When you’re putting together your online marketing strategy, your presentation must be pristine. This means impeccable elements across all your platforms – from your professional website, to your social media pages.
Nowadays, making sure your social media presence is on point is one of the most important aspects of your overall marketing plan. And a subtle but indispensable task is seeing to it that the layout of your socials is up to the standards of aesthetic and functional professionalism that you require – including that your images are correctly sized.
This is not as straightforward as it sounds: oftentimes images on social media are awkwardly cropped, oddly pixelated, or otherwise not what you intended, and this can make this outlet’s appearance inconsistent with your brand or just plain unprofessional. Especially when the sizing requirements change so frequently, and they differ so much from case to case and from platform to platform.
That’s what we’re here to fix. Here you will find a complete guide to all your social media sizing needs, from A to Z.
You have the ability to upload images in a variety of orientations to Instagram, including horizontally or vertically. The platform is also still able to support square images, its original claim to fame.
This makes Instagram a versatile as well as a highly vital tool, but it also means that in order to get your page images right, you have to make sure they’re in accordance with these specific guidelines.
Instagram Reel/live:
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Size: 1080x1920px
- Time/Length: must be between 5 seconds and 15 minutes long.
Instagram Post:
- Aspect ratio: between 4:5 and 16:9
- Size: 1080×1080 (square), 1080x566px(landscape), 1080×1350(portrait)
- Time/Length: up to 1 minute long (60 seconds)
Note: Videos are only supported up to 100 MB.
Instagram story:
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Time/Length: up to 1 minute long (60 seconds – but you can post longer videos, they will just come up in separate stories; EX. 3-minute video will be 3 stories long)
Instagram profile picture:
- Size: 110x110px
- Aspect ratio: 1:1
- Format: can not use PNG on desktop
Instagram ad
- Size: 1080x1080px
Instagram IGTV videos
- Size: 1080x1920px
- Cover photo size: 420x654px
TikTok
TikTok is the new most up-and-coming social media platform of the day, particularly popular amongst Gen Z. This is why we’re placing it toward the top of our list, to make sure you pay it due attention when you may not be aware of it, or if you are, you may be unaware of how important it is to your brand marketing.
Like on any social networking sites, size matters, and the particular sizes that fit this one are below.
Tik Tok post:
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Ideal dimensions: 1080×1920
- Time/Length: must be between 3 seconds and 1 minutes (60 seconds) to post through Hootsuite, can be up to 3 minutes on app
- Character limit: 150
Tik Tok Profile photo:
- Size: 200 x 200 px
Tik Tok ad video:
- Aspect ratio: 9×16, 1:1, or 16:9
Tik Tok post:
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Ideal dimensions: 1080×1920
- Time/Length: must be between 3 seconds and 1 minutes (60 seconds) to post through Hootsuite, can be up to 3 minutes on app
- Character limit: 150
Tik Tok Profile photo:
- Size: 200 x 200 px
- Tik Tok ad video:
- Aspect ratio: 9×16, 1:1, or 16:9
Snapchat
Snapchat is another highly versatile digital tool at your disposal, with the capability to dispatch not only photos and videos, but also drawings and graphic text. This makes it a relatively untapped source of marketing growth, and well worth your attention.
To get the dimensions and other specifications correct as you embark on this facet of your social imaging work, follow these guidelines:
Snapchat post:
- Ideal dimensions: 1080x1920px
- Time/Length: 10 seconds or less (like Instagram, longer than 10 seconds will lead to multiple stories – can record up to 60 seconds at a time)
Snapchat story:
- Ideal dimensions: 1080x1920px
- Time/Length: 10 seconds or less (similar to Instagram, longer than 10 seconds will lead to multiple stories – can record up to 60 seconds at a time)
Facebook has somewhat fallen out of favor with the younger generation, or at least that perception exists as new outlets like TikTok have gained prominence – but it still sits firmly at the top of the list of most widely used social media platforms in the world.
In order to remain relevant, Facebook constantly revamps itself, and that includes its image and design dimensions. To stay ahead of the curve, make sure you download the highest quality images you can, and stick to their recommended file formats.
Facebook profile picture:
- Size: 180x180px
- Aspect ratio: 1:1
- Height below 180px will make image not clear.
Facebook business profile picture (same as normal):
- Size: 180x180px
- Aspect ratio: 1:1
- Height below 180px will make image unclear
Facebook cover image:
- Size: 820×312 px
- Min width of 400px, minimum height of 150px
Facebook shared link image
- Size: 1200x620px
- Aspect ratio: 1.9:1
- If image is not set, Facebook will pull one from link content
Facebook shared image
- Size: 1200x630px
- Aspect ratio: 3:2
- Max height of 1800px, Facebook will auto-crop
Facebook event cover image:
- Size: 1920x1080px
- Max width of 400px, min height of 150px
- Aspect ratio: 16:9
Facebook video:
- Size: 1280x720px
- Length/time: max of 240 minutes
Facebook ad:
- Size: 1200x628px
- Ratio: 4:5, 16:9 to 9:16 also supported
Facebook story ad:
- Size: 1800x1920px
Facebook reels:
- Size: 1080x1350px
- Aspect ratio: 4:5
If you’re looking to get more retweets, and more click-throughs and likes on your tweets, adding images is a good idea. Tweets that include visual content are three times more likely to get engagement than tweets without.
So you should be thinking seriously about how to create the most stimulating visual content for your Twitter presence that you can, and to help you fit it right, follow these guidelines.
Twitter profile picture
- Size: 400x400px
- Aspect ratio 1:1
- Max file size: 2MB
Twitter header photo
- Size: 1500x500px
- Aspect ratio: 3:1
Twitter photo
- Size: 1600x900px
- Aspect ratio: 2:1 and 1:1 (desktop), 2:1, 3:4 and 16:9 (mobile)
- Formats: GIF, JPG, PNG
Twitter video
- Size: 720x720px, 1280x720px, 720×1280
- Length/time: 140 seconds
Twitter ads
- Size: 800x418px, 800x800px
Twitter video ads:
- Size: 720x720px, 1280x720px, 720x1280px
- Length/time: 12 seconds or less (recommended), max of 2 minutes and 20 seconds
LinkedIn is an extremely vital online tool for business owners and professionals alike, with 25% of the entire adult population in America active, 22% of whom use it every day.
In addition to adhering to the below specifications, also make sure you check your posts on multiple devices with different formats (desktop/laptop, phone, tablet) before launching.
Linked in profile picture
- Size: 400x400px
Linked in header/cover image
- Size: 1584x396px
- Aspect ratio: 4:1
Linked in post image
- Size: 1200x1200px
LinkedIn story
- Size: 1080x1920px
LinkedIn video
- Size: 256x144px(min), 4096×2304(max)
- Length: up to 10 minutes
YouTube
Creating original YouTube content is another possibly unexplored marketing avenue for many small businesses.
Getting the imaging right for this platform takes a few tricks. You should make sure the focus of your photo is centered for best results. Also remember that photos will render at 98 x 98 pixels.
YouTube profile picture
- Size: 800x800px
- Formats: JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF (not animated)
YouTube cover image
- Size: 2560x1440px
YouTube thumbnail
- Size: 1280x720px
- Aspect ratio: 16:9
- Min width of 640px
YouTube standard video:
- Size: 426x240px
- Aspect ratio: 16:9
Last on our list is Pinterest, a lesser-known but still important image sharing platform. Posting here is important in the interest of diversifying your online presence, and making sure that you can reach the widest audience possible.
Some particularities of this outlet: your profile image will appear as a circle, so bear that in mind when making your selection. Also, in the cover photo spot, use a landscape photo with a 16:9 aspect ratio rather than a portrait photo.
Pinterest profile picture
- Size: 165x165px
Pinterest pin image
- Size: 100x1500px
- Aspect ratio 2:3
Pinterest board display picture
- Size: 222x150px
Pinterest video:
- Aspect ratios: 1:1, 2:3/9:16
- Length/time” min 4 minutes, max 15 minutes
It’s important to make sure you get your image sizes right to avoid pixelation, blurriness and awkward image stretching. Optimized images will also increase engagement, and make for less need for updates in the future.
Some things to remember: Make sure your images don’t violate any copyright laws, any stock photos you use are high-quality, and that you’re optimizing your images through all the best available tools.
