in: Social Media
by: Katie Hellmuth Martin
[UPDATED: 7/31/15]
Once you publish a blog post, new website page, or new product for sale, your job is only half-way done. The next part requires you to tell people about it. Here is where you will reach your audience in a pretty and visual way via social media. But all images are not created equal, and filling your social streams with the same image could derail the big impact you were going for. I have made a visual size-guide for you, and to hear me in person describe this, and give you fresh ideas, stream this TuneUp: Social Media Graphics: Sizes and Styles That Work! for ideas you can use now.
What follows is a social media image size guide for your Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Bookmark it, save it to your Pinterest, and refer to it often when creating images for social media.
Here's what you should know about this guide:
- Focus on Proportion: Image sizes are not set in stone, and often change. The social media platforms are redesigning their websites just like you are, so from time to time, they may tweak the size of how images and photos are displayed in their newsstreams. You'll want to focus on the overall proportion of the images you are producing or designing.
- Bigger is Better: Thanks to responsive design, which is where websites can resize themselves depending on the size of the device a reader is using, starting with a really big image is the most efficient because it can be sized down easily by the website you are uploading it to. If you want to learn more about responsive design, we covered it in this TuneUp.
- Pixels: The measurements below are in pixels, not inches. Most social platforms give their required image size guidelines in pixels. It's a simple setting you can make in your image design program like Photoshop, Illustrator, Preview, iPhoto, or whatever application you are using.
FACEBOOK OBJECTIVE ADVERTISING
Facebook is making objective-based advertising easier on their ad platform. If you want to aggressively market any of the following with a call to action type ad, you can create a special "Links ad" in the Facebook Ads Guide. The following "calls to action" type ads will be available to you:
- increase engagement on your app
- get more likes
- get clicks to your website
- promote an event
- get video views
- reach people near your business
- and more call to actions...
These ads take the form of two shapes: square or rectangle. The image specs for the rectangle are here at Facebook, and are 1,200 x 628 pixels. The 20% Text Rule still applies, or so Facebook claims. You'll need to try your own ads to see what gets through!
FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE
Social Strategy Hints:
- Don't Sweat It: Facebook resizes images pretty well, so if you have an image that isn't quite to this proportion, Facebook will generally resize it to at least have the max width in your business page's newsstream. That's good because images that are all of the same width help create a coshesive look on your Facebook business page.
- Words - Yay or Nay? For "boosted" photos, which is when you pay a minimum of $5 to have your fans actually see your uploaded photo or status update, Facebook slaps down its "20% Rule". This rule states that any text on a photo, including the logo, cannot take up more than 20% of the space. Want to run a check to see if your image with words on it passes? Use Facebook's grid checker.
The linguistic tone in which you communicate in these social media platforms matters a lot. Tin Shingle hosted a 2-part TuneUp series: "How to Speak The Big 6 Social Media Languages for Brand Storytelling Success" that covers how to best communicate and write captions and updates in these social platforms. Download them today for writing strategies and best-practice tips.
Social Strategy Hints:
- Big and bold words work really well here. Even though the image can be quite large, when viewed on a small phone that fits in the palm of one's hand, the person needs to read it, sometimes without their over-40 glasses on.
- Use Bit.ly links. Nothing is clickable in Instagram except for hashtags. But you can type in a shortened URL for your content to helpe readers find the delightful information you just shared. If it's short, readers may type it in. I am not a fan of the "link in profile" route because these images live on forever, so the link in your profile will change. Plus, the reader has to leave your image to click on your profile, read that, and then click.
Social Strategy Hints:
- Stick to this proportion. Your image will get cropped weirdly if you don't, so if you're putting a big impact image with wording on it, follow this sizing guideline.
- Skip the "Call to Action" button. You may be tempted to put a "LEARN MORE" type call to action button on an image in Twitter, but don't. When the person clicks, they are simply given an elarged image. Meh. They will be dissapointed when they couldn't actually learn more from that button.
Social Strategy Hints:
- Long imagry works. Long photos work well in Pinterest. If you have a wide image, know that it will get resized to be really short. It won't get cropped like it will in Twitter, but it will get small.
- Words or No Words? In our TuneUp on this topic, Sabina and I discussed how words over images work well in Pinterest, but sometimes they are not needed at all. When do you know? Usually, if you're selling a beautiful product or a look, there are no words to describe the beauty. However, if you are selling an idea, such as an article with tips on it, or a downloadable podcast or e-book, words work very well in Pinterest when paired with a beautiful image.
Social Strategy Hints:
- Don't Sweat It: Facebook resizes images pretty well, so if you have an image that isn't quite to this proportion, Facebook will generally resize it to at least have the max width in your business page's newsstream. That's good because images that are all of the same width help create a coshesive look on your Facebook business page.
- Words - Yay or Nay? For "boosted" photos, which is when you pay a minimum of $5 to have your fans actually see your uploaded photo or status update, Facebook slaps down its "20% Rule". This rule states that any text on a photo, including the logo, cannot take up more than 20% of the space. Want to run a check to see if your image with words on it passes? Use Facebook's grid checker.
The linguistic tone in which you communicate in these social media platforms matters a lot. Tin Shingle hosted a 2-part TuneUp series: "How to Speak The Big 6 Social Media Languages for Brand Storytelling Success" that covers how to best communicate and write captions and updates in these social platforms. Download them today for writing strategies and best-practice tips.
FACEBOOK OBJECTIVE ADVERTISING
Facebook is making objective-based advertising easier on their ad platform. If you want to get more likes, get links to your website, promote an event, get video views, reach people near your business, increase engagement on your app, you can create a Links ad in the Facebook Ads Guide.
There are two shapes of an ad you can create: square or rectangle. The image specs for the rectangle are here at Facebook, and are 1,200 x 628 pixels. The 20% Text Rule still applies, or so Facebook claims. You'll need to try your own ads to see what gets through!
Top cover image created by Jackie Nees
