Optimal Open Graph image size for linking to my podcast

Question

I often link to my podcast on Facebook and when I post the link I want our podcast logo to show as the link picture.

Through much trial and error and using the Facebook debugging tool, I eventually got all the Open Graph tags set and set my Open Graph image. Here's my problem:

iTunes wants a 1400x1400 image. However, if I use that image, then when I post the link on Facebook, the link picture appears as a larger rectangular banner above the link and only displays part of the (square) picture.

If I instead use a 300x300 Open Graph image, it looks great on Facebook, but does not meet the iTunes standard of needing to be 1400x1400.

Is there any solution to this? Any way to somehow make Facebook and iTunes use separate images or have FB resize my image and display it properly?

Answer 1

iTunes reads the cover image (recommended size 1400x1400px) from the RSS feed. This image is specified (in the XML containing the podcast feed) by the tag <itunes:image href="hereGoesTheURL" />

On the other hand, Facebook reads the image (recommended size 300x300px) specified through the open graph tag <meta property="og:image" content="hereGoesTheURL" /> which has to be placed in the head section of the html code of the page containing your episode (i.e. the page that you post on Facebook).

Therefore, in principle, if you specify the iTunes cover in the RSS feed and the open graph image in the code of your website, the two images can be different and won't interfere with each other.