Social Media Imagery

If you post on social media, and if you write blog posts that you are posting on social media, I want to take a minute to talk to you about image sizes. Did you know that each social media platform has different requirements for featured images? That doesn’t mean you’re required to have a specially sized image for each one, but let me show you why it matters.

In the past, I’ve done a lot of auto-posting. I write a lot of blog posts, and each one, when I hit publish, goes out to the various social media platforms. Easy peasy. My Linkedin connect always seems to be spotty, so I decided to start manually pushing posts to LinkedIn and since I was doing that, I might as well make my image the proper size (698X400). Take a look at the difference.

LinkedIn Screenshot

My most recent post, where I shared it with a properly sized photos, fills the whole space and looks great. And the one that auto-posted using whatever image size I put in the blog post shows a tiny little thumbnail. Which one looks more interesting? Which one makes you more likely to click through? There’s a clear winner here, which is how I learned the following:

Image Sizes Matter

They can make a difference between someone who clicks on the link and someone who doesn’t. Each social platform has their perfect size. Here are the current ones (but keep in mind that these are likely to change, so check the date on this article.)

  • Facebook: 1200X630
  • Twitter: 1024X512
  • Instagram: 1080X1080
  • LinkedIn: 698X400
  • Snapchat: 1080X1920
  • Pinterest: 600X900
  • Google: 497X373

What does this mean for you? Well, that depends. If you want to use social media to get more traffic to your site, then you may want to consider creating appropriately sized graphics for your posts. And what that means is that you have to post each one individually with the appropriate image, instead of just pasting the link into your status update. It also means you should consider writing different status updates for each one instead of letting it grab a snippet of your content. Folks will be more inclined to click the link if you write a catchy title or question to grab their attention.

The problem

This means it takes longer to share your content across mediums, because you aren’t automatically hitting share and sending it everywhere. This is true. But the quality of your posts will be better. But don’t worry, I have tools! You can use Hootsuite or Buffer, two tools that let you login to one main account and schedule all your social media posts. In fact, I recommend scheduling them all out a week in advance.

And if you’re going to the trouble of planning your status and image for each post, you might as well set up an editorial calendar. Having a strategy in place will help your social media game in every aspects. Getting better sized images is just the beginning.

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Amy Masson, Web Developer
Owner/Developer

Amy Masson

Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.

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