The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Image Sizes
Social media is an ever-evolving digital landscape. So closely linked with technology, the spontaneous nature of social media sees constant developments in typesets and trends. It’s a similar case with image sizes for social media, so it’s really important to stay on your game. When it comes to what image sizes should fit where across social media platforms, visuals play a pivotal role in catching your visitors’ attention, as that’s where clicks turn into conversions. Check out our ultimate guide to the subtleties and dimensions of images you should think about when sharing on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest below.
Facebook has always been a leading platform for digital marketing, and has been widely used since its beginning. It’s the go-to platform where you can strategically build credibility while you engage with your followers, with the prime opportunity to them call to action. To maximise the content of Facebook users’ experiences, make sure the creatives you’re using to visually represent your band are displayed correctly on your audience’s devices. In order to generate more followers on Facebook, be conscious of handling the information page and offer as much information as possible, including your brand address, website link, or contact details.
- Profile Picture Size
Profile pictures act as the face of your brand. Whenever you comment, share or like, your profile picture stands as your brand icon. Clearly, it’s crucial to get the profile picture size. The minimum requirement is 180 x 180 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 1:1. Make sure that the creatives fit well inside the circular display.
Business page profile pictures appear to the left side of the screen. These dimensions are the same here, and will be cropped to fit the square. Facebook also offers the possibility of adding a video in place of your profile picture, so long as it is less than 7 seconds. This is definitely something to explore, as the importance of video content is ever-increasing.
- Cover Photo Size
With more space on a cover photo, you can use it as an opportunity to speak more about your brand. You can use a cover photo to show who you are, what are your services, and generate the brand image to give your business a consistent feel. Introduced in 2011, a cover photo allows you to build your brand character and create your own presence. Be sure to choose your creatives carefully so that it captures your brand but without overshadowing your profile picture.
In the case of computers, cover photos are displayed as 820 x 312 pixels, while on mobile it is 640 x 360 pixels. The minimum requirement is 399 x 150 pixels.
- Shared Image Size
Shared images circulate around Facebook both in and beyond your network, and they are an important way of speaking to your followers. Shared images show up in your followers’ news feeds as well as your own timeline. Once uploaded, you never know what journey it might take, so be sure to have the image quality high, eye-catching creatives, and a relevant and well-considered caption.
When using computers, shared images are displayed as 1200 x 630 pixels. The aspect ratio is 3:2. Be careful as you upload because Facebook can automatically resize or crop the image, so it’s better to test it before you go ahead.
- Shared Link Image Size
Facebook generates a box from a shared link along with your content’s title and description. Effectively, this is an automatic nutshell of your content. This is crucial as your followers decide whether to click the link or just scroll down. Make use of social meta tags to choose the image that Facebook uses.
The recommended dimensions are 1200 x 627 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 1:9:1. You can choose to create a shared link with a small square image to the left with text on the right, or you can use a larger rectangular image on top with text underneath.
- Event Image Size
Marketing and advertising becomes an easy task with Facebook events, as it narrows down your followers’ attention. Notification serves as reminders and better images mean better persuasion. The minimum dimension is 470 x 174 pixels, and it’s the same in news feed.
Infographics
Facebook
Profile picture: 180 x 180 pixels
Cover photo: 820 x 312 pixels
Shared image: 1200 x 630 pixels
Shared link image: 1200 x 627 pixels
Event image: 470 x 174 pixels
Instagram is all about creating pictures that curate your lifestyle, so make sure to keep an eye out on how your profile is looking as a whole. It’s popular among the younger generation of photographers, influencers and artists who are in full swing, aiming to build their portfolio and market their creative products. Stand apart from them with good quality images with the right dimensions. Take care to build brand continuity across your profile with a consistent use of filters, and gain organic reach by using plenty of relevant hashtags. You can compose photographs as per Instagram frames in either squared, landscape and portrait formats.
- Profile Picture Size
Be conscious of making your profile picture eye catchy and comprehensive. Profile pictures appear on the mobile app at 110 x 110 pixels, but it will be displayed larger on the desktop. It is advised to use 180 x 180 pixels so that it appears properly fit in all devices. Aspect ratio is 1:1 and it will be cropped to a circle, so make sure it displays cleanly with nothing being cut off.
- Photo Size
Instagram photos appear on the newsfeed as well as on your profile. Instagramers are mostly mobile users, so focus on testing how it looks on mobile displays.
To get the best resolution, the recommended dimensions for Instagram photos are 1080 x 1080 pixels with an aspect ratio 1:1 in the case of square images. For landscape images you should use 1080 x 566 pixels and an aspect ratio of 1.9:1, and 1080 x 1350 pixels and an aspect ratio of 4:5 for portraits.
- Story Image
Instagram stories expire in a day. It’s a great place to show what’s happening behind the scenes or content that makes sense to be shown for a shorter period of time like events. Stories are also a great way to share content that reminds your followers that you’re an active and engaged business. Moreover, news, updates and offers linked through stories can easily persuade your users, as it runs through stories automatically. Although it’s the space for slightly more informal content, having your images displayed correctly, means your story can better build relations. Content for your stories should be high quality for full screen display, and portrait oriented.
It is recommended to use 1080 x 1920 pixels with an aspect ratio of 9:16.
- Thumbnail Image
In sections like hashtag search or collective images on an individual profile page is where you’ll find a thumbnail image. Whenever someone visits your page, your creative content will be available in a row of thumbnails. These snapshot versions of your images will generate more engagements if it looks enticing as a whole. Mostly, thumbnails appear on the page in the dimensions of 161 x 161 pixels with the aspect ratio of 1:1.
Infographics
Profile picture: 180 x 180
Photo size: 1080 x 1080
Story image: 1080 x 1920
Thumbnail image: 161 x 161
Minimum Instagram video sizes: 600 x 600 (square), 600 x 315 (landscape), 600 x 750 (portrait)
Maximum Instagram video length: 60 seconds
Minimum Instagram image ad size: 500 pixels wide
The “larry bird” Twitter logo perches well in the network. Twitter as a “short and sweet” style of blogging has a huge impact when it comes to engaging with a broader internet audience. One thing to note is that tweets with images are retweeted more than those without. Easy to understand information with creatives like striking images or infographics make the mark in this social media platform of opinion.
- Profile Picture
As mentioned earlier, like other social media platforms, the profile picture is what serves as the face of your brand. This appears on every tweet and retweet you do. Most Twitter profile pictures are brand logos for businesses.
Profile pictures appear circular, but if it is lower than the minimum dimension of 200 x 200 pixels it will be pixelated. Not ideal. The recommended dimensions are 400 x 400 pixels with an aspect ratio of 1:1.
- Header Photo
The header photo covers the top of Twitter profile page, and as more space is available you also have more room for creativity here. Make it responsive for different devices. Businesses use this space to advertise products and events, as an extra opportunity to maximise their branding. The dimensions of a header photo is recommended to be 1500 x 500 pixels, and with an aspect ratio of 3:1.
- In-Stream Images
Your followers’ Twitter streams will include a smaller version of your profile picture whenever you tweet or post retweets. This is the chance to invite attention from follower’s followers, too. Twitter will collapse the image to fit into your followers stream, so it is best to upload images with the minimum required dimensions. That is, 440 x 220 pixels, and an aspect ratio of 16:9, while the maximum is 1024 x 512 pixels.
Infographics
Profile picture: 400 x 400
Header photo: 1500 x 500
In stream image: 440 x 220
Pinterest is the social media platform where people share creative ideas and search for visual references. It’s a key site where you can get plenty of referral traffic from boards and pins. 90% of content posted on Pinterest is made up of external links. Properly showing off your products on Pinterest can generate some real traffic (depending on your audience, of course).
- Profile Picture
What do you want to present to your audience? You can represent yourself or your business using a profile picture, and here on Pinterest it’s a good platform to put a human face for your personal boards. Play up the human connection and relationships when it comes to sharing creative ideas. Take note that when you create Pinterest account, whichever social media platform you use to log in with will automatically use that pre existing profile picture as your Pinterest profile picture. Or else, you can upload a different image. It appears in 165 x 165 pixels on home page and 32 x 32 pixels on the rest of the Pinterest space.
- Pin Sizes
Pinterest puts restrictions only on the width, but not the length. Pins can be either square or long. So if you need to really push the importance for your pinned image, make sure that it’s LARGE. Pins on main page appears as 236 pixels, while it is also the same on boards. Expanded pins will have maximum width of 600 pixels. Image aspect ratio is 2:3 or 1:3.5.
- Board Display
Your full labour in Pinterest contributes to the board. No matter how great your pins look separately, if it is not enticing as a whole, the pins won’t do the work in the future. You need your audience to buy into what’s being shared on your board. Use relevant images for specific boards, and be sure that they fit the size criteria. In case of large thumbnails, use 222 x 150 pixels and 55 x 55 pixels for smaller thumbnails.
Infographics
Profile picture: 165 x 165
Pin size: 236 pixels
Board display: Large thumbnails: 222 x 150, Small thumbnails: 55 x 55
LinkedIn is the most professional network of all social media platforms. Everything posted here should look smart as LinkedIn is primarily used to build business relationships. On LinkedIn, images aren’t an exception. LinkedIn a prime opportunity where you can connect with broader business networks and other industry leaders. Grabbing the attention of great thought leaders and builders of the economy can be a tough job, but making a positive impression comes with the importance of correctly sized images to look professional and well-considered.
- Profile Picture
When it comes to LinkedIn, you have to carefully choose a profile picture that shows confidence and professionalism, and ideally a touch of your personality. It’s a bit like an e-business card. You have the flexibility to crop or zoom images, but ultimately your profile picture on LinkedIn will be cropped into a circle. Dimensions of 400 x 400 pixels work well.
- Personal Background Banner
When people visit your LinkedIn page, whether it be consciously or not, they will think about the images on your page as well as your qualifications. Whatever personal background image you use, you should keep it professional, but it’s also an opportunity for a little bit of creativity, too. Get it right with the dimension of 1584 x 396 pixels.
- Company Logo
A standard company logo image gets its own space in the company logo section. Your company logo appears under the “companies you may want to follow”. It appears right next to your brand name on your LinkedIn homepage. It’s recommended to use 300 x 300 pixels for clarity and professionalism.
- Shared Image or Link
LinkedIn has a feature where you can post blogs and images that are relevant to your industry or work. It is recommended to use 1104 x 736 pixels, and switch to maximum size images of 1104 x 736 pixels if you’re sharing photos. On mobile devices, be careful as the images will be vertically cropped.
Infographics
Linkedin
Profile picture: 400 x 400
Personal background image: 1584 x 396
Company logo image: 300 x 300
Shared image or link: 1104 x 736
Company cover image: 1536 x 768
Company page banner image: 646 x 220
Square logo (appears in company searches): 60 x 60
Banner image: 1584 x 396
If want to learn more about how to use social media for your business, feel free to give us a call, we provide the best social media marketing that suit your business.
