Here's How to Tweet a Link with a Preview Image on Twitter

Here’s How to Tweet a Link with a Preview Image on Twitter

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Have you seen Tweets where the image has a description on the bottom and clicking the image actually takes you to a website? Ever wonder how to tweet a link with a preview image on Twitter?

They’re the ones that look like this:

tweet with clickable image | How to Tweet a Link with a Preview Image on Twitter

Ever sat there scratching your head wondering how you can create one of these Tweets yourself?

Trust me, you’re not alone.

People ask me how to do it all the time. So today I am laying out 2 ways in an easy to follow step-by-step process teaching you how to tweet a link with a preview image on Twitter.

If you don’t have time to read this article, you can download my free step-by-step instructions with visuals here:

Some WordPress social sharing plugins, like Social Warfare, will automatically create a tweet with a clickable image.

For instance, when you tweet using a sharing button from the plugin, you’ll get a Twitter card with a clickable image, a headline of the article, a brief description, and the website URL.

These elements get set by fields in the WordPress plugin at the bottom of the page where you edit blog posts.

If your blog is set up on WordPress, this is a super easy way to create Tweets with a clickable image.

But what if your blog isn’t built on WordPress? Or even if it is, what if you want to create other Tweets with a clickable image? Then you can use a Twitter website card to make a custom Tweet with a clickable image.

You can create a Twitter website card in the Twitter ad platform. It is necessary to enter a payment method to access the ad platform, but you don’t ever actually have to pay for an ad. You can create and tweet website cards without promoting them.

To access the ad platform, click on the small profile pic icon in the top right of Twitter and choose the Twitter Ads option:

where to access twitter ads

If you don’t have a Twitter Ads account yet, you’ll land on a page where you can choose the Promote Mode or Twitter Ads option and you want to choose Twitter Ads then set your country and time zone.

That will direct you to a page with campaign objectives. You don’t need to choose one of those. Instead, go to the top right of the screen to access the drop down menu by clicking your name. Then choose the “Add new payment method” option.

Add a credit card (again, you don’t have to pay for anything, but it has to be there) and then you can access the Creatives section to start making your Twitter website cards.

Creating Website Cards for Twitter

Start by clicking the “Creatives” tab in the menu bar and then the “Cards” link in the drop down menu.

Next, click the “Create new card” button in the top right of the screen and choose “Website card” from the drop down menu:

create new website card

Now, choose the blue Create Card button and click on the Website Card option.

Next, set an image for the Tweet (use a 1:19 : 1 ratio so it won’t be cropped), write your headline, set the URL you want the click to go to and title the image.

Click the create button and you’re done making the Twitter card. Now, we’ll need to create the Tweet copy and send it out.

Creating Tweets from a Website Card

At this point, the Twitter card is created and you can use it as many times as you like to post new tweets with the card. As soon as you click the “Create” button, you’ll be taken to the cards library where you’ll create the Tweet.

Start by hovering over the card you just created and click the Tweet icon.

This will bring up a box for you to compose your Tweet. Now, just enter your copy and you can Tweet it right away or schedule it for later.

Notice that even though the image is clickable, I still included a shortened link to the post in the copy of the Tweet. A lot of Twitter users are accustomed to finding links in the Tweet copy. I advise sticking with this format to get the most opportunities to drive traffic from your Tweet.

Here’s the finished product of my example above:

Creating New Tweets from a Website Card

Again, now that the card exists, you can always go back and create more Tweets with different copy.

To create new Tweets later, again access Twitter Ads and then click on the “Creatives” tab and the “Cards” link in the drop down menu.

If you want to take another look at the process, check out this quick video from Twitter themselves which will walk you through what I discussed:

YouTube video

Wrapping Up

So, if you were wondering how to tweet a link with a preview image on Twitter, now you know. It may seem like a lot of steps but this can be done quickly. And, again, once you’ve set up a card, creating new Tweets with different copy is super easy.

Hero photo by freestocks on Unsplash

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David Boutin
David Boutin

David Boutin is an expert on Twitter. David is the content manager and wearer of many digital marketing hats at Social Quant in Tampa, Florida. When not staring at a computer screen, you can find David at the local parks playing basketball or staring at a TV screen watching Georgia Bulldogs football.

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91 Comments

  2. Hi… I use a share URL to share specific pages with my own button. Can i use this method for the image to automatically come up when someone shares? Thank you.

  3. Hi,
    Thanks for the post! I was searching this feature to my website and your post helped me a lot. Thanks again.

  4. i usually tweet on twitter but preview image sometimes appears sometimes not but now I have learned how to tweet on twitter with preview image. Now I am ready to implement this easily.

  5. This was really helpful!
    Is there a similar method for LinkedIn & Facebook?
    If there is then please let me know

  7. can it work for videos as well, or if i have to post a video with clickable link what could be the process

  9. Seems like the guy is not answering to any comment since april 2017.
    The problem is that the tweet does not show on timeline,and after checking no follower receives it.

    • I thought that at first, Silvere, but when you send your Tweet your card, UNCHECK the Promoted Only box.

      • When I "unclick" the box – it doesn't seem to change – only a "tip" pops up — but status of "promoted only" doesn't seem to unlock. Ideas?

  10. Hi David,

    Thanks for the tips, looks really professional.
    Just a comment : when I am in the composer of the creative card, I don’t have neither the hashtag automatic recognition nor the emoji. The composer is therefore very basic.

    I need to open in a new tab, the usual composer and paste the text in the creative card composer.

    Any tip for that ?

    Silvère

  13. Thanks v much – v helpful. If I want to add a card to the second tweet in a thread is that possible? I don’t think so as there’s no option to add a card when you click the + (plus) button to add a tweet to a thread.

  15. Ahh, brilliant. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this up! Just created my first one and it was exactly as detailed above.

  16. Thanks David for this post. I was wondering how to make images clickable in tweeter and your blog post helped me.
    Thanks again.

  17. I have the same issue as Layla Shea: I created a card, tweeted it, but it doesn’t show up on my wall. How long should it take to go public?

  18. Carry on the good work. This is a great post. I like this topic. Your selection of the topic is very good and also well written. Thanks for sharing.

  19. This was really helpful – I went all the way through and created my card and then tweeted with it, but then it seemed to disappear. I doesn’t show up on my wall and I have no idea where it is. Can you help with that?

  20. Wow!! Those were incredibly easy directions to follow. I just created my first card, and it worked fantastic. Thanks very much for taking the time to explain it.

  24. This is great! Any ideas on how to make this an auto reply to new followers? That’s what I’m after. Thanks!

  25. After creating the card and progressing to the last step “Creating Tweets from a Website Card” when I hover over the Card there is no “Tweet” option. All of the other icons are showing except the option to make a Tweet. Any ideas?

  26. I am very excited to be able to do this. However, I created my first Card, but after I “tweeted” it, it shows as published in my card library; but it didn’t post to my site. It is listed as “unpromoted” “can’t be seen by followers” … so at this point, I need to pay money I guess?? Did this happen to anyone else? Is there a go-around??

  28. Wow, this works perfect! Can’t thank you enough for taking the time to make this so easy, especially since I wasn’t aware it was even possible outside of paying for it.

  29. Thanks. The content has been posted. But its not reflecting on our Twitter timeline ?

    • Hi Robert! Awesome, so glad it was helpful for you (and easy to understand!). Cheers!

  32. Hey David, Thanks for Teaching Something that i was trying to learn from last few days.

  33. thanks Dave! i have followed the steps and it seems to have worked but i don’t see it in the feed anywhere. Am i doing something wrong at the end of setting up card and hitting tweet?

    • Hi Jill, so glad you liked the post!

      It doesn’t sound like you’re doing anything wrong but without looking over your shoulder, it’s hard to say. The only thing I can think of is to make sure the box that says Promoted Only is NOT checked and see if they tweet shows up in your feed then :)

  34. Amazing tip, David!
    Many thanks for the step by step guide. It’s quite descriptive and precise.
    Can videos and gifs be used for that same purpose?

    • Sure thing, glad you like the post! No, unfortunately, I don’t think you can do this with videos or gifs :(

  36. Hi Dave, there used to be a hack where you could include the URL of the card and schedule it but it seems Twitter has changed the way they do the cards and I can’t get that to work anymore unfortunately. If anyone out there does have a solutions, I’d love to hear it and will update the post to include that.

    Thanks for reading and commenting! :)

  37. Hey David,

    Wow! It is really helpful article. I’ve seen such images lot on twitter and wondering how can I get such image? Now, I got the answer, so thanks for sharing this one.

    • Sure thing, David! Glad you liked the post and it helped you figure that out. Cheers! :)

  38. Interesting – I guess I need to be using my Social Warfare plugin to it’s fullest abilities. I had no idea! Lol Thanks for the article.

  39. If the “Promoted Tweet Only” box is checked, will there still be a charge? And does that mean it will only show up in the promotion not my page?

  40. Hi David,

    Very useful article. Having to find out how to do this all by ourselves would have taken a lot of time. Also, you explained the whole thing very clearly with pictures. Now there is no need to wonder, we can simply do it when needed.

    It is an amazing feature that we can reuse the card and also schedule our tweets with it.

    Thanks for sharing this helpful tip with us. Have a great day!

    -Naveen

  41. It seems to me like Twitter has updated since this article was written. I clicked “Twitter Ads” under my profile button, and am directed to either “Promote Mode” or “Twitter Ads.” Both need committed $ for campaigns, I think.

    • Hi Mason, I’ve updated the article and it should be more clear exactly how to do this now :)

  42. Thank you so much, David! You made my day! This worked great for me!! Just tweeted out my first Twitter Website Card…

    • Hi, are you saying you can create a Twitter card through the Buffer extension? Never seen that before but would love to know how :)

        • Buffer is a social media scheduling tool and they have an extension for browsers that makes it easier to use. For instance you can right click on a blog post and have an option to share it from Buffer right from the page. I use their service every day and love it :)

  45. The social warfare plugin doesn’t work as you explained. I think that part is out dated…thoughts?

    • Hi Carrie,

      Still looks the same and works for me on our site. What’s happening for you when you’re using the plugin?

  46. These instructions must be incredibly out of date — NOTHING you show appears in my Twitter account — I made a PDF copy of the page so I could follow along step by step. OTHER than the initial click on account image NOTHING past that first step matched your instructions.

    I am NOT complaining; only suggesting you MIGHT enhance your credibility by keeping your on line data and instructions up to date or at least notify readers they are legacy and NOT current data.

    • Hi Carl, thanks for your comment. I am the administrator of this site and would love to help you through the problems you are having. I just looked at my own account and was able to get through step 1. Can you please be a little more specific as to what you tried to click and did not see? This post was originally published in March of 2017, so while social media does move fast, I am hoping it is still relatively up-to-date. I look forward to your response.

  47. Great guide. A little outdated with finding the “creatives” tab but the comments were very helpful. I just want to know what would happen if the “promoted-only” tab remained check after sending out the tweet. Would you then have to pay for everyone that comes across and clicks the tweet?

  48. Robin, I was having the same problem…when you click into Twitter Ads, click on the little downward-facing arrow next to your name or your business name. That should bring up a menu with an option to “Add a Payment Method”. Once I did that, the “Creatives” menu popped up in the header of the Twitter Ads website, and from there I was able to follow these instructions. Hope that helps!

  51. Hi David, Thank you very much for your feedback. I’ll look into the Social Warefare plugin right away to see if that helps resolve the issue, since I am currently dealing with this same issue right now. :)

  52. Hi David,

    I am having some issues with having my Twitter cards point to a specific blog post and then have the url under the title in the card be the main website for the company I work for. Have you ever had an issues like this?

    • Hi Anthony, I’m not 100% sure but it sounds like something to do with the way your website is set up. I have seen instances when Twitter isn’t sure what to do with a link and just reverts the card to our homepage and the first image it can identify. I would talk to your website developer and see how the site is set up to handle Twitter cards.

      If you’re using WordPress, the Social Warfare plug in is great for controlling the way cards appear on posts and pages :)

      Hope that helps!

  53. Does it take a while once you signup to actually be able to create the cards?

    I got to the Create website Card screen. I can “Preview” fine. When when clicking “Create” I get this error.

    “Something went wrong while creating this Card. Please try again.”

    • David, I finally solved this problem–images must be exactly 800X418. Also, links have a maximum character # — I think 150, but that could be wrong. Hope this helps.

  54. It says you are billed if someone visits your website, I thought you didn’t have to pay?

    • Hi Autumn,

      You should be able to create the card without running an ad and tweet that out. Just make sure not to start a campaign or set a budget or anything like that and you won’t be charged to tweet the way it’s outlined in the post :)

  55. David, you are right – I had a few minutes frustration trying to find the creatives – Cards menu link, but it doesn’t show up until I clicked and processed ‘add another (or alternative?) card payment’

  56. Almost a month I am searching how to post on twetter with clickable images, and finally your article helped me.
    Thanks

  57. after clicking on twitter ads, my screen looks nothing loke this..there is no creatives tab…what is going on…any suggestions

    • Hi Maria,

      That’s strange. As I replied to Robin, the only thing I can think of is you might need to enter credit card info (but you don’t have to actually run an ad or pay anything). Hope that helps!

  60. Is this outdated? I never got past the step to select the “Card” from the “Creatives” drop down menu–no such menu on any screen. My twitter screens displayed completely different views than shown above. Shoot!

    • Hi Robin,

      No, not outdated. I just checked and it does look slightly different but the instructions are still the same and everything is basically still in the same place. I do think you have to enter your credit card info (but don’t have to actually pay anything) to create the cards. Maybe that’s why you don’t have the option? Really not sure :(

  62. Yes been totally scratching my head on how to do this! LOL … Armed & ready to implement :) Thanks

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