SocialGov guide: 2023 social media image sizes

Jan 04, 2023

Contributed blog by Ariana Donley, Social Media Manager at Government Social Media

Getting your social media image sizes right matters for your government accounts. With the platforms going through numerous changes, it’s time to revisit our image size guide for the most popular platforms used in government social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Nextdoor.

Looking for the latest suggested dimensions and tips for short-form video? Use our short-form video guide before you tap “post.”

Facebook

Meta offers a guide on Facebook image pixel sizes; however, the guide lists minimum pixel requirements and recommends you use the highest resolution images available.

Feed

Images with a link on desktop: 479 x 246 pixels
Mobile: minimum width of 320 pixels
Recommendation: 1080 x 1350 pixels

Right column

Minimum: 254 x 133 pixels
Recommendation: 1200 x 1200 pixels

Stories: 1080 x 1920
Instant Articles & Facebook Marketplace images with a link: 1200 x 1200 pixels
Profile Image: 176 x 176 pixels (computer); 196 x 196 (smartphone); 36 x 36 (most feature phones)
Cover Photo: 400 x 150 pixels (at least)

Load faster with an sRGP JPG file and 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes
Left align with a full bleed and 16:9 aspect ratio

Meta offers these templates if you prefer working with aspect ratios. For full specifications for ads design, visit Facebook’s ads guide.

Instagram

Profile Image: 320 x 320 pixels
Feed/Carousel: 1080 x 1350 pixels
Stories/Reels: 1080 x 1920 pixels

If you’ve used Meta Business Suite recently to post or schedule content for Instagram, then you’ve likely noticed the recommended cropping option for an in-feed photo or carousel is “square,” or a 1:1 aspect ratio. Other options include a 1.91:1 aspect ratio for horizontal or 4:5 ratio for vertical.

The above image shows the image cropping tool in Meta Business Suite.

While the Meta’s recommendation for in-feed image pixels isn’t quite square, you can use Meta’s cropping tool to preview how your image will display before posting.

Twitter

How images display on Twitter is quite a bit different than most platforms. Extra time is hard to come by as a socialgov and you don’t want all the hard work you put into creating a graphic or capturing the perfect photo to be wasted if it won’t display the way you want when you post.

When uploading a cover (header) image — even of the recommended size — Twitter notes that as much as 60 pixels at the top and bottom may appear cropped due to differences in monitor sizes. With that said, here are the image sizes Twitter recommends:

Profile Image: 400 x 400 pixels
In-Stream Image: 1600 x 900 pixels
Cover/Header Image: 1500 x 500 pixels
Card Image: 120 x 120 pixels (minimum)

When uploading images to LinkedIn, the platform notes that they must be PNG or JPEG files with a maximum size of 3MB.

Logo Image

Minimum: 268 x 268 pixels
Recommended: 400 x 400 pixels

Personal profile photo: 400 x 400 pixels
In-Feed Image: 12000 x 628 pixels
Blog post link image: 1200 x 627 pixels
Cover Image

Personal Profile: 1584 x 396 pixels
Pages and Career Pages: 1128 x 191 pixels

The platform notes that cover images may be trimmed horizontally or vertically in order to be adjusted to fit various screens. So it’s recommended to use high-quality images and limit text.

Nextdoor

According to Nextdoor’s recommendations for creating engaging posts, adding images can help your engagement and landscape images render the best with a recommended ratio of 16:9. Keep in mind, seven megabytes (7MB) is the maximum file size allowed for images on the platform.

Profile Image: 500 x 500 pixels
In-Feed Image: 1376 x 774 pixels
Cover Image: 1156 x 650 pixels
Banner Image: 580 x 180 pixels
Logo Image: 120 x 120 pixels

Meet the author

Ariana Donley

Social Media Manager–Government Social Media LLC

Ariana graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas with a B.A. in Journalism and a minor in Human Rights. She spent several years in the TV news industry and also served the Birmingham Police Department initially as a Crime Prevention Officer and later as the first Public Relations Manager. She is passionate about GSM's mission and and enjoys the positive and supportive team work environment.

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