Fixing Jetpack’s Publicize Issues

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I have been using Publicize within WordPress’s Jetpack to post new blog posts to my social media networks for a couple of months now.  At first, it was great!  I was even able to configure things to use my new custom shortlink when it posted on the networks.  Somewhere along the way, things went awry.  First, I noticed that on Google+ it was not posting the featured image, but my header graphic instead.  Next, LinkedIn disconnected from the service and I received an error message every time I tried to reconnect the service.  Last, Facebook disconnected and when I reconnected the service, nothing would post even though it looked connected.

I finally got everything straightened out,  but I thought it might be helpful to post my fixes to these problems in case someone else encountered them.

 

Featured Image Not Posting

I found that some other users were reporting this as a problem on both Google+ and on Facebook.  The problem resided in the meta tags and the use of the open graph format that Facebook pioneered.  I won’t get too technical, because I’m not very good at explaining technical things…I just understand them…sort of.  For some, part of the problem was a conflict in the way their SEO plugin handled those meta tags.

I use All in One SEO pack for SEO on my site and there is a “social meta” add-on available.  Using the add-on, I was able to over ride the Jetpack Publicize settings with those I set within All in One SEO pack.  It also allowed me to set what image I wanted to show when a post is shared from my site.  This solved my image problem.

 

LinkedIn Re-connection

From the Publicize support pages, I figured out that I needed to have revoked the access on the LinkedIn side of things prior to trying to reconnect the service.  Once I revoked the access through LinkedIn, I was able to reconnect from my site.

Here are the steps to find application settings in LinkedIn:

  1. Log into LinkedIn and click on “Privacy & Settings”
  2. Click on the “Groups, Companies & Applications” tab.
  3. Click on “View Your Applications.”
  4. Click the checkbox next to WordPress.com and the “Remove” button.

Facebook Not Posting Anymore

The problem with Facebook not posting was similar to my re-connection problem with LinkedIn.  I needed to have revoked the application’s access prior to reconnecting the service.

Here is what I did:

  1. I disconnected Facebook from Publicize (sharing in settings) in WordPress.
  2. Went to App Settings on Facebook and removed WordPress.com
  3. Returned back to my site’s backend and reconnected Facebook.

If you are having similar issues with this plugin, I can’t guarantee that what I did will work for you, but it might save you a little time, if these are a fix!