How to: embed images in ‘tweet this’ links

53 Replies

This is the third in a series of posts introducing HTML. The first part tackled making a ‘Tweet this’ link in a blog post, and the second introduced Twitter’s Web Intents sort-of-API. If you haven’t read those, you might find it easier to start there.

You can also get all four tutorials in a small ebook.

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Stage 3: Adding an embedded image to a ‘Tweet this’ tweet

It’s widely known in the news industry that adding an image to a tweet can make a big difference in terms of how many times that tweet is retweeted. In fact, Twitter say it’s the single biggest factor.

Chart: tweets with images are 27 percent more likely to be retweeted

Chart: tweets with images are 27 percent more likely to be retweeted. Tweet this image

But adding an image to a ‘tweet this’ link isn’t as easy as you might expect.

The obvious way to do this, for example, would be to add an image link to your tweet – but Twitter will show that as a link, not an image.

Unless you use a particular type of image URL.

Finding the right Twitter image URL

This particular image URL is one generated by Twitter itself, after someone has tweeted the image.

Assuming no one has already done so, then, you’ll need to start by tweeting the image yourself.

Once you’ve done that, open the tweet. You can normally do this by clicking on the date or time next to it (for example “Jan 27” or “1d” or “2h”).

The tweet URL will look something like https://twitter.com/paulbradshaw/status/560171610309926913.

It is important to note that this image has two URLs. One begins with pbs.twimg.com and another begins with pic.twitter.com. Only the second will be embedded when tweeted – this is the one you need.

If you right-click on the image, for example, to ‘Copy image URL’ you will get the wrong type of URL – the one beginning with pbs.twimg.com. Do not copy that link

Instead, while still on the tweet page, you need to click again on the image. This should bring up the tweet once more – only this time with the pic.twitter.com URL visible. Copy this link to use later.

If you cannot see the pic.twitter URL then try right-clicking on the tweet and selecting View source (or similar). Use CTRL+F to search for pic.twitter and you should be able to find the URL there.

Adding your image URL to the ‘tweet this’ link

From this point you can just follow the steps in the first post in this series only making sure to add the pic.twitter URL in the text= parameter along with any quote – and a space of course.

But I’ll recap them quickly here:
1. Create a URL beginning https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text= and add whatever text you want to appear in the tweet at the end of this URL. Then include a space and the link to the image that you copied.
2. Press Enter. A Twitter box should appear in the browser with the text you specified, and the link too. (Make sure you’re logged in)
3. The URL will have changed slightly, to replace spaces and other awkward characters. Copy that URL.
4. In your post, switch to HTML (Text) view and link a relevant phrase (like ‘Tweet this image’) by putting <a href="` - then your URL - then `" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> before it, and </a> after it.
5. Preview the post and test the new link.

If you have any problems go back through the previous post’s more detailed instructions.

A good place to put your ‘Tweet this image’ link is in the caption to the image itself. You can see an example of this above, or on this post.

In the final part of this series of tutorials I’ll be covering how to style your ‘tweet this’ links so they stand out more – and learn about CSS in the process.

MA multiplatform mobile journalism

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53 thoughts on “How to: embed images in ‘tweet this’ links”

  1. Pingback: How to: learn about CSS by creating a ‘tweetable quote’ | Online Journalism Blog

  2. Mary Denman

    Oh my goodness! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!!

    I have been scouring the web for this info and couldn’t find it anywhere.

    I’m a photographer with a blog who teaches photo tips. I provide tweets for my readers in each post, but couldn’t figure out how to add an image.

    I can’t wait to try this!! Thank you!!!!

    Reply ↓

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  4. shek

    Do the url to the image be hosted on twitter. Can the image link be a from a different url other than twitter

    Reply ↓
  5. baneling2

    Hi Paul, i’m having a problem following your steps for “Adding your image URL to the ‘tweet this’ link”. Can you please give an example?

    Reply ↓
    1. Patricia Woods

      For everyone that can’t get the “pic.twitter” img URL: when you attempt to delete a tweet, the pic.twitter URL will be displayed with the rest of the tweet. Just cancel that you are going to delete it after copy/pasting img URL for your use.

      Reply ↓
  8. Chaque

    Thanks for the info! Used it to build a simple tool for generating click-to-tweet links that lets you have the option to attach an image by pasting the Twitter image URL (just click on the camera icon next to the “Generate link” button): http://bit.ly/1LeMLCE 🙂

    Reply ↓
  9. Lasse

    Paul,
    Thanks for this great post. I wan’t to do exactly what you described, BUT I prefer not to tweet the image (sharing it with the public) before it being shared by others. At least not from the company that whats people to share the image. So maybe I can tweet it first from another account?
    My questions is, when the image has been tweeted by other and people see it and maybe click on it (the pic.twitter URL), will they then see who tweeted the image originally? Or be taken to that Twitter account?

    Reply ↓
    1. Paul Bradshaw Post author

      Hi Lasse, yes you could tweet it from another account. I don’t think they would see who tweeted the image originally, but the best way is to test and find out.

      Reply ↓
  11. susan cingari

    Paul

    Thanks in a sea of info on the web I am grateful to have found you.

    I am using hoot suite this link generated a preview
    https://twitter.com/One_Punch

    This one did not
    https://twitter.com/TheRocEvents

    went back to the source of the original tweet its not an image from a retweet either

    I also looked here
    If you cannot see the pic.twitter URL then try right-clicking on the tweet and selecting View source (or similar). Use CTRL+F to search for pic.twitter and you should be able to find the URL there. could not figure out how to use the Control +F to generate a link preview

    It also seems random on some tries it works some it does not’

    Any ideas ? Please and Thanks

    Reply ↓

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  24. WPFrustration

    Hello! Here’s what I did, following your directions, which did not work for me, sadly:

    1. Get the actual tweet to show up by clicking it’s direct link, which is (I added spaces to this link so it won’t try to post as a live-link in this comment):

    https:// twitter. com/repmom2/status/717558954407043073

    2. Clicked on the image in the tweet, which still shows the same top URL (spaces added):

    https:// twitter. com/repmom2/status/717558954407043073

    3. However, of course, if you “copy link location” using the mouse, it gives the pbs.twimg link, as you warned (spaces added):

    https:// pbs. twimg. com/media/CfVIDsCUYAAmkNz.jpg:large

    4. So I click the image a second time, as you said, but it doesn’t do anything, both links are the same (using FireFox for Mac browser) (& spaces added to links on purpose for this example):

    URL window/same: https:// twitter. com/repmom2/status/717558954407043073

    Photo URL/same: https:// pbs. twimg. com/media/CfVIDsCUYAAmkNz.jpg:large

    5. So I access that tweet’s “Source Code” using the FireFox/Developer menu, & here is the areas of that source code which contained the above pbs.twimg link & the only other two places where pic.twitter showed up. In the two places where pic.twitter showed up, they never end with .jpg nor any other recognizable image extension.

    Two examples:

    1. pic.twitter showed up once & the the pbs.twimg showed up twice in this section:
    […]
    “https://t.co/OUTS8zQhDr” class=”twitter-timeline-link u-hidden” data-pre-embedded=”true” dir=”ltr” u003epic.twitter.com/OUTS8zQhDru003c/au003eu003c/pu003enu003c/divu003ennnn n u003cdiv class=”AdaptiveMedian n n is-squaren n n “n u003en u003cdiv class=”AdaptiveMedia-containern js-adaptive-media-containern “n u003en u003cdiv class=”AdaptiveMedia-singlePhoto”u003en u003cdiv class=”AdaptiveMedia-photoContainer js-adaptive-photo “n data-image-url=”https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfVIDsCUYAAmkNz.jpg”n n n data-element-context=”platform_photo_card”u003en u003cimg data-aria-label-part src=”https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfVIDsCUYAAmkNz.jpg” alt=””n style=”width: 100%; top: -0px;”nu003enu003c/divu003ennnu003c/divu003ennn
    etc etc.
    […]

    2. The second place that pic.twitter showed up had the same info in front of & behind it as in the above sample.

    Bottom Line: I do not see any url embedded in that “mess-code” which begins with pic.twitter & ends with .jpg or etc.

    Any ideas? 🙂

    Thank you!

    Reply ↓
  25. Beth Granter (@bethgranter)

    Hi, thanks for this, very useful. I tried this but the preview only shows the URL to the image. When it’s tweeted it does embed the image but is there a way to show the image in the user’s intent preview before it’s tweeted?

    Reply ↓
  26. Steven Ray

    This appears to be an article directed at bloggers. I don’t blog, but perhaps it’s a good place to ask the following:

    Does anyone here know whether there’s any way to add an image to a tweet without first saving the image as a file? I’m asking primarily about doing this using the web version of Twitter (i.e., not the phone app).

    Thanks.

    Reply ↓
  27. M A Clarke Scott, Author

    This was a great article, very helpful, as was the previous one. I knew no HTML so it advanced me quite a lot and I accomplished what I set out to, so thank you! I wonder if you have done anything similar to help repopulate a FB comment with an attached image.

    Reply ↓
  29. howmuchwater

    Thank you so much!
    For anyone who is still having trouble with this check if you have “Protect my Tweets” feature off in your settings. Otherwise the image won’t show in the tweet. Only the link will.

    Reply ↓

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  31. sheelaghcaygill

    Hi,
    I am not sure if you’ll be able to answer this, but I’m asking because I suspect the problem is something to do with the way my new site is set up – http://www.communicateinfluence.com

    When I tweet posts, the images do not show in the tweets.

    By comparison, if you tweet this post from Marketing Week, https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/01/11/ads-instagram-stories/, or this, http://www.komarketingassociates.com/industry-news/content-marketers-drive-brand-awareness-3352/, the images will show with the tweet. Any ideas?

    Many thanks, Sheelagh

    Reply ↓
      1. sheelaghcaygill

        Thanks Paul. I appreciate that. I think I need to look at how the Yoast plugin is configured. After I emailed your site, it crossed my mind to email the developer and he suggested that.
        On another topic, I have emailed you with an interview request for my new site. Hope to hear back from you on your return. Best wishes, and thanks.

  32. gttygrl

    This was working perfectly last month, but now I’m getting error messages. So I went through the process again, got new urls, and now the pic.twitter links are taking me to my original tweet instead of the image. Did Twitter somehow plug this workaround?

    Reply ↓
  36. Melisa

    Hello! I am attempting to create e-vites on a website. I would like to add a share on twitter button but any time I try to pull a code or link from the tweeted image and put in in the link button on the website, it will direct people to my twitter page. Is there a way to make an image, put in a link so that when they click on it from our website it uploads a picture to their twitter to share? We are able to get a link but not an image. (without it directing people to my personal twitter). Any help would be greatly appreciated. THANK YOU!!!

    Reply ↓
  40. AndrewNZ

    Hi Paul,

    July 2019, and Twitter have changed the code, and I can no longer find the pic.twitter.com url.

    I was successfully using this technique until the beginning of July, but now I can no longer find the needed info (pic.twitter.com/xxxxxx).

    Do you have any suggestions how to find the URL?

    Or do you have a different strategy for posting images with Tweets.

    Thanks

    Andrew

    D

    Reply ↓

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