Social Media Image Sizes 2019
When it comes to social media, so much of what we post every day involves some sort of imagery. Not only that, but the first thing someone sees when visiting your page is your profile picture and cover photo. These social media images need to be sized properly to make your profiles look their best.
Everything in your brand’s visual identity, including your logo, is on display across all of your social platforms acting as the face of your brand. It’s important to incorporate this into your social media strategy as you curate and format your images.
But how do you keep track of all the correct photo sizes? Especially knowing there are different dimensions for each social platform and restrictions on certain sizes.
In our social media image size guide, we list seven of the main social networks and their specific size requirements. Along with helpful tips to best utilise these images on your social channels. This way, next time you are in need of a quick reference, you can bookmark this post for easy access.
Navigate via these shortcuts to each social platform’s size guide*:
*All image dimensions listed are measured in pixels and width x height.
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Google+
YouTube
There are four main photo types when sizing for Facebook.
- Cover photo
- Profile picture
- Shared image
- Event image
The cover photo, which will act as a banner on your main page, is an opportunity to let visitors know what your business does. It provides the largest space for imagery on your page.
The main profile photo appears on the left on company pages. Your logo is the best image for your profile photo. Your logo is recognisable as a small thumbnail when people are searching for your company page, easily allowing people to identify the page as yours, and it strengthens your brand connection.
For shared images, these will appear in the main news feed stream both on your page and others who follow you.
Lastly, there are event images, which should include all relevant information about the event in both the image and in the description. This way when Facebook users are scrolling through their feed or your events page, they can get the main details such as date and time at first glance of the image.
Facebook Cover Photo Size: 820 x 312
Facebook Profile Picture Size: 180 x 180
Facebook Shared Image Size: 1200 x 630
Facebook Event Image Size: 1920 x 1080
On Instagram, images aren’t limited to just the photos you post, there are a few other images to consider.
Starting with your main profile picture. Like Facebook, this is best suited as your logo on your Instagram business profile. It acts as the main identifier of your brand on the platform.
All images posted on your Instagram account will be the standard size, which will then automatically resize as a thumbnail when looking at the grid style layout.
With the introduction of Instagram Stories, a whole new element to how you share your images on the platform was added. These story images are portrait oriented, formatted to fit your full phone screen in the vertical orientation—how people naturally hold their smartphones. The same size applies for both Instagram Story images and Story Highlight covers. Your covers for your Instagram Highlights will first need to be posted to your Stories and then saved to that particular Highlight. You can learn all about them in How to Use Instagram Stories: a Small Business Guide.
Instagram Profile Picture Size: 110 x 110
Instagram Post Size: 1080 x 1080
Instagram Stories Size: 1080 x 1920
Although Twitter was originally a text-based platform, there is still an element of visual importance. In fact, tweets with images get retweeted 150% more than those without, which will apply to the in-stream image sizing.
It is important to consider how you portray your business visually on Twitter, especially if you want your content to reach a wider audience.
Your Twitter profile has an option for a header image and profile photo, both of which function in a similar way as they do on the other social media platforms. Your profile image will sit beside your name on all your tweets, and your header along with your profile image will show up when searching your business on Twitter.
Twitter Header Image Size: 1500 x 500
Twitter Profile Picture Size: 400 x 400
Twitter In-Stream Image Size: 440 x 220
Like Instagram, Pinterest is a very image-heavy platform. The images on Pinterest draw users in to add these pins to their own boards and share across the platform.
Each pin requires an image with a description to the link for more information.
Upon viewing your Pinterest profile, there is a profile picture and cover image that introduces your page at the top. Then each of your boards will have a cover image along with pinned image previews and expanded pin sizes.
Tip: Make sure when creating images to make them 735 wide, but note that this size gets reduced to 236 wide on your feed display.
Pinterest Cover Photo Size: 217 x 146
Pinterest Profile Picture Size: 165 x 165
Pinterest Board Cover Image Size: 222 x 150
Pinned Pin Size (Expanded- Create your original image files in this size): 735 pixels x adjusted by height
Pinterest Pin Size (Feed): 236 pixels x adjusted by height
The imagery on LinkedIn differs in sizing between personal and business pages. A personal profile image and background photo are a different size to the ones listed on business profiles.
With the business profiles, there is a company logo image, cover photo, banner image as well as a small square logo that comes up in search results.
LinkedIn Personal Profile Picture Size: 400 x 400
LinkedIn Personal Cover Photo Size: 1584 x 396
LinkedIn Shared Image Size: 1104 x 736
LinkedIn Company Logo Image: 300 x 300
LinkedIn Company Cover Photo Size: 1536 x 768
Google+
For those of you who use Google+, again, it is very similar to other platforms with the standard profile picture and cover image along with shared images and link thumbnails.
Google + Cover Image: 1080 x 608
Google + Profile Picture: 250 x 250
Google + Shared Image: 497 x 373
Google + Shared Link Thumbnail: 150 x 150
YouTube
We know YouTube is all about video, but it has images as well! As a social media platform, it has the same concept with profile and cover photos.
It is common for YouTube channels to include information in their cover images such as their other social platform handles or a short tagline about their channel.
There is also an option to create video thumbnails to give your channel more uniformity and visual appeal instead of using the default video stills, which may not have the same impact.
YouTube Channel Cover Art Size: 2560 x 1440
YouTube Profile Picture Size: 800 x 800
YouTube Video Thumbnail Size: 1280 x 720
YouTube Max Video Resolution: 3840 x 2160 – 2160p (4K)
Phew, that’s a lot of numbers!
Now that you have all the social media image sizes optimised, we recommend having a quick review of your social channels to ensure you aren’t making any other mistakes on your social profiles. With these platforms constantly changing and updating, there’s always room for improvement on your social media profiles as you grow your business.
Make sure to take advantage of some useful free imagery tools out there to help you in the process.
On social media, it’s the visuals that make the very first impression of your brand, so best to make them count!
Categorised in: Social Media
