How to change social media sharing custom message for republishing old posts?

Hi there,

Unpublishing and republishing an old post at a new date does not cause Publicize to trigger at all. Publicize is designed to only share posts the first time they are published.

We offer a feature allowing you to schedule further shares for previously published posts, but that feature is only available on our Premium and Professional plans:

https://jetpack.com/support/publicize/#re-sharing-your-content

So the only way to share these posts to social media is manually, after you’ve updated them, and then you’ll add your message directly to Twitter/Facebook.

Oh, I see. I viewed the social sharing options by clicking on the Jetpack button at the upper right corner. I thought it was going to publicize again since both Facebook and Twitter buttons were toggled on, although grayed out.

That’s good then. I was planning to quickly delete it on Facebook and Twitter as soon as it publicized so nobody would see the old custom message. Now I know I won’t have to. Thanks!

Glad I could help ??

Thought you’d want to know that the republished post was automatically reshared on Facebook (with the old custom message) but not on Twitter. ??

Thanks, just to clarify are you sharing with the sharing buttons or just copying a link to the post and pasting it in Twitter or Facebook?

I share through Jetpack publicize.

It first triggers when I schedule a post. But I normally edit an article a few times after that (before it gets published), so I access the Jetpack social sharing settings by clicking on the Jetpack button on the upper right corner of the screen. I can still edit the custom message as long as the post hasn’t been published yet.

The post in question, however, was an old published post that was already shared by Jetpack to social media in the past. I unpublished it, made changes, then scheduled it for republishing at a later date. I could no longer edit the custom message or toggle off sharing because both options were grayed out.

Jetpack still automatically shared the post to Facebook when it was republished, but not to Twitter. ??

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by gorgeouskitty.

It first triggers when I schedule a post.

Clarifying: is Publicize being triggered (sending out notifications) when you schedule? If so I’m wondering if you’re inadvertently publishing first, then going back to a scheduled post.

If possible I’d recommend saving as a draft and scheduling that. That way, the publicize message won’t go out until everything is live.

And:

Jetpack still automatically shared the post to Facebook when it was republished, but not to Twitter.

That’s interesting! It’s not supposed to unless you have a paid plan with a re-sharing feature like this:
https://jetpack.com/support/publicize/#re-sharing-your-content

Had you shared to Facebook the first time?

Also, if you didn’t explicitly fill out the social media message, you might be able to manage what shows through shares by editing the excerpt.

Oops, let me see if I can say it more clearly. ??

What I mean by trigger is that it opens the Jetpack social sharing settings where I can toggle it on or off for Facebook and Twitter and write a custom message. Before I publish, I change the date and time of publication. (I think that changes the Publish button to Schedule, I’m not sure.) When I do publish, that Jetpack tab opens, I write my custom message, then I hit Schedule at the top. (The post can now be seen under scheduled posts in my dashboard.)

That only happens the first time I schedule a post. Jetpack doesn’t open if I edit it and click Schedule again to save my changes.

(I schedule an article when I think it’s ready for posting, but more often than not I think of a better way to say something, so I go back and edit it – just a line or two. ??)

I always explicitly fill out the custom message with the same text I create for the post snippet. I did that when I originally published the post. In fact, I can see the old custom message in the publicize tab, just can’t edit it because it’s grayed out.

Yes, the post had previously been publicized by Jetpack to Facebook and Twitter already. Although it was to my old Facebook page. I’ve created a new Facebook page since so I’ve reconfigured Jetpack to share there instead of the old one. Maybe that’s why? ??

OK, so this part though:

Yes, the post had previously been publicized by Jetpack to Facebook and Twitter already. Although it was to my old Facebook page.

That’s what I’m confused about. You’re putting the post in Scheduled Posts by changing the date then clicking Schedule, and does the tweet and facebook post go out right then before the post is published?

No, it gets publicized to facebook and twitter when the post gets published on the scheduled date and time.

I first published the post in question about a month ago. Jetpack publicized it to facebook and twitter with my custom message as soon as the post went up on my scheduled date and time.

About a week ago I reverted the post to draft, added some content, and scheduled it for republishing. On the scheduled republishing date and time, Jetpack publicized it again to facebook but not to twitter.

I’ve created a new Facebook page since so I’ve reconfigured Jetpack to share there instead of the old one. Maybe that’s why?

As you mention it publicized to Facebook but not Twitter, I think this is it. We wouldn’t have had a record showing it was previously publicized to a Facebook page that wasn’t connected at the time of original publication.

I still don’t think it’s supposed to happen, though. Can you give a link to the post where this happened so we can check the Publicize logs on our end? This might be a bug that needs to be fixed.

Sure, it’s this post.

Thanks. Our Publicize logs for that post only shows one share, on 4 June when you republished the post. It doesn’t show anything indicating the post was previously shared.

So what most likely happened here is that one of the changes you made also caused a new Post ID to be created for the post, which lead to Publicize sharing it again.

Did you perhaps change the post URL when you republished? That’s one theory we have of what could have caused the post ID to change.

I don’t think I changed the post URL. I checked my old facebook page and found the first time it was publicized on February 7. (I hadn’t realized it was that long ago.) I don’t know if this link to it will work.

The second one is on my new facebook page here.

Both say Posted by WordPress and it’s the same article.

I edited the custom message on the second one after it was publicized to facebook, by the way.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by gorgeouskitty.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by gorgeouskitty.