Social Media Image Sizes Cheat Sheet for 2016
Social media has completely changed the way content and information is delivered around the world. Before social media and blogging, the internet was a very static and one-sided place. There wasn’t much conversation going on, and if you wanted to find out the latest breaking news, you would simply turn on the television or visit your favorite news website.
In addition to the many ways social media has changed content and information delivery, it’s also changed how individuals, businesses, and brands connect with each other around the world. Some people even consider “social media” as “anti-social” simply because the latest generation of teens and younger audiences don’t know how to engage with each without a computer or mobile device.
With all of that being said, we can all agree that social media is extremely important and it’s just going to continue to influence how we connect, learn and engage with people and brands around the world. This is even more true as social networks continue to focus more on mobile, which makes the engagement even more immediate.
To go along with how social media has changed content online, it’s safe to say that the actual social networks are also constantly changing as well. One such aspect of this, is the different sizing of profile photos, background images and content updates for each network. If you are an expert with a following or a respected brand, one of the worst things you can do is update your social feeds with the wrong image specs — thus making you look unprofessional and lowering your audience engagement in the process.
To help with this process, today we are going to highlight the most recent social media image sizes through the infographic below. Below the image you will also find a summary of all image sizes and specs for top networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumbler, Google+ and Instagram.
Of all the social platforms out there, Facebook is probably the one most well known for it’s customization of personal profile images and background. This is mainly due to it being one of the most popular social networks in the world. The cover photo for your Facebook image should be 828 x 315 pixels with a maximum file size of 100kb. The minimum size for Facebook cover photos is 399 x 150 pixels.
Twitter is a great social network for bringing branding and exposure to your profile picture because it’s always appearing in users content streams. Every time you sent out a new tweet, your face or profile image will be sent out to the masses. Your profile photo on Twitter should be 400 x 400 pixels. Your header/background photo on Twitter should be 1500 x 500 pixels with a maximum of 10mb in file size.
Google Plus
Much like Twitter, Google+ offers the ability to have a profile image and a background header images. The required size for a profile image is 250 x 250 pixels. The cover picture on Google Plus should be 1080 x 608 pixels. Any shared images on Google should be 497 x 373 pixels.
Instagram is all about picture sharing, so you want to make sure all of your images are always in the highest quality and the right size. The specs for a profile picture on Instagram are 110 x 110 pixels. The photo size for standard photos is 640 x 640. Photo thumbnails should be 161 x 161. You should maintain an aspect ratio of 1:1 on Instagram so think “perfect square” when posting on this medium.
Another social network that is based off the concept of image sharing is Pinterest. While active users on Pinterest probably aren’t as interested in your profile picture as they would be on other social networks, it’s still something you should have. Your profile picture on Pinterest should be 165 x 165.
Other sizes to be aware of, are the board image at 222 x 160 also make your pin sizes a width of 236 with a scaled height.
Tumblr
Tumblr is yet another social platform that relies on image sharing as it’s main source of content. Like all networks outlined in this guide, you can add a profile image to Tumblr as well. The size for your profile image should be 128×128. Image posts on Tumblr should be at 570 x 750 pixels. In addition to physical size, images may be as large as 10mb in file size, but animations can only be one MB.
YouTube
YouTube is all about engagement and building a brand for yourself. This means you will want to have an attention grabbing profile image and a nice background image to go along with it. Your channel cover image for YouTube should be 2560 x 1440 pixels for desktop users, 1855 x 423 for tablets, 1546 x 423 for smartphones, and 2500 x 1440 for TV. To produce the highest level of video quality possible, try to make your resolution 1280 x 760 pixels.
Linked In
Of all the social profiles listed so far, LinkedIn is the most clean and corporate. However, this doesn’t mean that the sizing and quality of your profile image isn’t important. The standard logo image for LinkedIn should be 100 x 60 pixels. Cover pictures should be 974 x 300 pixels, and banner images should be 646 x 220 pixels.
How to Get the Most Out of Social Media
Finding success on social media is all about engagement and putting out high quality content. Part of this process is making sure your images are of the highest quality at all times. The last thing you want to do is grow your following, only to have them see cut off or blurry images.
To maximize your results with content updates and engagement, be sure to check out the best times to use social media. You might be surprised at how each platform varies differently on peak usage.
Hi Zac,
Thanks for the wonderful post.
I have seen many people make this mistake and use wrong size images for their social media profiles and posts.
The problem is, they don’t know what size is best for what platform.
Hope this infographics will help many people.
How can I use this infographics on my blog?
Regards
Tauseef