You should have noticed by now that on Twitter some tweets include a summary of the content that they are linking to. These are called Twitter cards.
If someone can see, and is enticed by a snippet of the destination content, they’re far more likely to click through. There is an obvious benefit of increasing the effectiveness of your Twitter activity, but it also pulls into sharp focus the importance of tweeting only relevant, engaging content to your readership.
In your news feed they are now automatically expanded, and the ‘View Summary’ link to reveal the Twitter card is no more.
Example of large summary Twitter card:
The unbelievably talented potter @thekayjays has immortalised our 20th anniversary > https://t.co/afYzmEnFqf #F320 pic.twitter.com/xrgytxzu3C
— Factor 3 (@Factor3Tweets) August 19, 2016
— Factor 3 (@Factor3Tweets) May 23, 2013
The Twitter card gives us the ability to control how your content is displayed, generate more traffic to your website and increase your followers through content attribution. It is important to note that the image will be cropped from the top and bottom to fit an aspect ratio of 2:1.
All you need to do to make your tweets start appearing with a card is add a few lines of HTML to your web pages.
You can choose from the following types of cards:
- Summary Card: Title, description, thumbnail, and Twitter account attribution.
- Summary Card with Large Image: Similar to a Summary Card, but with a prominently featured image.
- App Card: A Card to detail a mobile app with direct download.
- Player Card: A Card to provide video/audio/media.
For technical information on how to do this please refer to the developers section on Twitter. They also provide a preview tool for you to test your mark-up.
It goes without saying that this should be done as standard in the development of any new sites. Yoast, an SEO wordpress plugin adds the code for you.
This is one of many ways to integrate social media into your website and also optimise your content for social media engagement.
