(Hypebot) — The first step to winning fans and building a community on social media is knowing what to post and where to post it. We can help.
by James Shotwell of Haulix
I don’t know of any artist making a living today without social media. They may not run it themselves, but every musician must have an online presence. More often than not, most musicians need multiple profiles spread across numerous platforms requiring all types of content in various sizes and shapes.
If you want to make the most of an Instagram account, for example, you need to know the following information:
- Profile picture size
- Photo thumbnail sizes for Story highlights
- Photo and video sizes/aspect ratio for posts to a user’s feed
- Photo and video sizes/aspect ratio for Instagram stories
- Video sizes/aspect ratio for Instagram Reels
And that’s before we even discuss effectively marketing through the platform.
Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, not to mention YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Linktree, Tumblr (it still exists), and the platforms we are no doubt forgetting, it’s practically impossible for anyone to remember every size and aspect ratio required to make high-quality posts everywhere an artist is expected to exist online. We know because we’ve tried it ourselves, and we bet you have.
We scoured the internet for the best guides to social media sizing, and to the surprise of nobody, countless examples exist. We tried to find the most straightforward, easy-to-follow options available and gather them here to live in perpetuity.
| Content | Size | Aspect Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook Profile Picture | 400 x 400 px | 1:1 |
| Facebook Event Cover Photo | 1920 x 1005 px | 1.91:1 |
| Facebook Group Cover Photo | 1920 x 1005 px | 1.91:1 |
| Facebook Business Page Cover | 1200 x 674 px | 16:9 |
| Facebook Profile Cover Photo | 1125 x 633 px | 2.7:1 |
| Facebook Photo Post | 1200 x 630 px | 1.91:1 |
| Facebook Video Post | 1280 x 720 px | 16:9 |
| Facebook Linked Image | 1200 x 630 px | 1.91:1 |
| Facebook Stories | 1080 x 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Facebook “Our Story” Cover | 1200 x 445 px | 2.7:1 |
| Facebook Ad (Carousel) | 1080 x 1080 px | 1:1 |
| Facebook Ad (Single Image) | 1200 x 628 px | 1.91:1 |
| Facebook Catalog Image | 1080 x 1080 | 1:1 |
Instagram:
| Type of Instagram Post | Aspect Ratio | Instagram Post Size |
|---|---|---|
| Square Photo | 1:1 | 1080 x 1080px |
| Landscape Photo | 1.91:1 | 1080 x 608px |
| Portrait Photo | 4:5 | 1080 x 1350px |
| Instagram Stories | 9:16 | 1080 x 1920px |
| Instagram Reels | 9:16 | 1080 x 1920px |
| IGTV Cover Photo | 1:1.55 | 420 x 654px |
| Instagram Square Video | 1:1 | 1080x1080px |
| Instagram Landscape Video | 1.91:1 | 1080x608px |
| Instagram Portrait Video | 4:5 | 1080x1350px |
Soundcloud:
| GRAPHIC | SIZE |
|---|---|
| Profile Photo | 1000 × 1000 px |
| Album Cover | 800 × 800 px |
| Minimum Header | 2480 × 520 px |
TikTok
TikTok video dimensions should be 1080×1920. Aspect ratio: The aspect ratio should be that of a standard smartphone screen, 9:16. 1:1 is also possible, but it won’t take up the whole screen.
Twitch
| GRAPHIC | SIZE |
|---|---|
| Profile Photo | 800 × 800 px |
| Profile Banner | 1920 × 480 px |
| Video Player Banner | 1920 × 1080 px |
| Video Thumbnail | 1280 × 720 px |
| Cover Image | 380 × 1200 px |
| Info Panels | 320 × 200 px |
Finding information about Twitter’s content options proves slightly more difficult than options for Facebook and Instagram.
- Profile Photo: 400×400
- Header Photo: 1500×500
- Image from a Tweet with shared link: 1200 x 628 pixels
- Tweet sharing a single image: 1200 x 675 pixels (recommended, but most images with standard aspect ratios will not be cropped)
- Tweet sharing two images: 700 x 800 pixels (both images)
- Tweet sharing three images:
- Left image: 700 x 800 pixels
- Right images: 1200 x 686 pixels
- Tweet sharing four images: 1200 x 600 pixels (per image)
- Four is the maximum number of images available on one Tweet
- Recommended aspect ratio is 16:9.
- Can edit images if tweeting from Twitter iOS or Android app.
- Maximum file size of 5 MB for photos, and 5 MB for animated GIFs on mobile and 15 MB on web.
YouTube
| TYPE | SIZE |
|---|---|
| Channel Icon | 800 × 800 px |
| Channel Art | 2560 × 1440 px |
| Desktop Display | 2560 × 423 px |
| Tablet Display | 1855 × 423 px |
| Desktop and Mobile Display | 1546 × 423 px |
| Video Thumbnail | 1280 × 720 px |
Video Guidelines
- Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p), 1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
- Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
- Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
- Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
- Video length max is 12 hours.
YouTube SHORTS video guidelines
- Recommended dimensions: 240×426 (240p), 360×640 (360p), 480×854 (480p), 720×1280 (720p), 1080×1920 (1080p), 1440×2560 (1440p), and 2160×3840 (2160p),
- Aspect ratio is 9:16.
- Video length is 60 seconds max.
- Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
- Music from the YouTube music library is limited to 15 seconds.
- Title character limit: 100 characters max.
James Shotwell is the Director of Customer Engagement at Haulix and host of the company’s podcast, Inside Music. He is also a public speaker known for promoting careers in the entertainment industry, as well as an entertainment journalist with over a decade of experience. His bylines include Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Substream Magazine, Nu Sound, and Under The Gun Review, among other popular outlets.
