If you’re going to succeed on social media in 2022, a lot depends on the quality of your visual content.
A study from Jeff Bullas showed that articles with images got 94% more views, and Facebook posts with images saw a 37% increase in engagement.
When you’re adding images to your social posts, it’s important to follow the recommended specifications for images so that your organic posts and ads appear correctly on all devices — you want your business to look great on mobiles, laptops and desktop machines.
But it can be tricky to keep up with the pace of change on some social networks — there are regular experiments with new post formats, and the recommended size for images are changing all the time.
I’ve put together a list of the current recommended image sizes for common posts on the major social networks at the time of writing (June 2022), with links to where you can keep up to date on any changes.
Your Facebook profile picture is really important — it’s likely to be the first image that people see of you or your business. It sets the tone for your presence on Facebook, so make sure to choose a photo that reflects you or your business. The size of your Facebook profile picture should be 180 x 180 pixels.
Facebook also give you plenty of space at the top of your profile to deliver a photo or image of your choice. Your Facebook cover image should be 820 x 312 pixels.
If you’re posting on Facebook, the size of an image post should be 1200 x 630 pixels, and a Facebook video post size is 1280 x 720 pixels, with a maximum length of 240 minutes.
If you’re going to be running ads on Facebook, the dimensions are a little bit different.
An image ad on Facebook should be 1200 x 628 pixels, and a story ad 1080 x 1920 pixels. Your video ads can either be 16:9, 9:16 or 4:5 — but they must be at least 1080 pixels on their shortest side.
To keep up-to-date on the recommended image sizes to use on Facebook, the Meta official guidance is refreshed frequently.
With Instagram being a visually led platform, your images are really important!
Whether it’s for your personal or business Instagram account, it’s important to deliver a professional first impression with your profile picture. Try and keep your image centered, and have good lighting and contrast. Your Instagram profile picture should be 110 x 110 pixels.
When you’re posting, your standard Instagram photo size should be 1080 x 1080 pixels for a square image (1:1), 1080 x 566 for a landscape image, and 1080 x 1350 for a portrait image.
Within the platform your images will show on a 1:1 format, at 161 x 161 pixels — but the platform will resize these automatically for you.
If you’re getting a bit more creative, and are planning to publish Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels, you’ll want to be producing this content at 1080 x 1920 pixels.
The official Meta guidance for ad image specifications is also regularly updated to include optimum sizes for Instagram images.
Twitter is a great place for businesses to connect with their customers and prospects in real time.
But unless you’re using a Twitter thread, you’ve only got 280 characters to get your message across. This is where high-quality images can really help support your message (remember that old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”!)
Images for posts on Twitter need to be a minimum of 600 x 335 pixels, but the recommended size is 1600 x 900 pixels.
For carousels, you can have up to 6 image cards. You have a choice of 800 x 800 pixels for a 1:1 ratio, or 800 x 418 pixels for a 1.91:1 ratio.
Don’t forget your profile image and header image — they say a lot about you, and will help users make the decision whether they want to follow you or not.
Your profile photo should be 400 x 400 pixels, and your Twitter header should be 1500 x 500 pixels.
The Twitter business hub has some useful advice on best practice, and the things you should avoid with images on their platform.
If you’re struggling with your profile photo, there is also some guidance in their help section.
LinkedIn is a social network that can help you make connections with other professionals. It can help you find new jobs, establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, and connect with potential clients or business partners.
It’s important that you visually communicate in a way that represents you and your business.
Your LinkedIn profile photo should be 400 x 400 pixels, and it’s important that you look professional and approachable, and that your picture is up to date.
The LinkedIn cover image is used by a lot of businesses to communicate more information about who they are and what they do (including text), and should be 1584 x 396 pixels in size.
If you’re adding an image to your LinkedIn post, you’ll want to be creating them at 1200 x 627 pixels.
Linked has some official guidance for image specifications for ads on their platform.
Pinterest is a visually led social media platform that allows you to store, organise and share your images with customers and prospects. If your business has visually distinctive products, Pinterest is a must!
Your profile picture for Pinterest should ideally be 165 x 165 pixels
When you’re uploading your Pinterest pins, an image size of 1000 x 1500 pixels is recommended.
Pinterest boards are one way you organise and categorise your different images on the platform. Your display images for Pinterest boards should ideally be 222 x 150 pixels.
Pinterest has a useful guide on their website, with regularly updated image specifications for their site.
TikTok
Very much the ‘new kid on the block’, TikTok has taken the world by storm over the last couple of years, and businesses are starting to take it a little more seriously as a social media channel.
If you’re setting up a profile, you’ve only got 20 x 20 pixels for your profile picture on TikTok, so make sure your image is nice and clear.
TikTok makes it easy for anyone to create videos ‘in-app’, so you shouldn’t necessarily need to worry about importing videos or images at specific sizes.
But if you do decide you want create ‘off platform’ videos for TikTok, the recommended size is 1080 x 1920 pixels.
Want to resize your images for different platforms? Try using Canva Pro for your image creation.
Canva has changed the game for small businesses when it comes to creating professional graphics at an affordable price point.
You can get started for free, but a lot of the powerful functionality comes with a Pro account (around £10.99/month at the time of writing)
One of the nicest features of a Canva Pro account is the ability to resize your images and visual assets to suit multiple social media platforms.
It’s not entirely automatic (you still often need to manually adjust the layout and positioning of elements) but it’s a lot quicker than having to start from scratch for every platform!
If you haven’t got the time to get up to speed with Canva, I’d love to chat about how I might be able to help with any visual asset creation or image resizing for social media.
