What is the best image size to use on the various social networks?

(Got your own questions for the show? Ask ‘em here!)

Hey, this is just a quick video on the optimal sizes for Pinterest and Facebook. I was actually asked on Facebook by one of my marketing buddies, who should probably know better, so I thought that I would share it with you guys too.

On Facebook, there’s a common misconception – and I’ve seen it because I just looked it up to see what other folks were saying – that an image should be 403 x 403. That’s wrong.

So what’s happens if an image is 403 x 403 on Facebook, it will show up in the timeline as a nice square – don’t get me wrong, it looks good there – but when you click to expand it, you’ve got this tiny little image on the page. So we want to have a square, but we don’t want to go as low as 403 x 403 because Facebook will resize a larger square, say 800 x 800 or whatever you choose to use to a smaller one when it goes to show it on people’s stream.

So for Facebook, use a square. We’ll make it bigger than that 403 number that you keep hearing about. Instagram, square always. Bigger is better. You’ll get more clarity. And then it will resize it. So that’s the answer there. And that’s also why you can use Instagram as a really great place to prep photos to later use on Facebook because you’ll get that square aspect ratio that works on Facebook.

Now on Pinterest, you’re going for vertical. We want to have a portrait orientation image. That is because things that are long take up more space in the Pinterest feed. So a horizontal image will only be this big and it will always crop it to a certain amount wide, which isn’t that wide. And then, a vertical image will always be that same amount wide, but it will be long on the screen.

So when you create those long images, you’ll be able to get more screen time. Actually, if you head on over to the socialmediadaily.com and you click on our custom viral images, you’ll be able to see some examples of what we are doing with those Pinterest graphics to create that long vertical effect that gets more screen time and thus, more shares and more likes on Pinterest:

Vertical images get more space on Pinterest than horizontal images.

The overall width that you want to go for on Pinterest is a max of 735px. And then the length can be as long as it needs to be to show all the information that you need it to.

So Instagram, square. Facebook, square over 403px. And Pinterest, 735px wide and more than 735px long to get that vertical effect that works on Pinterest.

Now if you are interested in or don’t want to create images for Facebook and Pinterest, you can go to SocialMediaDaily.com and buy one of our image packs and we can create all of those images for you. Our images are optimized instead of like infographics for people to look at them and get information, they’re actually optimized to get the clickthrough to your site. So that’s the focus of your images that you create as well.

So thanks so much. If you’ve got any more questions about image sizes, head on over to MichelleMacPhearson.com and ask them. I’ll see you in the next episode. Bye bye.

The post Optimized Social Media Image Sizes appeared first on Michelle MacPhearson.