It’s no secret that I’m a major fan of Buffer, and love to use it for managing profiles for all of my clients. But, it isn’t always straightforward how to do some things. It’s hard to develop something that depends entirely on others, and we all know how easy Facebook makes things. Yes, that’s sarcasm! One of the things that we have to adapt to with Facebook’s quirks is using Buffer to re-share videos and images from other Facebook pages.
Today I’m going to show you how to Buffer video & image shares from other Facebook pages without any issues! Plus, I have news on some free upcoming webinars.
Why Reshare Video & Image Posts From Other Facebook Pages?
I’ve been asked several times now to put together a how-to on using Buffer to re-share images and videos from other Facebook pages. Sharing images and videos from others is one of my FAVORITE techniques for boosting engagement without spending a dime. Why? When you share posts that are already doing well on other pages with similar audiences, they almost always do well on your own page. Plus, you want to give appropriate attribution to those who originally shared the content. With the most recent changes to Facebook, the more shares a post has – the more likely it’s going to be seen.
Buffering Video & Image Posts from Other Facebook Pages
I’ve recorded a tutorial on how to Buffer video & image shares plus written steps & screenshots below! Make sure you have the Buffer browser extension installed to follow along.
First up – make sure you have link shortening disabled for the profile in Buffer. That’s the first work-around with Facebook’s quirks – sometimes the link shortening causes the images and videos to share as links instead. Even though Buffer’s backend warns that turning off link shortening will disable click tracking, I’ve found it still tracks.
Screenshot showing where to find a post’s timestamp on Facebook.
Next, find the images and videos you want to re-share from other pages! Click on the timestamp of those images or videos to open them up by their permalink. Double-check your address bar to make sure they opened up to their permalink – otherwise this trick won’t work.
Here’s what an image post permalink resembles.
Here’s what a video post permalink resembles.
Hit the Buffer browser extension button on your browser’s extension toolbar, select the Facebook profile you want to share it to, write a caption, and add to your queue! Sometimes it’ll show a link preview with the original page’s caption, other times it’ll be a preview for the other page itself. Both should share just fine as long as the post is a public Facebook page post!
Super crazy simple, right??
Some notes –
- Make sure the post you’re sharing is set to public, otherwise there’s a small chance it won’t push out right. Most of the time (in my experience) posts with a select targeting (showing a gearwheel instead of a globe for public) share just fine – but you never know.
- This doesn’t work for sharing from a person’s profile, only from other Facebook pages. For some reason, Facebook doesn’t like to cooperate with this method when it’s a personal profile, even though the post is set to public.
- With videos, most of the time you can hit the Buffer button within Facebook – but that doesn’t always pull the right URL, and with images that button turns into an image upload share – and not a re-share. It’s best to stick to the button within your browser, not the one within Facebook.
In this post I included my Buffer referral link, but because I have a business level account with unlimited queue space – I don’t get anything from you using my link to sign up. If you sign up using a referral link, you get some extra space in your Buffer queue! So it benefits you, not me!
Upcoming Free Webinars
Now onto some awesome news! I’m going to get back to hosting free webinars to answer your burning social media & online marketing questions. Did I mention they’re FREE?? To get notified of upcoming webinars, subscribe to my newsletter to get the first word. Let me know in the comments what burning questions you need answering, and it might turn into a webinar! So far I’m thinking a webinar on Buffer basics, one on social media graphics optimizing – what do you think?
I hope you all are having an amazing 4th of July! Let me know if you have any questions on how to Buffer video & image shares from other Facebook Pages.
ETA 09/08/2018 – Yes this method still works! Some things look a little different, but the process is the same. The only time it doesn’t work is when the post you’re trying to schedule has the branded content tool enabled on it. For some reason, the Facebook API blocks these posts from being reshared by schedulers.
Hi, I just signed up for Buffer and my first post was to share someone else’s post and the preview doesn’t pop up at all. So I googled and found your post. I have the shortener off and followed your steps. The preview still doesn’t show up – it’s just a link. I see this post was in July 2016, so I”m wondering if Buffer changed how it does things – are you experiencing the same thing now?
Thank you in advance (I had expected it to be straightforward!!)
Hey Mary! It’s still working for me – I use it about three dozen times a day! Does the preview not show at all when scheduling? Or is it not showing when publishing? Sometimes it doesn’t show when scheduling, but will show just fine when published on Facebook.
Thank you for sharing Meg! Love your style and your videos!!