It is said a picture speaks a thousand words, and that’s why they’re pretty popular on social media. A lot of people tend to post and share a lot of pictures on social media for various reasons. For those in business, they share photos to connect with their audience.
But these pictures need to be optimized for them to drive the right engagement on social media. There’s a lot to optimize images on social media, with every social platform having a different style. In this piece, we’ll cover why it’s crucial to optimize social media images. Also, find out where to download free pictures.
Where to Find Free Images
There are several images online today, but finding free ones can be a challenge. Many of the images online are copyrighted. There’s a fee charged for anyone who wishes to use such images. But others are free to use. These can be found on specific sites like:
- Open Clipart
- Free Images
- Pexels
- Unsplash
- Unrestricted Stock
- MorgueFile
- Wiki Commons
- Free digital Photos
- Pixabay — one of the best source free vector illustrations.
Each one of the sites provides a distinct set of rules for the use of images posted there. What they share in common is there are several free images to use. There are other images there that aren’t free.
There’s a fee charged for such an image, and it can be found under the download feature on each image. The ones with license fees tend to be unique more than the free to use.
Dimensions to Use
When using images on social media, the smart move is to consider the dimensions. Often, users think dimensions don’t matter, but they do. With each social media optimizing better with different sizes, it’s best to know which works for which site.
The new Twitter profile looks like what’s commonly seen on Facebook. It’s slicker than the previous one, though, and here are some dimensions to consider.
- Profile Picture — 400 × 400 px
- Cover — 1500 × 500 px
- For tweets, there are different dimensions than the ones used on the profile. For In-Stream preview 440 X 220px. For a wider view, the image should not exceed 1024 × 512 px.
- When using links on photos on Twitter, use only 26 characters. Keep the link and the message as short as possible.
Facebook being the pacesetter on social media, there are a few things to consider when sharing images. They include:
- Cover for a Facebook profile should be 850 X 315px.
- Profile Picture — 180 x180 px
- Shared Link on an image — 484 × 252 px
- Shared images 504 × 504 px
One of the top social media platforms to optimize images is Pinterest, and the dimensions to use are:
- Board Cover 217 × 146 px
- Profile Images — 165 × 165 px
- Thumbnails — 51 × 51 px
- Pin images which are what are used majorly to engage the audience come in different dimensions too.
- Enlarged Pin 735 X infinite Size
- Pin Feed 238 X scaled height
Why You Should Optimize Social Media Images
Images are a huge part of marketing a business online. They can help the company get noticed and drive up a lead. Social media images are optimized to ensure that the right audience is engaged. A well-optimized image will always drive up more engagement on social media.
While a brand’s imagery must remain consistent across various social media sites, the messages shouldn’t be lost due to a lack of proper optimization and failure to use the correct dimensions. That’s why you should optimize social media images and do to it with different sizes. To get started, contact us today.
Visit VIP Marketing is the top digital marketing agency in SC to optimize your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.