google+ and Facebook that were intended to include thumbnails. During Hootsuite posting, thumbnail previews did not work as we expected. Rather than include a thumbnail, HootSuite merely included a shortened link to the web page.

This problem has been widely reported on the web with no real solutions available. After some testing we were able to come up with the solution, and it’s shockingly simple. In order to make sure you include thumbnails on Facebook and Google+ posts simply make sure that you have selected which profiles you would like to post your content to before shortening the link. Here is a good practice to make sure you avoid this problem.

1. Open the HootSuite dashboard.

2. Select all of the profiles you would like to post to before entering your link for shrinking.

3. Clink on the “Compose message” box.

4. Copy and paste the link in the “Add a link” box.

5. “Shrink” your link. The link will appear shortened in the compose message box, and a thumbnail will appear below.

6. Use the arrows to find the appropriate image for your thumbnail.

7. Send the post now, or schedule for a later time.

Although simple, this is an effective method for ensuring that you don’t forget to first select the profiles you would like to post to. Eventually this process will become natural, and you can avoid the issue altogether. Hopefully, you won’t ever have to deal with missing thumbnails again.