We’ve migrated our documentation to a new site, which means some URLs have changed.
Amplifier
Amplifier
Breadcrumbs

Socialflow - Editing Facebook Metadata - Claiming Your Web Domain

Facebook limited the ability to "modify link previews" (see https://trib.al/1LQpxN5) as part of their efforts to reduce the spread of misinformation or fake news. As a result, publishers must establish domain ownership with Facebook to continue editing metadata (title, image, description) when sharing links through SocialFlow.

Why This Matters

When SocialFlow publishes a Facebook post with a link, Facebook scrapes the URL and generates a link preview based on the page's metadata. If Facebook doesn't recognize your organization as the domain owner:

  • Facebook may ignore or override metadata edits and revert to what it originally scraped.

  • SocialFlow may display link ownership-related warnings or errors when connecting pages or publishing.

  • If multiple Facebook Business accounts publish for the same Facebook handle, verification by one account can prevent other accounts from editing metadata for that same domain.

Note: In many cases, domain verification is not required just to publish a link, but it is required to edit and reliably apply link metadata (title/image/description) when posting to Facebook.

What Changed

If you do not take the steps explained below, you will no longer be able to edit the metadata associated with Facebook posts.

Prerequisites

  • Admin access to the relevant Facebook Business Manager (to verify/claim the domain).

  • Admin (or sufficient) permissions in SocialFlow to access domain verification settings.

What You Need to Do - Option 1

As a publisher, you need to "claim" your domain(s) with Facebook, so that you can continue editing metadata when you share your own articles or pages. For example, SocialFlow would claim ownership of www.socialflow.com, allowing Facebook to create an association between that website and our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/socialflow.

Here are complete instructions for claiming link ownership on Facebook:

To indicate "ownership" between a Page and a domain, a Facebook Page Admin must follow these steps:

  1. Go to your Facebook Page and click Publishing Tools. In the left-hand column, click the tab that says "Link Ownership".

  2. Find the "Authorize Page" section in the middle of the page and follow the directions to highlight and copy the Open Graph markup tag shown (this is the tag that says <meta property="fb:pages" content="########" />).

  3. (You will need to coordinate with your website's webmaster for this step) Open your Content Management System (CMS) and input the tag in the <head> tag of your website's HTML. Note: Your site configuration and how you would like to grant editing access may vary. If you would like to only grant link post modification access for specific sections of your website, you will need to choose where in your code you would like to indicate Page(s) have access for editing (i.e. if a Page should only have link post modification access to the sports section of your website, you should find the section of code that controls only this section).

  4. Paste the Open Graph markup tag that you copied from Publishing Tools into this section of your code. After this step, the code has now authorized the Facebook Page to modify metadata of page posts that link to this website. Note: To authorize multiple Facebook Pages for one website domain, copy and paste into your code Open Graph markup tags from each of the Pages you would like to grant link ownership. To be able to modify links from multiple domains, a Page's Open Graph markup tag must be pasted in each website's code. The code will look something like this:

XML
<head>
...
<meta property="fb:pages" content="YOUR_PAGE_ID1" />
<meta property="fb:pages" content="YOUR_PAGE_ID2" />
<meta property="fb:pages" content="YOUR_PAGE_ID3" />
...
</head>

To verify that you have successfully enabled link post modification for a Page, follow these steps:

  1. In Publishing Tools on your Page, find the section labeled "Verify," and follow the directions to fill the open field with the domain you expect to have link ownership with.

  2. Click the "Verify URL" button.

  3. If you have successfully enabled link post editing for your Page, a green checkmark will confirm your site is connected to your Page. If your Page has not successfully connected with your website, a red box will indicate you need to reconfirm the link ownership steps.

  4. If you added multiple Pages' Open Graph markup tags to your website, you can use the Facebook Share Debugger to verify that the Facebook crawler is scraping all the tags that you added.

If your page does not have a Link Ownership tab in the Publishing Tools, you will need to contact your Facebook account representative to request access.

What You Need to Do - Option 2

The other option is to do domain verification via Facebook Business Manager. This is recommended for larger enterprise organizations.

Step 1 — Verify your domain in Facebook Business Manager

  1. In Facebook Business Manager, go to Brand Safety → Domains.

  2. Add your domain (for example, example.com).

  3. Complete verification using one of Facebook's supported methods:

    • DNS TXT record

    • HTML file upload

    • Meta tag added to your homepage

For the latest steps and requirements, refer to Facebook's documentation: Facebook Domain Verification

Step 2 — Add the verified domain to SocialFlow

After Facebook shows the domain as verified/claimed, add it in SocialFlow:

  1. In SocialFlow, go to Settings → Application → Domain Verification.

  2. Select Verify New Domain.

  3. Enter your domain and save.

Note: Some configurations require entering the domain including the protocol (for example, http://example.com). If you see validation issues, try including http:// as required by your SocialFlow domain entry form.

Step 3 — Refresh and confirm Facebook page associations

If you recently verified or connected the domain on Facebook:

  1. Have an organization admin refresh the domain in SocialFlow from the Domain Verification area.

  2. Return to the SocialFlow compose experience and confirm:

    • The correct Facebook Pages are available/associated.

    • No link ownership or domain verification errors appear.

Note: If one Business account verifies/claims the domain, it can limit other Business accounts' ability to edit metadata for that domain. Plan domain ownership workflows so the account that needs to manage link metadata is the one that verifies the domain.

Troubleshooting

Metadata (image/headline/description) doesn't match what you set in SocialFlow

Cause: Facebook is using scraped metadata because the domain is not verified/recognized for link ownership.

Fix: Verify the domain in Facebook Business Manager and add it to SocialFlow (Steps 1–2 above). If you recently changed metadata, allow time for Facebook to refresh its cache.

"Link Ownership" errors when adding a Facebook Page or publishing

Cause: Domain not verified in Facebook and/or not added in SocialFlow.

Fix: Confirm the domain is verified in Facebook Business Manager, then check Settings → Application → Domain Verification in SocialFlow.

Where to Check Status in SocialFlow

To review or troubleshoot domain verification in SocialFlow, go to Settings → Application → Domain Verification.

If you do not see these settings, your user role likely lacks the required permissions — contact your SocialFlow admin.

Need Help?

You can contact your client services rep at Piano or email us at support@piano.io.

Last updated: