However, increasing your Facebook engagement can be tricky. You need to know the right strategies to implement and how to get started.

Throughout this article, learn more about what Facebook engagement means, how to calculate your Facebook engagement rate and 13 key strategies for improving engagement on Facebook.

Table of contents:

• What is Facebook engagement?
• How to calculate your Facebook engagement rate
• 13 strategies for improving Facebook engagement

What is Facebook engagement?

Facebook engagement refers to any action that a Facebook user takes on your Facebook page—mainly likes, comments, shares and clicks. Increasing the number of engagements you see like this on your page proves that your Facebook marketing strategy is working and that your content resonates well with your audience.

How to calculate your Facebook engagement rate

You can calculate your Facebook engagement rate with a simple formula:

Facebook Engagement Rate = [(Total Likes + Comments + Shares)/Total Reach] x 100

You can find these metrics via Facebook insights or by using a third-party Facebook analytics tool. In your Facebook page dashboard, you can get a quick overview and grab your numbers from the “Post reach” and “Interactions” sections in order to discover your Facebook engagement rate.

The median Facebook engagement rate is 0.063%. While this engagement rate seems low, if you implement the 13 strategies below, your brand will be more likely to surpass that average.

13 strategies for improving Facebook engagement

Increase your organic reach with these 13 strategies—though don’t forget the power of Facebook ads in the meantime. These 13 organic reach tactics mixed with an ads strategy can ensure your business is reaching the people it needs to on Facebook.

1. Understand your target audience

Knowing who you’re trying to target with your content can help better inform your strategy, direct your messaging and ensure your content resonates with those your business can help the most.

Start by getting a basic understanding of social media user demographics so you know who is on each platform you market on. For example, we can see that Facebook’s basic demographics look like this:

Make sure this lines up with your business’s basic demographics. But then look even further. Who does your business help with its products or services?

For example, if you’re trying to reach men in their 30s, you should:

• Make sure they’re on your platform of choice (in this case, you’re in the clear)
• Create a strategy that caters to that audience
• Keep them in mind when you’re writing your content

2. Know the best times to post on Facebook

The more engagement a post receives, the more likely Facebook’s algorithm is to reward it with reach. This might seem a bit backward but it speaks to the importance of timing your posts to perfection.

By posting when your followers are most active, you instantly increase the likelihood of getting likes and comments.

And yes, there are data-driven best times to post on social media which can clue you in on what your posting calendar should look like.

The key here is to not just post at random and expect engagement. With the help of the chart below and analyzing your past post engagement, you can zero in on a schedule that makes sense.

We recommend using a Facebook scheduling tool to plan your social media calendar days or weeks in advance. It’ll keep you from forgetting to post and give you the flexibility to test different posting times.

Plus, by taking advantage of Sprout Social, you can discover optimal times for your specific brand to publish, rather than relying on global data. Just simply use the “Optimal Send Times” dropdown to see when Sprout’s AI recommends you share your posts.

3. Post consistently

While the next post talking about quality is just as important, you also need to post consistently. While global data showcases that some brands post around 4-5 times per day on Facebook, that’s a lot of content to share and also remain consistent.

What you need to do is figure out how many times your team can reasonably post each day or each week—and do so consistently. Consistent content creation increases your likelihood of appeasing the algorithm and getting your content seen by more people.

If you’re posting on a consistent and reliable basis, you’re on the right track.

4. Focus on quality content

Next, make sure your content is engaging, fun and quality to increase the chances that your audience interacts with your content. In this endeavor, many brands make the mistake of putting themselves in a box when it comes to their content.

Let’s say you’re running a Facebook page for your sandwich shop. Should you exclusively post content related to sandwiches?

Of course not.

For starters, there’s only so much that can really be said on a day-to-day basis about your brand or product. As soon as your content starts to feel repetitive or stale, your audience will tune out.

Here’s some food for thought: your Facebook content isn’t all about you. It’s about your audience. They might like you, but that doesn’t mean they only want to hear about you all day long. Once you start to embed that idea into your strategy, increasing Facebook engagement becomes much more realistic.

And if you’re struggling to find ideas for fresh content, you can start by asking yourself a few questions.

What’s trending?

Pulling from pop culture and current events is a smart move if done tastefully. Check out how HubSpot put out an awesome post to coincide with Valentine’s Day.

Do you have any fun facts?

Infographics and shocking statistics are prime for discussion and debate, both of which are huge pieces of Facebook engagement. Activity in the comment sections spells good news to the updated algorithm.

Have you shown off your brand’s personality?

Like it or not, Facebook has become a hotbed for memes and humorous content. Although humor might not be the perfect fit for every brand, funny content typically performs well and is a lighthearted way to diversify your posts.

It might be tempting to simply talk about yourself, but that’s not going to drive much engagement. Strive to stick to the common rule of content curation that says only 20% of what you post should be self-promotional.

Besides, filling your feed with a variety of content will always keep your followers looking forward to what’s next.

Oh, and if you want to have instant access to fresh pieces your audience will love, tools such as content suggestions from Sprout can do the digging so you don’t have to.

5. Respond to your customers

Improving your Facebook page engagement isn’t a “one and done” affair. If someone takes the time to comment on your content, make sure you’re taking the time to respond.

People overwhelmingly want to interact with brands, which is the reason why so many businesses that reply to comments score more interactions.

If nothing else, taking the time to reply to fans shows that you’re listening to them. This is a good look from a branding perspective and also encourages more interaction among fans in the future.

If you don’t have time to respond to each and every inbound message, you can create a Facebook chatbot to do so for you, or use a third-party messaging tool to keep all of your social media messages in one easy-to-organize place.

6. Improve your use of images and video

Visual content totally crushes it on Facebook—plain and simple—and Facebook isn’t shy about how much they love video content on their platform.

Other than links, photos and videos are one of the most common post types on the platform, signaling that people would much rather engage with a visual than a wall of text. So if you want to improve Facebook engagement, get visual.

However, the type of images and videos you post make a massive difference in terms of performance.

Many budding businesses make the mistake of relying on stock photos or videos pulled from elsewhere rather than creating their own content.

Instead, brands should strive to show the personality behind their business. There’s a reason why photos “in the wild” are so popular from big brands, as are stories from employees.

After all, it’s the social network, not the stock photo network.

Also, keep in mind that images can be powerful tools to encourage serial scrollers to stop in their tracks and look at your posts. Images containing striking colors and stunning landscapes typically do well, as evidenced by brands like GoPro who kill it with their photo content.

In addition, Facebook encourages brands to upload videos—rather than share video URLs—to drive discussion among their followers.

This means simply copy-and-pasting a link to your recent YouTube video as a post isn’t going to cut it.

Instead, brands should upload and publish videos within their Facebook posts whenever possible. Whether it’s animations, commercials or jumping on Facebook Live, regularly publishing video content on Facebook is a smart move supported by the platform itself.

7. Consider user-generated content

User-generated content, or UGC, is content that is created by your audience that you then share on your own feed. This type of content is highly engaging and fun for your audience to see their own content shared by a brand they love.

If your audience hasn’t given you any UGC to choose from, there are a few strategies you can use to change that.

First, put out an ask. Make a post asking people to share photos or videos of your products. Consider gamifying it or turning it into a contest where you randomly select a winner out of the people who commented or messaged you with their UGC and provide them with a gift card or free product.

Second, consider hiring a UGC creator. This is different from an influencer as it’s someone who is hired specifically to make content for your brand to share on its page, rather than promote your brand to their own followers. This can be a great way to start off your UGC journey even if it’s not quite as authentic as the real thing.

8. Use Facebook analytics to inform your strategy

Sometimes the key to increasing Facebook engagement is to look inward.

Let’s say you have a post that knocks it out of the park. Tons of likes and shares, and plenty of love in the comment section.

Rather than treat that post as an anomaly, you should instead take steps to recreate the same social magic again.

Maybe it was an unexpected meme. Perhaps it was an epic case study.

Either way, you should have a pulse on your top-performing content instead of playing guessing games. Again, your fans’ activity is key to understanding what to post.

To better break down that activity, take a close look at your Facebook analytics to see firsthand what’s receiving the most reach. The answer might very well surprise you.

9. Leverage employee advocacy

Instead of solely relying on your brand page to share your latest content, why not ask your employees to do some of the heavy lifting?

Use an employee advocacy tool like Sprout’s Employee Advocacy platform to curate your latest articles, videos and other content for them. Then, all they have to do is log into their dashboard and they can share the content to their personal Facebook page.

Through Employee Advocacy, you can even add suggested text for your team to use in their Facebook post which makes it super simple for them to just find the content they want to share and publish. On top of that, they can share it to Twitter and LinkedIn as well.

The best part is employees are ready and willing to share your content. Some of the most common barriers noted in our employee advocacy launch checklist that prevent them from doing so are lack of bandwidth, hesitation and lack of confidence or simply forgetting. Employee advocacy removes these barriers, making posting more seamless.

And the benefits of advocacy go way beyond just reaching more people. Sure getting impressions is nice, but what you really want is for people to read the articles and engage. According to LinkedIn, employee-posted content gets twice as high of a click-through rate than company-shared content.

If you’re not using employee advocacy, you’re missing out on easy engagement on Facebook. If you’re interested in learning more, check out Employee Advocacy by Sprout.

10. Learn how the Facebook algorithm works

The Facebook algorithm is a set of rules that dictates what content appears in the news feed. It does this by looking at four things for each individual user:

• Inventory: Facebook takes inventory of all the content that could appear in a feed.
• Signals: Facebook uses signals like type of content and how often a user has interacted with that content to decide if it should appear in their feed.
• Predictions: Facebook uses predictive analysis to predict what each user wants to see in their feed.
• Relevancy scoring: Facebook uses relevance scoring to dictate how relevant content is to a user.

With these four criteria in mind, Facebook’s algorithm will push content into its users feeds.

To increase the chances of your content appearing, you need to make sure it’s relevant to your target user, a common type of content and an engaging piece of content that makes it likely for your audience to interact with your posts.

11. Create Facebook stories

Facebook stories are another great type of content to create to engage with your audience. Because stories show up in a different part of the feed—at the very top—they can provide you with yet another way to reach and engage your followers.

Facebook stories are disappearing posts that stay on your feed for 24 hours. These can be images, videos or graphics that show off your product, share company announcements and even engage your audience through polls, Q&As and more.

Incorporate consistent Facebook stories into your strategy to further increase your overall engagement.

12. Partner with influencers

Influencer marketing is another great way to engage your audience. By partnering with influencers that have a large Facebook following, you can get even more eyes on your business. Influencers can share photos and videos of your product or service on their Facebook pages, tagging your business.

You can easily reshare or repost that content to increase engagement from the people who are coming over to your page. This, in turn, increases the chances that more of your content will appear in their feeds.

13. Get verified

Finally, get verified! Getting verified proves your business’s credibility, making it more likely that people will want to follow your page and interact with your content. Verification puts a blue check by your brand name so that every user knows you have an authorized Facebook page.

In order to get verified, follow these steps:

• Make sure your page fits the criteria
• Open the verification request form
• Upload the necessary documents to provide authenticity
• Add articles that prove your brand is of public interest
• Completely fill out the form

And then you wait. You can reapply if you’re rejected, but check out our Facebook verification guide to gather tips for increasing your odds.

Start ramping up your Facebook engagement

The post 13 Strategies to increase Facebook engagement appeared first on Sprout Social.

Even after all this time, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform with the largest user base across all platforms. Understanding statistics around its usage, demographics, marketing uses and more can help inform your marketing strategy.

So without further ado, let’s dig in.

• Top 3 Facebook stats every marketer should know
• Facebook usage statistics
• Facebook user statistics
• Facebook audience and demographics statistics
• Facebook advertising and marketing statistics
• Facebook engagement statistics
• Facebook video statistics
• Facebook feature stats (Reels, Stories, Messenger)
• Facebook consumer behavior statistics

Top 3 Facebook stats every marketer should know

• Facebook is the third most visited website following Google and YouTube, respectively. This puts it ahead of other leading platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
• The platform boasts 3.065 billion active users on a monthly basis. This makes it the most used social media platform worldwide.
• In 2023, Facebook’s total ad revenue amounted to $135 billion, up from $116 billion the previous year.

Facebook usage statistics

Over the years, Facebook has become almost synonymous with social media. It continues to be the biggest social media platform and is widely popular on a global scale. Here are some of the key Facebook usage statistics to understand its popularity and inform your Facebook marketing strategy:

1. Facebook hit 3 billion monthly active users in 2023

By Q4 of 2023, monthly active users on the platform had grown to 3.065 billion after reaching the 3 billion user milestone in Q2 of 2023. Although adoption has slowed down, monthly usage is still seeing an upward trend. If your marketing efforts are also feeling stagnant, download our Facebook marketing template to reinvigorate your strategy.

2. Americans spend about 30.9 minutes on the platform daily

On average, American users spend about 30.9 minutes on Facebook daily. This puts it ahead of other leading platforms such as X, Instagram and even TikTok. These numbers suggest that the platform is still seeing a high level of engagement from its user base.

Facebook user statistics

Facebook may have billions of users, but how are these people using the platform? Let’s look at a few vital Facebook user statistics to find out:

3. Over two-third of all monthly users are active daily

Out of the 3.065 billion monthly active users, 2.1 billion people use the platform daily. That’s 68.6% of users who spend at least some amount of time daily on the platform.

In other words, there are billions of people your brand could potentially reach every single day. The key is to get ahead of the Facebook algorithm so you can get more organic visibility.

4. Facebook is the most popular site for people to get their news

Out of U.S. adults who regularly look to social media for their news, 30% of them head to Facebook. This is ahead of YouTube (26%), Instagram (16%), TikTok (14%) and X (12%).

5. Messaging friends and family is still the top activity on Facebook

Over 72% of users say they use Facebook to message friends and family. This suggests that the platform’s “social” factor is still alive and kicking. Other popular activities on the platform are posting/sharing photos and videos (63.5%) and keeping up to date with news and events (58.7%).

A significant number of users (54.3%) follow and research brands and products on Facebook. So although it’s mostly for social, your brand can still use the platform to build authentic connections.

6. 59% of Facebook users have reached out to a brand on the platform

Social media is also commonly used for customer support requests. One survey found that 59% of Facebook users have reached out to a brand on the platform. Forty-six percent of those messages have been specifically in regards to customer care issues.

Even though Facebook is a social network, it can still be a great outlet for providing customer support and improving experiences with your brand. In fact, 76% of consumers notice and appreciate when companies prioritize customer support, regardless of network.

Facebook audience and demographics statistics

Wondering if you’re reaching the right audience on Facebook? What if your target demographic isn’t even on the platform? Here are a few Facebook stats highlighting the platform’s audience and demographics:

7. Users ages 25-34 years represent Facebook’s largest audience

Despite the platform’s reputation as a seemingly “older” network, 24.4% of Facebook users in the United States are between the ages of 25 and 34. Moreover, the platform sees higher usage among people below the age of 44.

8. Usage among teens has dropped sharply

That said, the platform’s popularity among teens has seen a significant drop. Only 33% of teens were using Facebook as of 2023. This is a sharp decline compared to the 71% who were using the platform between 2014 and 2015.

9. Facebook has more male-identifying users than female

Facebook currently limits its reporting to male and female. And based on the data, the platform has a higher percentage of male users (56.3%) than female users (43.7%).

10. India has the largest Facebook audience size

While Facebook sees significant usage across various countries, India has the greatest number of users. Latest reports show that there are 314.6 million Facebook users in India. The United States comes next, with 175 million users.

Facebook advertising and marketing statistics

Is Facebook marketing still worth it? And are you getting the most out of your Facebook advertising strategy? Check out these Facebook ads statistics to understand advertising impact on the platform.

11. Facebook ads see an average click-through rate (CTR) of 2.50%

According to a WordStream study, Facebook ads get an average CTR of 2.50% across all industries for lead gen ads. That said, click-throughs vary for industries, with arts & entertainment, physicians & surgeons, real estate and sports & recreation sectors seeing a CTR of at least 3% and the travel industry hitting a CTR of over 6%.

Facebook traffic ads and campaigns see a lower CTR, with the average rate being 1.51% across all industries. Arts & entertainment, real estate, restaurants & food and travel all see a CTR above 2%.

12. Advertising for traffic campaigns on Facebook costs $0.83 per click

The same study found that the average cost per click (CPC) is $0.83 across all industries for traffic ads and $1.92 for lead gen ads. However, you can expect to pay much more in certain industries or campaign ads. For example, lead gen ads have a CPC of over $5 for attorneys and nearly $4 for dentists and physicians.

13. The average conversion rate is 8.25% across industries

Facebook sees a fairly high conversion rate for ads on the platform. On average, you can expect a conversion rate of about 8.25% for your Facebook ad. However, the specifics may vary depending on your industry. Arts & entertainment, dental services, industrial & commercial and real estate sectors see a significantly higher conversion rate.

14. Facebook generates the highest ROI

Needless to say, with such high conversion rates and low CPC, marketing on Facebook yields high returns. In fact, Facebook generates the highest return on investment among all other social media platforms, tied only with Instagram at 29%.

Facebook engagement statistics

With organic visibility on Facebook on the decline, it’s only natural to see a drop in engagement levels as well. But does this put Facebook at a disadvantage over other social media platforms? Here’s a quick look at some vital stats to understand where Facebook engagement:

15. The median engagement rate on Facebook is 0.063%

According to a RivalIQ study, brands see a median Facebook engagement rate of 0.063% across all industries. This puts Facebook as one of the less engaging social media platforms, beating only X/Twitter’s 0.029% engagement rate.

16. Photo posts and status posts have the highest engagement

The power of visuals is still evident on Facebook, with photo posts getting the highest engagement at 0.10%. Video posts come next with an average engagement rate of 0.08%. Status posts perform fairly well with an average engagement rate of 0.06%. Link posts, on the other hand, are the worst for driving engagement. They see an average engagement rate of only 0.03%.

17. Frequent posting doesn’t result in higher engagement

Contrary to popular belief, posting frequently doesn’t necessarily result in higher engagement. As the RivalIQ study points out, influencers and higher education industry see the greatest engagement compared to their posting frequency.

Influencers and higher education pages publish fewer than 10 posts per week. Meanwhile, media companies publish over 60 posts a week and only see an average engagement rate of 0.04%.

Rather than post frequency, post publishing should be a factor in your strategy. Know the best time to post on Facebook so you stand a better chance of driving engagement.

Facebook video statistics

As video marketing continues to gain popularity, it’s important to be aware of how video performs on Facebook. Here are some key Facebook video statistics to inform your strategy:

18. 50% of the time users spend on Facebook is spent watching videos

According to Facebook’s own data, about half the time spent on Facebook (and Instagram) is watching video content. This means your audience likely watches video content on the app, and creating more video can help you reach more people. We’re created a quick guide on creating a successful social media video strategy, if you need a refresher.

19. Vertical video with audio sees a 35% higher click-through rate

Facebook Reels have been popular on the app since they were created and integrated into the app from Instagram. Facebook discovered that vertical video (Reels) with audio see a 35% higher CTR than other types of video content on the platform.

Facebook feature stats (Reels, Stories, Messenger)

So, what sort of content should you post? What features are growing and what’s stagnant? Let’s review some Facebook stats that break down some of the platform’s key features, like Facebook Stories, Reels and Messenger:

20. More than 500 million people use Stories every day

According to internal Facebook data, half a billion people use Facebook Stories each day and more than 1 billion Stories shared every day across the Meta apps. This speaks to the popularity of the platform’s feature, making it a useful tool for brands to engage their audience.

21. Facebook Messenger has nearly 1 billion users

Meanwhile, there are nearly 1 billion people using Facebook Messenger. That’s almost a billion people you could potentially reach through ads on Messenger.

22. Reels hit 200 billion views per day across Facebook apps

The popularity of Reels isn’t dying out anytime soon. In fact, Reels see about 200 billion views on a daily basis across the Facebook family of apps.

With algorithms further pushing this format, Reels could help you gain visibility and engagement. In short, brands can’t afford to put this short-form video format on the back burner.

Facebook consumer behavior statistics

Finally, are people even shopping on Facebook? Here are some stats on how consumers are behaving on the platform:

23. Facebook has the highest number of social commerce buyers

According to eMarketer, US adults were more likely to make a purchase directly on Facebook in Q1 2023. However, when compared to Gen Z buyers, it’s in fourth place behind TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

24. Facebook commerce is expected to hit 64.6 million shoppers in 2024

As the most popular social media platform for commerce, there are tens of millions of shoppers on the platform. The same eMarketer study as above showcases that Facebook commerce is expected to continue to grow, reaching 64.6 million shoppers by the end of 2024.

How do these Facebook stats inform your social media strategy?

These key Facebook statistics should give you some idea of where the platform currently stands in the social media landscape. As such, you can use these to guide your strategy and understand what to prioritize. To advance your strategy even further, take advantage of different Facebook marketing tools.

The post 24 Facebook statistics marketers should know in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Whether you’re a seasoned social media manager or just getting started, this guide will walk you through the key setup tasks and answer common questions on how to use Meta Business Suite.

Table of Contents

• What is Meta Business Suite?
• Is Meta Business Suite different from Facebook (Meta) Business Manager?
• Benefits of using Meta Business Suite
• How to connect and manage a Facebook Page with Meta Business Suite
• How to connect and manage an Instagram account with Meta Business Suite
• How to start using Meta Business Suite
• How to manage users as an Admin
• How to use social media analytics in Meta Business Suite
• Frequently asked questions

What is Meta Business Suite?

Meta Business Suite is a mobile and desktop app that connects your Facebook and Instagram business accounts. It’s a centralized space for Meta users to manage their Facebook, Instagram, Messenger posts, ads and communications and track their content performance.

Is Meta Business Suite different from Facebook (Meta) Business Manager?

Think of Meta Business Suite as the front end of your business account management and Facebook (Meta) Business Manager as the back end. In short, if you want a centralized tool to post and engage with your community on Facebook and Instagram, use Meta Business Suite. And if you’re running ad campaigns and want more control over your business settings with added security, Meta Business Manager is your go-to.

Meta Business Suite has many community management features like post scheduling and publishing, replying to comments and managing Facebook and Instagram messages. Facebook (Meta) Business Manager, on the other hand, has more complex features, like ad creation, billing, tracking, and asset management. If you try to create an ad in Business Suite, it will take you directly to Ad Manager, which is a different tool.

Benefits of using Meta Business Suite

What can you do with Meta Business Suite? Here are some of the app’s biggest advantages.

• Centralized social media management. Managing multiple accounts is time-consuming. Meta Business Suite consolidates your business activity on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram in one place.
• Connecting your social accounts to third-party tools. If you want to use a social media management tool like Sprout Social, you’ll need to use Meta Business Suite to connect your accounts.
• Social media insights. Want to know how your ads are doing? How people respond to your content? What kind of people interact with your business pages? Meta Business Suite provides helpful performance, engagement and audience data.
• Post-scheduling and content planning. Quickly draft, schedule and publish content in advance across your Meta business channels.
• Prioritized notifications. You’ll see high-priority interactions like comments and messages in your Notifications tab to help you respond promptly.
• Inbox management. Meta Business Suite collects all your messages from Instagram and Facebook into one inbox and leverages automation to help you organize your messages and comments faster.

How to connect and manage a Facebook Page with Meta Business Suite

You first need a Facebook business page to connect your Facebook Page to Meta Business Suite. If you have one, complete the following steps to connect your account.

How to add Facebook Pages to Meta Business Suite

1. Visit Meta Business Suite on a desktop or download and open the app on iOS or Android.
2. Log in or create an account by following the onscreen steps.
3. Select the dropdown menu in the upper left.
4. Click the +Create a business account button and follow the onscreen steps.
5. ‘Connect your account on your desktop or through the mobile app. However, you might not need to, as Meta will often automatically connect your Facebook business page to your Meta Business Suite account.

How to connect and manage an Instagram account with Meta Business Suite

Similar to your Facebook business page, you will need an Instagram business account to connect your Instagram account to Meta Business Suite.

How to add Instagram accounts to Meta Business Suite

To connect an Instagram account to your Business Suite:

1. In the Meta Business Suite desktop app, click Settings from the sidebar on the left.
2. Click Business Assets.
3. Click Add Assets and select Instagram account.
4. Review and agree to Meta’s terms for connecting your Instagram account, then click Claim Instagram account.
5. A new window will open. Enter your Instagram username and password, and click Log In. Are you already logged in on Instagram? Click Continue as [Instagram handle] if that’s the account you want to connect to. Otherwise, tap Switch accounts to log into another account.
6. Meta will ask you to enter a security code if you have Two-Factor Authentication.
7. Click Confirm.

After you add your Instagram account, you’ll get a message confirming it’s connected. You might also need to log in to Instagram again to adjust your account management and access settings.

How to start using Meta Business Suite

After connecting your Facebook and Instagram accounts to Meta Business Suite, you need to take a few more steps to get up and running.

Connect and manage your ad accounts

To add an ad account in Business Suite:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Click Accounts from the left side menu. Then, click Ad Accounts.
3. Click the blue Add ad accounts button.
4. Choose one of the three options: Add an ad account, Request access to an ad account or Create a new ad account.
5. If you request access or add an ad account, enter the ad account ID. Follow the prompts to select people and access levels.

Fill in basic info about your organization

To edit your information in Business Suite:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Click Business Account Info.
3. You will see Edit buttons on the right side of the page. Click these to update details like your business name, primary page, legal business name, address, business phone number and website.
4. Click Save.
5. To finish updating your email address, verify the change via the confirmation email. If you can’t find the email, check your spam folder. To resend the confirmation email, go to My info and click Resend email.

Explore and plan content

Here’s how to use Facebook (Meta) Business Suite to schedule posts and Stories.

Create and schedule a post using Meta Business Suite:

1. Go to Meta Business Suite from your desktop.
2. Go to Content or Planner. You can also go to Home.
3. Click Create post.
4. Select where to schedule a post: Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, or both.
5. Enter your post details, including text, media, and an optional link and location.
6. Add an optional Feeling/activity, location, messages button or link to your post for Facebook-only posts. You can also run an A/B test.
7. (Optional) To publish the post later, click Schedule.
8. Select your Privacy settings and whether you want the post to be Public or Restricted.
9. Preview your post on the right. You can also see how it will look on Facebook compared to Instagram or on desktop compared to mobile.
10. (Optional) Select whether you want to Boost the post, which will create an ad with the post.
11. Click Publish. If you choose to Boost the post, you’ll see another screen with more selections.

Create or schedule a Story:

1. Tap the post-creation tool to create a new Story.
2. Add media (such as pictures and videos). You can also select multiple images at once. (Optional) Add text, stickers, gifs and more. You can reposition and resize them on your screen.
3. Tap Share On.
4. Select the placement of your Story. You can select your Facebook Page, Instagram account or both.
5. Select an option:
   • To publish your Story immediately, tap Share.
   • To schedule your Story to publish later, tap Schedule for later.
     • Select the date and time.
6. Tap Done.
7. Tap Schedule to finish.

If you’re only using Facebook and Instagram for your brand, Meta Business Suite is a good starting point. However, if you’re managing non-Meta social channels like TikTok, LinkedIn or X (formerly known as Twitter), consider investing in more robust collaboration and automation features. A third-party social media management platform like Sprout Social will further simplify management of your social media accounts across platforms.

How to manage users as an Admin in Business Suite

If multiple people work in your Meta Business Suite, you must add them as users. Here’s how to add and remove users and set user permissions.

How to add users

To add users to Meta Business Suite:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the People tab, click Add people.
3. Enter the email address of the person you want to add. Click Next.
4. Select the type of access you want to assign. Click Next.
5. Select the asset you want to assign and choose the type of access. If assigning partial access, select the task they need for their job. Click Next.
6. Review the invitation and click Send request. The person will receive an invitation to join your Business Account via email.

How to set user permissions

To set user permissions:

1. Go to Settings in Meta Business Suite.
2. Under Users, click People.
3. Select the name of the person whose access you want to change.
4. Under Business Account access, select Manage.
5. Make your changes.

How to remove users

To remove users:

1. Go to Settings.
2. From the People tab, select the person you want to remove.
3. Click the three horizontal dots icon. Select Remove from Business Account.
4. Confirm you want to remove that person. Click Remove.

How to use social media analytics in Meta Business Suite

In Meta Business Suite, Insights helps you better understand the impact of your paid and organic Facebook and Instagram efforts. You’ll see what’s working and what isn’t to optimize your time and budget.

To see your social media analytics in Meta Business Suite, click the All Tools hamburger menu at the top left of your screen (above Business Settings), scroll down and click Insights. You’ll see a dashboard that shows your posts, Stories and ad performance. When you visit Insights, you’ll see the following categories: Overview, Results, Audience, Feedback and Benchmarking.

Use reports to track performance and share results with employees and partners. Reporting includes data points like reach, likes and reactions, comments, shares, results, cost per result, link clicks and recent content. Meta Business Suite also has goal-setting features to help you stay on track with your marketing objectives and hone in on specific goals.

Meta Business Suite’s analytics are a solid entry point to learn more about your social media content performance and audience. However, a third-party tool like Sprout Social offers more comprehensive social media analytics, such as social trends, competitor data and more.

For example, our Competitors by Network report shows you how you stack up to other companies on metrics like audience size, overall engagements and engagements per post on Facebook, Instagram and X.

Additionally, the Competitor Posts Report will show you Facebook, Instagram and X posts from your competitors. You’ll see a scorecard for each top-performing competitor post with metrics like the total number of engagements, reactions, comments and shares. The report view is also filterable by platform and content type.

Frequently asked questions

Here are some common questions that we get from our users about how to use Meta Business Suite.

How do I contact Meta support?

First, check out the Meta Business Help Center to search for specific questions or issues or browse through their suggested troubleshooting topics.

If you still need help, open up Meta Business Suite and tap the Help button on the bottom left of your screen. A help window will open on the right of the screen. Scroll down until you see the Contact Support button.

If you buy ads on Meta, contact your Ads account manager for support. Contact Meta’s verified account support team if you have a verified account.

What do I do if an employee leaves and I lose access to a Page?

If you’ve lost access to a Meta Business page, the quickest way to find out who’s in charge of your Page is to ask people who used to work with your brand business. Email or text former employees or your old agency and ask if they can reach the Business Manager who owns your Page. Look for people like your former campaign manager, digital director, social media manager or anyone who handled digital ads.

If you find the admin of the business manager who owns your page, ask them to remove the Page from their account. Then, add the Page to your Business Manager. If you can’t find the admin of the Business Manager, you’ll need to provide more documents to Meta’s Support team for a Page Release request.

You’ll need to send a copy of a valid ID, a signed statement explaining your relationship to the Page, why you’re making the request and details about the Business Manager who owns the Page. A Facebook Page admin from your organization needs to submit the request—consultants or agency employees can’t submit the request. The process might take two weeks to six months, and you’ll need accurate info that Meta can verify.

Once you’ve gathered all the documents, contact Meta Support via chat for help with the Page Release request. Once approved, you must manually add the Page to the new Business Manager.

What do I do if my account is hacked?

If your account got hacked, follow the steps on Meta’s help page.

What do I do if my account is restricted?

If your account is restricted, check out this help article. You should see a “What you can do” section in Meta Business Support. It’ll give you the steps you need to take.

I’m getting a lot of spam on my Facebook account. Any tips on how to reduce it?

If you’re experiencing a lot of spam, try automating your Meta inbox by creating a rule to exclude specific keywords coming in.

Here’s how to set it up:

1. Go to inbox.
2. Click on Automations. It’s the second button from the left at the top of the interface.
3. Click Create Automation in the upper right corner.
4. Click Start from scratch to create a new automation.
5. Name your rule.
6. Under When this happens, select New message received to start automation.
7. Click Add condition and select Keywords.
8. Input some of the main keywords in your recurring messages
9. Under Take this action, select Mark as and Move to spam.
10. Save changes.

I’m having issues connecting my Facebook and Instagram accounts to Sprout.

Here are a few reasons why your Facebook or Instagram might get disconnected from Sprout:

1. You haven’t reauthorized your account in a while. Instagram profiles need to be reauthorized every 90 days for security reasons.
2. You shared your login information with too many people.
3. The page has a new password or admin.
4. The admin who connected the profile lost admin access.
5. Someone removed the admin who connected the profile.

To reconnect your Instagram profile, follow the instructions in this help article.

If you’re still having connection issues, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Is your Instagram a Business Profile? Confirm this in the Instagram mobile app by going to your profile and tapping Edit Profile. Business Profiles have a Business Information section.
• Do you have admin status? You must be an admin to connect an Instagram Business Profile or a Facebook Page to Sprout.
• Is your Instagram connected to the right Facebook Page? To double-check, go to your profile in the Instagram mobile app and tap Edit Profile. Tap the Page in the Business Information section. Make sure the correct Facebook Page is selected.
• Is your Facebook Business Integration set up? Check these settings on Facebook. To update the setting, remove Sprout Social’s integration from Facebook and reconnect your Facebook and Instagram accounts in Sprout.

If it’s still a no-go, remove Sprout from Facebook, but don’t delete old posts. Then, reauthorize your profiles. Also, you can switch your Instagram to a Business Profile in its settings, but remember, you need admin access on Facebook to do that.

Mastering Meta Business Suite

With billions of active users, Facebook and Instagram remain the top platforms for connecting with your audience. Meta Business Suite makes it even easier for brands to maintain a consistent and engaging social media presence across these platforms. It’s a powerful tool that simplifies content management, ad creation and audience engagement across both platforms.

In this guide, we’ve covered everything you need to know about using Facebook (Meta) Business Suite, from what it is to how to use it effectively. But your journey doesn’t have to end here. To dive deeper into Meta marketing, check out our complete guide to Facebook marketing to make the most of the platform.

The post How to use Meta Business Suite like a pro appeared first on Sprout Social.

Nowadays, there are much more efficient ways to publish and schedule social media content. If you take advantage of a Facebook publishing tool, you will be empowered to have a tool semi-automate your social media management tasks. With capabilities like batch uploading your posts for the month, creating a weekly or monthly schedule, and built-in tools that make content publication easy, your time will be freed up for tasks that your business needs you to focus on instead.

Throughout this article, we’re going to address three key benefits of using a Facebook publishing tool and introduce you to 12 useful options for your business.

• Why you should use a Facebook publishing tool
• 12 Facebook publishing tools for your brand
• Find the right Facebook publishing tool for your needs

Why you should use a Facebook publishing tool

How can a Facebook publishing tool help you? And why is spending time to discern the right one for your business worth it?

We’ve got three reasons why.

Efficiently schedule your posts ahead of time

Scheduling your Facebook content ahead of time is a much more efficient way to publish your content. Instead of logging in every day to manually publish your content at sporadic times, we recommend batching content tasks together in advance to make your content publishing process most efficient.

Batching is a time management tactic that groups similar tasks together as a way to work on them more quickly and decrease potential distractions. When it comes to your Facebook content, we recommend batching content tasks together like so:

• Content ideation – Plan a set time for content idea of the posts you plan to create and eventually publish. This step you’ll want to do the furthest in advance so you can set yourself up for the next two stages of the content process.
• Content creation – After the content ideation is complete, we recommend knocking out the creation of the content you plan to schedule and publish all at once or through a few content creation sessions.
• Content scheduling – Lastly, once the content is produced, we recommend scheduling those posts in one sitting using a Facebook publishing tool.

If your Facebook content process has more steps than the ones above, you can add those in. But it’s best to focus on each task at once, first creating an entire week’s worth of content, then scheduling that week’s worth of content.

And using a Facebook publishing tool makes scheduling out your content even easier. Some of the tools in our list allow you to set your planned weekly schedule first so that you don’t have to select a date and time manually. Other tools allow you to choose automated optimal times based on your audience.

Streamline your reporting

Most Facebook publishing tools give you access to your posts’ analytics, which provides you with key data for metrics like reach, engagement rate, and more. Use the analytics feature provided through third party Facebook publishing tools to draw insights for your social media reporting. Discover your top-performing posts so you can create more like them. And identify posts that don’t resonate as much with your audience so you can remove them from your strategy.

Facilitates team collaboration

If you work with a team to create and schedule your Facebook content, publishing tools can make the process even easier. Find a tool that facilitates social media collaboration, allowing junior social media managers to create content to then send to senior managers for approval and publication.

Or, have your social media team input the content and captions for each post to then send to the graphic design or video team to add in the assets once they’ve been created.

12 Facebook publishing tools for your brand

Looking to improve efficiency, reporting and collaboration amongst your team? Check out the top 12 Facebook publishing tools below to find the perfect option for your business.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social sits at the top spot of our list for a reason. Yes, we’re going to toot our own horn. Sprout Social is a comprehensive and easy-to-use Facebook publishing tool—but it’s also so much more than that.

With Sprout Social, you can get access to Facebook features like:

• Publishing
• Reporting and analytics
• Monitoring
• Customer service
• Competitor analysis

But you can also get access to those features and more for every other social media platform you plan to use in your strategy. Take advantage of our publication features while also getting an all-in-one tool that fits all of your social media management needs.

Plus, make Facebook publication as easy and seamless as possible. Input your caption, upload your media, then let Sprout’s AI tool find optimal publication times based on when your audience is most likely to be online.

Our Facebook publication-specific features include:

• Optimal posting times
• Team collaboration tools
• Visual social media calendar
• Content suggestions for inspiration
• URL tracking

Pricing: Starting at $199/month. Sign up for a free 30-day trial today!

2. Social Champ

Social Champ is another social media management tool that works on a number of networks—Facebook, of course, included. With Social Champ, you can add multiple social media accounts to your dashboard and manage your presence on all of them from one place.

Facebook scheduling features include:

• The ability to save and manage hashtags
• Analytics and reporting
• Automation
• A social media inbox
• The ability to add the first comment to your Facebook post

Pricing: Free forever account option. Paid plans start at $26/month.

3. SocialBee

SocialBee is another Facebook publishing tool with a number of features to offer. Its visually appealing content calendar can help keep your social media team organized each time you schedule another batch of content.

SocialBee’s Facebook management features include:

• Integrations with design and content creation apps
• Content calendar with scheduling capabilities
• AI assistant for help creating content
• Analytics and reporting
• Social inbox

Pricing: Starting at $24/month.

4. Keyhole

Keyhole is a Facebook publishing and analytics tool focused on helping agencies manage all of their client accounts in one seamless dashboard. Keyhole also has an arsenal of social media management tools, making sure its agency users can easily manage all aspects of their clients’ social media.

The Facebook publication tools available in Keyhole’s suite include:

• Optimal posting times
• A calendar view for organization
• Full-scale social media analytics
• The ability to collaborate with teammates or clients

Pricing: Starting at $79/month.

5. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is another great option for keeping all of your digital content scheduled out and organized. Famous for its calendar view, CoSchedule focuses on helping marketing teams make sure they’re never missing a day of content.

Facebook publishing features available with CoSchedule include:

• An easy-to-use drag-and-drop social calendar
• The functionality to track social media messages
• AI social assistant to help writing captions
• Social message optimizer to help improve your engagement

Pricing: Free account option. Paid plans start at $19/month.

6. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is a social media management tool that supports more social networks than just Facebook, making this a great option for brands with a complex online presence. More than that, Agorapulse boasts additional features that help users offer great social media customer service.

Agorapulse’s Facebook publishing features include:

• Team collaboration
• Visually appealing social content calendar
• Multi-platform publishing
• UTM tracking
• Asset management

Pricing: Starting at $49/month.

7. Post Planner

Post Planner is a simple and easy-to-use social media publishing tool. With a name like Post Planner, you can safely assume that the ability to plan out your social media content sits at the core of this tool’s functionality.

Post Planner’s Facebook publishing features include:

• The ability to create multiple posts at once
• The ability to optimize your posts for each platform’s requirements
• Post previewing
• Saved captions
• Evergreen content recycling

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $7/month.

8. eClincher

eClincher is a social media management platform that also has features that assist with local SEO, business listing management and tools for businesses with franchises or multiple locations. That means this is a great option for franchise businesses needing help with more than just social media.

eClincher’s Facebook publishing features include:

• Digital asset library
• Content curation tools
• Hashtag management
• Multi-platform publishing
• Team collaboration

Pricing: Starting at $65/month.

9. Loomly

Loomly is a social media management platform that also offers team collaboration features, helping its users to collaborate effectively as they implement their social media strategies. Access a number of useful features with a visually appealing interface.

Some of the Facebook publishing features that Loomly offers include:

• Visually appealing content calendar
• Team notifications and collaboration tools
• A feed of post ideas to get inspiration
• Asset management
• Automated and manual publishing options

Pricing: Starting at $32/month.

10. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a social media management and analytics tool that can be a great option for organizing, publishing and scheduling your Facebook content. Access collaborative tools, AI features, publishing capabilities and more.

To help you publish your Facebook content, SocialPilot has features like:

• An AI assistant to help with your content creation
• A content library to store your assets
• Smart scheduling that accounts for different audience time zones
• Bulk scheduling to make publication even easier

Pricing: Starting at $25.50/month.

11. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is a tool that started years ago as one of the only Instagram analytics tools and has come a long way based on demand to offer a suite of social media management tools for nearly every social media platform.

The Facebook publishing features that Iconosquare offers include:

• Image cropping tools
• Post approval
• Media library
• Cross-platform publishing

Pricing: Starting at $49/month.

12. Emplifi

Emplifi is the last option on our list, but still a solid choice for a social media management and publication tool. Emplifi can help you publish and schedule your content, as well as manage your online community, keep an eye on your brand’s reputation and even work with influencers.

With Emplifi, get access to Facebook publishing features like:

• AI caption composer
• AI-powered posting time recommendations
• Post approval workflows
• Digital asset library
• Presets, templates and drafts for easy content creation

Pricing: Book a demo to get a customized quote based on your needs.

Find the right Facebook publishing tool for your needs

Ramp up your Facebook marketing strategy by planning ahead and staying organized. One of the best ways to do that is by putting together the perfect arsenal of tools for your needs.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one Facebook publishing tool, give Sprout Social a try. Sign up for a 30-day free trial to test drive our software and see if we have what you need.

The post 12 Facebook publishing tools for your brand in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Whether it’s a brand promotion, video, news update or even a meme, visual content rules the social media landscape. What has become so important is effectively conveying your brand on social media through images and video.

The visual face of your brand is oftentimes the first thing your audience sees and possibly the one thing they remember. It’s difficult to reuse the same image across all social networks unless you have a free social media image resizing tool like Landscape.

Sprout Social’s very own tool is free to use to resize, crop and scale social media image sizes. And along with our resizing tool, we’ve provided all the specific dimensions and a few quick tips to help you decide which image best fits each position.

Before we get into it, here are some additional resources:

• Easily reference this social media image sizes list in our always up-to-date Google Doc.
• Bookmark our social media video specs and ad guide!
• Download free social media images that are already optimized!

Easily manage multimedia content with Sprout

Sprout’s Asset Library simplifies publishing and asset management by providing you with a centralized location to store images, videos and text.

Quickly create, organize, edit and publish assets directly from the Asset Library to deliver on-brand, visually engaging posts for any connected social network.

Start Your Free Trial

Social Media Image Sizes Per Network

These links will make it easier for you to navigate to the specific social media image sizes per network:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• YouTube
• Google My Business

Facebook Image Sizes

With 2.96 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world’s largest social network. For that reason alone, it’s important to have attractive and engaging images that are optimized for the platform.

Remember that different devices, whether it’s mobile or desktop, render differently. Make sure that you are choosing dimensions based on where you want the majority of viewers to see your image.

Learn more about Facebook image sizes

Get specs and tips for implementing the best visual content on Facebook with these guides:

• Always up-to-date list of Facebook ad sizes & specs
• The Picture-Perfect Facebook Cover Photo Size
• Facebook Event Photo Size & Dimensions Guide

Facebook Profile Picture

Say cheese: your profile picture represents you or your brand on Facebook. This is the round photo that appears on your timeline layered over your cover photo. Your profile picture will also appear when you post to other walls, comment on posts or when your profile is searched.

Facebook profile picture image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 320×320 pixels
• Minimum file size: 180×60 pixels
• Displays:
  • 176×176 pixels (desktop)
  • 196×196 pixels (smartphones)
  • 36×36 pixels (most feature phones)
• Recommended file type: JPG, PNG
• Profile pictures are cropped to a circle

Facebook Business Page Profile Picture

Facebook changed its Profile image for Business Pages to appear to the left side of the screen. The new look helps Facebook Business Pages follow a similar appearance as personal accounts. However, the dimensions are the same, but the photo appears on the page slightly different.

Facebook Business Page profile image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 320×320 pixels
• Minimum file size: 180×60 pixels
• Displays:
  • 176×176 pixels (desktop)
  • 196×196 pixels (smartphones)
  • 36×36 pixels (most feature phones)
  • Recommended file type: JPG, PNG
• Profile pictures are cropped to a circle

Facebook Profile and Business Page Cover Photo

Your Facebook cover photo will only appear on your Facebook timeline, and it stretches across the entire screen, which gives you more freedom to choose something creative or supplement your profile picture. Where your profile picture might be a good choice for a picture of you or a brand logo, use this space to post something that speaks more toward you as an individual or as a brand.

Facebook profile and Business Page cover photo image guidelines

• Ratio: 16:9
• Minimum required size: 400×150 pixels
• Recommended image size: 851×315 pixels
• Mobile display size: 640×260 pixels
• Max file size: 100kb
• Recommended file type: JPG, PNG
• Notes:
  • The left side of your cover photo will be covered by your profile picture. On mobile, it could be 75% of your profile picture will overlap into the cover photo.
  • Images with a logo or text may be best as a PNG file
  • Business Page dimensions are exactly the same as personal accounts.

Facebook Shared Image

A shared image is one of the most common forms of sharing on Facebook. These images will always appear on your timeline, and ideally they will show up in most of your followers’ News Feeds — though with the Facebook algorithm determining which content will be served, it’s unlikely that everyone will see your post. The more people engage with your post, the more likely it is that the rest of your followers and their followers will see that activity.

Facebook shared image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1080×1350 pixels
• Maximum file size: 8MB
• Recommended file type: JPG, PNG, GIF
• Appears in feed at a max width of 470 pixels (will scale to a max of 1:1)
• Appears on page at a max width of 504 pixels (will scale to a max of 1:1)

Facebook Shared Link

Another great tool in your Facebook belt is the ability to share a link. It’s very similar to posting a shared image, but it gives you even more fields to work with. You can choose to create a shared link with a small square image to the left and text on the right, or with a larger rectangular image on top with text underneath.

Facebook shared link image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1080×1350 pixels
• Displays:
  • 479×246 pixels (desktop)
  • 320 pixel width (mobile)
• Minimum size: 200×200 pixels
• Maximum file size: 8MB
• Facebook will scale photos under the minimum dimensions. For better results, increase image resolution at the same scale as the minimum size.

Facebook Event Image

Facebook Events help capture the attention of users and cut through the noise on Facebook. Reminders are sent to your audience and having a good space with an even better image is important. Make sure you have the right dimensions down for a Facebook Event cover photo.

Facebook Event image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1920×1005
• Facebook will scale down to minimum dimensions: 400×150 pixels
• Facebook recommends for best results, choose photos that are 400×150 pixels.

Facebook Fundraiser image

Facebook has added the ability to create a fundraiser for charitable organizations or personal causes. The cover photo for these fundraisers slightly varies from a typical Facebook cover photo, with a minimum size of 400×150. The best experience across many display types will come from a higher resolution image, though.

Looking for Facebook ad sizes?

Facebook ad formatting can be even more complex than organic posts, so for more guidelines, check out our complete guide to every Facebook ad size!

Find more information on the image sizes for Facebook, visit the Facebook Help Center.

Twitter Image Sizes

With 436 million monthly active users, Twitter is one of the social media networks that your customers will most often use to discuss your brand.

X (fka Twitter) Profile Photo

Your X profile photo is the main image that represents you or your brand across the network. It’s going to be seen across the site in a number of places by a number of people so make sure it’s of the highest quality. Here’s the places your profile photo will be visible on the site.

• On your page: The largest display of your profile picture is on your homepage and can be viewed by your followers as well as individuals who stumble upon your page.
• In-stream: A smaller version of your profile picture appears in a follower’s X stream every time you Post or are Reposted.
• Who to follow: Your profile picture is also going to appear next to a link to your page in the “Who to follow” box. This is located directly to the right of your X stream on desktop. Choose a recognizable image here.

X (fka Twitter) profile photo image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 400×400 pixels
• Maximum file size: 5MB
• Image types include: JPG, GIF or PNG

X (fka Twitter) Header Photo

Your header photo is the image that spans the top of your X profile page. It’s quite a bit larger than your profile photo so make sure to save it at the highest resolution possible. Because you have more room to be creative with this picture and it will likely be the first thing your visitors see, make it something captivating.

X (fka Twitter) header image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1500×500 pixels
• Maximum file size: 5MB
• Recommended file type: JPG, GIF or PNG

X (fka Twitter) In-Stream Photos and Shared Links

X users can attach photos to any of their Posts. Depending on whether you’re attaching one or many photos or sharing a link, the way photos crop and display in stream will vary slightly.

Fortunately, in 2021, X made waves with #TwitterCropIsGone, eliminating the sometimes-unfavorable automated cropping for vertical images that had often become the subject of memes and in-jokes among users of the platform. Extremely wide or tall images with unusual dimensions may still get cropped, but for most images in standard 4:3 or 16:9 dimensions, you won’t have to worry as much about centering subjects around automated cropping.

The following are some best practices to get an optimal result, and you can also preview the end result in Sprout’s Compose window before you publish.

Recommended sizes for images by types of Posts:

• Recommended image sizes:
  • Minimum: 600×335 pixels
  • Landscape: 1024×512 pixels (minimum) and 1600×900 pixels (recommended)
  • Square: 1080×1080 pixels
  • Portrait: 1080×1350 pixels
• Recommended aspect ratio: 16:9
• Maximum file size:
  • 5 MB for JPG, PNG on mobile and desktop
  • 5 MB for GIFs on mobile
  • 15 MB for GIFs on desktop
• Maximum number of images per post: 4 images

Find more information on in-stream photos at the X Help Center.

Instagram Image Sizes

Instagram is one of the most popular photo-sharing social networks. It’s the best place to showcase your visual creativity, even down to making a compelling grid out of the way your photos’ thumbnails display in sequence.

Instagram Profile Picture

Instagram is based on visuals, which should be an indication of how important it is to follow these image size guidelines. Ensure your profile image is recognizable so users can find you even easier through search or explore.

Instagram profile picture image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 110×110 pixels
• Recommended aspect ratio: 1:1, 4:5

Instagram Photo Size (Feed & Ad)

Because Instagram is all about sharing visual content – both images and videos – that appear in your followers’ feeds, it’s important to use higher resolution photos. Whether you’re posting natively in the app, via desktop or through a social media management tool, these guidelines below will help you put your best foot forward.

Instagram photo size (feed & ad) image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1080×1080 pixels or 1080×1350 pixels
• Recommended minimum width: 1080 pixels
  • Images with a width between 320 and 1080 pixels will be kept at the original resolution as long as it fits the recommended aspect ratio listed below
  • If images are a lower resolution, Instagram will enlarge to a width of 320 pixels
  • If images are a higher resolution, Instagram will shrink it to a width of 1080 pixels
• Recommended aspect ratio: 1.91:1 or 4:5
  • Images will be cropped to fit a supported ratio
• Maximum file size: 8MB
• Recommended file type: JPG and PNG
• Maximum number of images per post: 10 images

Instagram Photo Thumbnails

When someone goes to your page, they’ll be presented with all of your content arranged in rows of thumbnails. These smaller renditions of your images and videos will expand when clicked and include a place for people to comment.

Instagram photo thumbnails image guidelines

• Thumbnails will appear at 161×161 pixels
• Recommended image width: 1080 pixel
• Feed aspect ratio: 1:1

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are a popular source of visuals on the app. There are both video and image options available to publish. And while this feature was originally meant to be ephemeral, it’s possible to upload your own content and build a strategy around Stories engagement.

Instagram Story image guidelines

• Recommended resolution: 1080×1920
• Minimum resolution: 150×150
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
  • Aspect ratio for Instagram Story images published through Sprout: 4:5 to 1.91:1

For those looking for more info on Instagram ad sizes, including video specs, check out this guide!

TikTok Image Sizes

With 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok has grown considerably over the last few years. With nearly half its users under the age of 30, TikTok is becoming the social platform for younger target audiences.

TikTok Profile Image

All TikTok users have the option to upload a profile image to their accounts. This is the perfect opportunity for businesses to showcase their personalities through branding or to highlight a specific campaign.

TikTok profile image guidelines

• Minimum image size: 200×200 pixels
• Recommended file type: JPG, GIF or PNG

Looking for more TikTok specs? Our Always-Up-To-Date Video Specs guide can answer those questions.

LinkedIn Image Sizes

With 467 million registered users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. Where other social networks may be good drivers of traffic and customers, LinkedIn is a great place for you to source great employees and to connect with other industry leaders.

LinkedIn Personal Profile Image

LinkedIn started using a new layout for personal profiles and kept the box logo with company pages (more on that below). However, the personal profile dimensions for LinkedIn is very straightforward. This is the main image that represents you on your personal profile. So anytime someone takes a look at your profile for some quick info, this is the prominent image that represents you. It’s important to get the size right.

LinkedIn personal profile image guidelines

• Minimum image size: 268×268 pixels
• Recommended image size: 400×400 pixels
• Maximum file size: 3MB
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Cover Image

LinkedIn’s background image is a newer feature for your personal profile. It’s a little bit trickier to find something that really fits that space well, but if you get it right, your profile will look great.

LinkedIn cover image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1128×191 pixels
• Maximum file size: 3MB
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Company Logo Image

One of the two brand logos that you should be uploading to LinkedIn is the standard company logo. This is the bigger of the two and is going to show up right next to your brand name on your LinkedIn homepage. This image also appears in the “Companies you may want to follow” section. The more enticing the photo, the more likely you’ll gain followers.

LinkedIn Company logo image guidelines

• Minimum image size: 268×268 pixels
• Recommended image size: 400×400 pixels
• Maximum file size: 3MB
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Company Cover Image

Unlike the personal background image, the company or standard business background image covers the entire top of the page. The image appears much larger than the personal dimensions, giving businesses a bit more space.

LinkedIn Company cover image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 1128×191 pixels
• Maximum file size: 3MB natively
• Maximum file size: 5MB via Sprout
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Shared Image or Link

This size works for LinkedIn posts that share a photo or a link with an image to a blog post or article to your company page’s feed.

LinkedIn shared image or link image guidelines

• Recommended image size for links: 1200×627 pixels, based on mobile scaling
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG

LinkedIn Life Tab – Main Image & Company Photos

The Life tab on LinkedIn company pages lets you provide a more in-depth look at the day to day experience of your company’s employees. Currently, the two types of images you can upload here are the main image, which serves as a hero and highlight to your page, and the horizontal scrolling gallery of other company photos beneath.

LinkedIn Life tab image guidelines

• Recommended size for main image: 1128×376
• Recommended size for company photos: 900×600
• Recommended file type: JPG or PNG
• The Life tab only appears on the mobile app, and not the mobile web version of LinkedIn, so exact display sizes will vary by device. Upload the recommended size for the best experience.

Find more information in the LinkedIn Help Center.

Pinterest Image Sizes

Pinterest Profile Picture

When setting up your Pinterest account you have the option to do so using Facebook, Google or email. If you choose Facebook or Google, Pinterest will pull in the profile image that you have set there.

If you’re using email, or would prefer to use a different photo, you can do that too: just upload a square photograph (the larger the better) and Pinterest will resize it to fit. Like other social sites your profile picture on Pinterest should be something closely tied to you or your brand.

Pinterest profile picture image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 165×165 pixels
• Maximum file size: 10MB
• Recommended image type: JPG and PNG

Pinterest Pin Sizes

When adding a pin to your board, it’s important to remember that Pinterest puts a limit on the width of the image but not the length. This gives you the opportunity to add a photo that’s square or one that will scale to be even taller. Just remember to make sure you’re creating large images because they add more value, not just because you can.

Pinterest Pin sizes image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 735×1102 pixels
• Recommended ratio: 2:3
• Recommended file size: 20MB max, but only 10 MB when publishing via Sprout
• Recommended file type: JPG, PNG, GIF
• Note: Larger are resized to display at a width of 238 pixels with scaled height in feeds.

Text Guidelines

• Title character count: 100 characters max
• Textbox character count: 250 characters max

Pinterest Board Display

Creating boards is one of the most important things that you can do on Pinterest. Not only is it important to choose a photo that is enticing to your audience, it’s important to choose one that’s relevant to that particular board.

Pinterest Board display image guidelines

• Final display: 222×150 pixels (large thumbnail)
• Final display: 55×55 pixels (smaller thumbnail)

Find more information in the Pinterest Help Center.

YouTube Image Sizes

YouTube has more than 2.5 billion unique users every month and is available on hundreds of millions of devices. Millions of brands have already realized that YouTube is a great opportunity to reach their fan-base.

YouTube Channel Profile Image

YouTube allows you to select different profile image borders, but the dimensions stay the same. Ensure your YouTube has a profile image set up before you select your border.

YouTube Channel profile image guidelines

• Recommended image size: 800×800 pixels
• Minimum image size: 98×98 pixels
• Maximum file size: 4MB
• Recommended image files: PNG or GIF (no animations)

YouTube Channel Cover Photo

Spice up your YouTube channel with some “channel art.” When users click through your YouTube videos to your channel, some appealing images could entice them to stay on your page longer and watch more of your videos.

YouTube Channel cover photo image guidelines

• Recommended file size: 2560×1440 pixels
• Minimum file size: 2048×1152 pixels
• Safe area for mobile and web (without text and logo cropping): 1546×423 pixels
• Maximum file size: 6MB
• Recommended image files: PNG or GIF

Across Different Devices

There are a lot of different platforms and devices that users can stream YouTube on so it’s important that you review your creative across devices and confirm that the most important parts of your image, such as text or logos, are displaying legibly in the “safe zone” noted above.

Find more information in the YouTube Help Center.

YouTube Video Uploads

Uploading your content to YouTube is the one of the most important parts of establishing your presence on the site. Videos can tell viewers something about you as a person, or it could show off something that your business might offer.

YouTube video guidelines

• Videos must maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio. Smaller videos such as 4:3 will be pillarboxed to fit.
• YouTube Shorts must maintain a 9:16 aspect ratio and 1920×1080 pixels.

For more on the specifics of YouTube video optimization, or to size video on any other social network, check out our complete guide to social media video specs.

Google My Business Image Sizes

Google My Business has become an essential platform for businesses with local, brick-and-mortar presences to gain visibility and conduct their review management strategy.

Types of Images for Google My Business

• Logo: Your recognizable logo image. May not be available for all types of businesses–see Google guidelines for more detail.
• Cover photo: A photo of your business that will typically be the first one shown. Choose a photo that gives the best overall representation of your place of business for this photo.
• Business photo: You can use your other business photos to highlight different elements of your business or offices and help show off what local visiting customers should look for when they stop by.

For all three types of images, Google’s official guidelines recommend the below specs for the best appearance on the platform.

Google My Business image guidelines

• Recommended resolution: 720×720 pixels
• Minimum resolution: 250×250 pixels
• File size maximum: 5 MB
• Image file type: JPG or PNG

The post Always up-to-date guide to social media image sizes appeared first on Sprout Social.

In this post, we take a deep dive into the world of Facebook hashtags. We show you how to use hashtags on Facebook and how your business can benefit from them. As a bonus, we even share a list of the most popular Facebook hashtags in 2024. Let’s get started.

• What are Facebook hashtags?
• Do hashtags on Facebook work?
• How to use hashtags on Facebook?
• Benefits of using Facebook hashtags
• Top Facebook hashtags in 2024
  • 30 popular hashtags on Facebook
  • Top 10 Facebook hashtags for B2B
  • Top 10 hashtags for fashion and beauty
  • Top 10 Facebook hashtags for fitness
  • Top 10 Facebook hashtags for food, beverage and restaurant
  • Top 10 Facebook hashtags for technology and software
  • Top 10 Facebook hashtags for travel
• The importance of hashtag analytics
• How are you using hashtags on Facebook?

What are Facebook hashtags?

Facebook hashtags are clickable links created by adding the # symbol to words and phrases and added to your Facebook posts. If someone clicks on a certain Facebook hashtag or searches for it, they’ll see more posts containing the hashtag. This helps them to learn more about the topic and discover more content related to it.

Do hashtags on Facebook work?

The short answer is: Yes.

Hashtags on Facebook turn into clickable links to categorize conversations on the platform. A search for #NFL will bring up Facebook posts related to the NFL. This allows people to keep up with conversations related to the league such as game commentary, predictions and more. But keep in mind that only the posts that use this hashtag will show up in this search.

That means just posting about the topic isn’t enough to reach people who aren’t following your Page. You need to use a relevant hashtag to ensure that non-followers can discover your post and engage with it.

Following the same #NFL example, FanDuel shared a throwback video from a 2015 NFL game. The video included the #NFL hashtag along with several other relevant hashtags to bring more visibility. Naturally, it garnered tons of engagement including 900+ comments and 600+ shares.

To see how well Facebook hashtags work for you, consider running a social media experiment. Create two similar posts with and without the hashtag and publish them when your audience is most engaged. Then see the magic happen.

How to use hashtags on Facebook

Before you start adding hashtags to your Facebook posts, it pays to know how to use them more strategically. How many should you use and in what context? How do you format them?

Let’s check out some best practices and tips on how to use hashtags on Facebook.

1. Avoid spaces in multi-word hashtags

To create a hashtag from a single word, you only need to add the # symbol to the front. For multi-word phrases, you need to join all the words, so they become a single clickable link.

Adding spaces between the words will break up the hashtag, making only the first word clickable. That means your post is unlikely to show up in front of relevant users.

If you’re worried about readability, capitalize the first letter of each new word to make it easier to read. So #tacotuesday becomes #TacoTuesday.

2. Avoid all punctuations and symbols

While you can add numbers to your hashtags, skip unique characters such as symbols and punctuations. Adding these will render your hashtag useless and will not make the hashtag produce a single clickable link. That means if you want to share a hashtag containing “%,” you’ll have to spell it out as “percent.”

3. Use hashtags to categorize conversations and topics

You can technically use hashtags randomly across your Facebook posts. But if you want to get more out of your Facebook hashtags, you need to use them purposefully. Think of separate hashtag campaigns for different goals such as brand awareness, event promotion and so on.

Use hashtags to categorize conversations and topics and make it easier for users to find relevant posts. So when someone clicks on a hashtag on #BrandNameTips, they’ll discover tips related to your brand. Similarly, your brand can discover user-submitted content with a designated hashtag.

For instance, Fabletics influencers have to use the hashtag #FableticsPartner. This helps the brand categorize influencer-created posts and makes it easier to find content to repost.

4. Join trending topics and conversations

From sporting events such as the World Cup to #NationalDonutDay, hashtags are totally fair game for topical content. As long as you’re posting tasteful and relevant content related to an event, you may very well score some extra attention to your post by tacking on a tag.

For example, THB Bagelry & Deli shared a post promoting #NationalBagelDay to engage their local audience for a BOGO deal that was part of a campaign to use National Bagel Day to donate a portion of their sales to a good cause.

Keep in mind that the hashtag doesn’t necessarily have to be directly relevant to your business. Look for hashtags around topics and conversations that are trending at the moment. What are events or incidents that everyone’s talking about? Which hashtags are they using for these discussions?

5. Incorporate hashtags into sentences

Use Facebook hashtags naturally in your sentences whenever possible. This helps you avoid having to repeat two versions of the same word: one hashtagged and one not. And it makes your post look less spammy.

For example:

Get a chance to win a #GoProHero12

Is much cleaner and simpler than:

Get a chance to win a GoPro Hero 12. #GoProHero12

Here’s how GoPro uses the hashtag naturally in a sentence.

6. Use Facebook hashtags within reason

On a related note, be mindful of how many hashtags you add to your posts. Too many and your post will come across as messy and spammy.

SocialPilot recommends using two to three hashtags in your Facebook post.

If you want to add more, put most of them at the end of your caption instead of hashtagging every other word in a sentence. Definitely #dont #do #this in the main caption area.

Experiment with different hashtag volumes to see what works best for you. This is why it pays to keep a close eye on your social media analytics.

Hulu keeps it simple by only hashtagging the name of the show and nothing more.

Benefits of using Facebook hashtags

Many brands don’t see the need to use hashtags on Facebook. But here are some reasons why you shouldn’t ignore them.

1. Increase brand exposure

Facebook hashtags are a nice touch from a search perspective, allowing you to get more eyes on your brand’s posts. This translates to increased brand exposure, which is crucial for boosting brand awareness.

Dumpling Town uses the hashtag #StatenIslandFood in its Facebook posts. When someone searches for the hashtag, the restaurant’s posts show up in the results. This helps get the business in front of more people, adding to its brand exposure.

2. Encourage audience interaction

The more people see your posts, the more likely you are to boost your engagement. That’s why hashtags positively contribute to your Facebook engagement rates.

In addition to boosting your post visibility, hashtags become links that people can click to learn more about the topic. Adding them to your posts helps you create opportunities for people to interact with your content.

3. Source questions and feedback

Since hashtags help you categorize topics and conversations, use them to organize questions and feedback. Create hashtags dedicated to this purpose and encourage your audience to use them to share their queries and feedback.

That way, you can easily find all the questions and comments people have for your business under a dedicated hashtag. This will help support your customer service efforts and guide your content ideation development.

You can even track hashtags related to your industry to look for questions and complaints not specific to your brand.

4. Create an omnichannel experience

Hashtags are vital for your omnichannel strategy. They help tie your social media posts together across multiple platforms. So you get to create a consistent omnichannel experience.

This makes it easier for your audience to engage with the campaign no matter which platform they’re using. It even improves the chances of people remembering your campaign because they’re seeing the hashtag everywhere.

Take, for example, the #DMsChallenge campaign that Dr. Martens launched not just on Facebook:

But also on X (formerly Twitter):

And Instagram:

Top Facebook hashtags in 2024

Earlier, we advised that you use hashtags to jump in on trending topics and conversations. But now the challenge is about “how to find the trending hashtags on Facebook.” To give you a head start, we share a list of trending Facebook hashtags at the time of writing.

30 popular hashtags on Facebook

1. #trending – 875 million
2. #love – 743 million
3. #photography – 227 million
4. #tbt – 210 million
5. #music – 170 million
6. #photooftheday – 159 million
7. #dance – 147 million
8. #viralvideo – 141 million
9. #motivation – 134 million
10. #luxury – 80 million
11. #shopping – 72 million
12. #inspiration – 66 million
13. #funnyvideos – 66 million
14. #dancechallenge – 60 million
15. #nofilter – 59 million
16. #photographer – 55 million
17. #sunset – 52 million
18. #football – 46 million
19. #success – 42 million
20. #photographychallenge – 42 million
21. #challenge – 34 million
22. #dogs – 34 million
23. #night – 34 million
24. #sky – 32 million
25. #sports – 30 million
26. #cats – 27 million
27. #giveaway – 25 million
28. #motivationalquotes – 20 million
29. #mondaymotivation – 16 million
30. #vibes – 15 million

Top 10 Facebook hashtags for B2B

1. #entrepreneur – 43 million
2. #digitalmarketing – 32 million
3. #startup – 15 million
4. #leadership – 15 million
5. #contentmarketing – 6.1 million
6. #growthmindset – 5.3 million
7. #marketingtips – 4.4 million
8. #businessgrowth – 4.4 million
9. #businesstips – 3.8 million
10. #b2b – 3.7 million

Top 10 Facebook hashtags for fashion and beauty

1. #fashion – 359 million
2. #beauty – 183 million
3. #style – 174 million
4. #skincare – 91 million
5. #ootd – 84 million
6. #fashionista – 34 million
7. #skincareroutine – 18 million
8. #skincaretips – 8.7 million
9. #skincareproducts – 8.3 million
10. #beautytips – 7.6 million

Top 10 Facebook hashtags for fitness

1. #fitness – 196 million
2. #workout – 66 million
3. #fitnessmotivation – 43 million
4. #gymlife – 23 million
5. #gymmotivation – 16 million
6. #fitnessmodel – 16 million
7. #fitnessgoals – 5.7 million
8. #healthandwellness – 5 million
9. #fitnesslifestyle – 4.5 million
10. #fitspiration – 2.9 million

Top 10 Facebook hashtags for food, beverage and restaurant

1. #food – 170 million
2. #foodie – 81 million
3. #pizza – 48 million
4. #healthyfood – 39 million
5. #restaurant – 32 million
6. #foodlover – 31 million
7. #bar – 22 million
8. #fooddelivery – 8 million
9. #homecooking – 7.3 million
10. #foodtruck – 5.6 million

Top 10 Facebook hashtags for technology and software

1. #technology – 47 million
2. #chatGPT – 13 million
3. #gadgets – 9.7 million
4. #artificialintelligence – 4.4 million
5. #machinelearning – 3.5 million
6. #technews – 3.4 million
7. #softwaredevelopment – 1.4 million
8. #AItools – 255k
9. #techtalk – 131k
10. #softwareupdate – 56k

Top 10 Facebook hashtags for travel

1. #travel – 174 million
2. #vacation – 38 million
3. #travelphotography – 33 million
4. #wanderlust – 18 million
5. #tourism – 15 million
6. #traveltheworld – 7.6 million
7. #adventuretravel – 3.3 million
8. #solotravel – 1.9 million
9. #travelpics – 1.1 million
10. #goexplore – 658k

The importance of hashtag analytics

If you’re not analyzing hashtags, how do you know which hashtags to use? Or whether your hashtag strategy is working?

Hashtag analytics provide you with important metrics on hashtag usage and performance. This helps you track which hashtags are popularly used in your industry, how popular they are and much more.

Understanding these and other Facebook analytics can give you the data you need to pivot or improve your campaigns for optimal engagement. Tracking your post reach and engagement can give you enough insight to understand what resonates with your audiences.

Use these insights to inform your strategy and optimize to boost your Facebook visibility and engagement.

Get more out of your Facebook hashtags

Although not the be-all, end-all of your Facebook presence, hashtags still have their time and place on the platform.

That doesn’t mean you have to add hashtags to every single Facebook post. The trick is to find the right balance between different content types and know which ones should have a hashtag.

Check out our interactive tool to find the right social media content mix for your brand.

The post How hashtags on Facebook still work for businesses in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Marketers need shortcuts. Managing different networks is demanding and it’s no surprise putting your social media channels on autopilot seems like a tempting offer. Especially for your Facebook marketing strategy—the platform giant with almost 3 billion monthly users.

But is it as good as it sounds? Could automation be more than just a passing trend?

Below we’ve combed through the fine details of Facebook automation and suggested ten tools to help you get started.

What is Facebook automation & how does it work?

Facebook automation involves using tools to manage and streamline Facebook activities, automating tasks such as:

• Leaving comments on statuses, images or pages
• Liking and sharing statuses, images or pages across your account(s)
• Inviting friends to specific pages or events en masse
• Accepting or rejecting all pending friend requests

But here’s the truth about social media automation: not everything can go on autopilot. It exists to make things easier and not to replace your personal touch.

Instead, strike a balance.

Use automation to manage routine tasks, but keep your brand’s personality alive through authentic engagement. Respond personally to complex queries and comments and share unique, humanized content that reflects your brand’s voice.

Remember, your audience values real connections. They want to interact with a brand that listens and responds genuinely, not just automated responses. Use automation smartly to enhance your presence by reducing repetitive tasks and leaving more room to make real human connections.

Benefits of Facebook automation

While social media marketers manage more responsibilities today, core tasks like scheduling posts remain the same. Automation tools are necessary to keep up with the pace of social and reduce the energy spent on these routine tasks. Here are the potential benefits of using Facebook automation:

• Boosts efficiency and productivity: While liking posts and leaving relevant comments are key to a well-functioning social presence, they’re not always considered the most important marketing tactics. Facebook automation takes care of routine messages and comments so you can focus your attention on more high-value tasks like promoting content or conducting outreach.
• Always on brand engagement: The idea of automated responses is appealing to marketers who want their business to be “on” 24/7. In The 2023 Sprout Social Index ™, 51% of consumers said that the most memorable brands responded to customers.

Automation enables you to respond to questions, comments and inquiries in a timely manner, regardless of industry or time zone, to increase engagement, reliability and customer satisfaction.

• Helps maintain a consistent presence: Batch content creation and auto-posting tools keep the ideas flowing and the updates steady. It’s much easier to stay on track when low-impact tasks, like posting, happen in the background. A consistent posting schedule keeps your brand top of mind and your audience engaged.
• Gives better targeting insights: When you automate Facebook tasks, you’re able to gather and analyze KPIs such as audience behavior, what content they interact with, etc. more easily. And since there is a lesser chance of human error, you get deeper and more precise insight. This allows you to deliver better personalized content, offers and deals to your customers and followers.

How to use Facebook automation for your brand

Think of Facebook automation, whether for chatbot marketing or customer care, as a skilled sous-chef in your brand’s social media kitchen. This prep work enables you to focus on creating the perfect dish for your audience. Let’s break down how Facebook automation improves three key areas.

Facebook publishing automation

Facebook publishing automation is like setting up a smart, self-operating calendar for your posts. It lets you schedule Facebook posts in advance to make sure your page stays active, even when you’re not available.

You pick the time and content and the automation does the posting. It’s great for maintaining consistency in your posting schedule.

But it’s not just about quantity—quality matters. Mix in live, timely posts to keep your feed dynamic and engaging. This way, you strike the right balance between automated efficiency and authentic, real-time interaction.

Facebook response automation

Facebook response automation chatbots instantly reply to common questions—think “opening hours” or “location queries.” This feature keeps your audience engaged and shows them you’re responsive whenever they need you.

The key is to identify which inquiries or comments need human attention and which ones chatbots can handle.

Quick, routine questions are perfect for bots. They offer instant help and keep your audience happy with speedy responses. But complex or sensitive topics? That’s your cue to step in. These moments need your brand’s personalized attention.

Blending automation with human interaction creates a responsive and authentic experience for your audience.

Facebook ads automation

Your Facebook advertising strategy benefits from automation too. With Facebook ads automation, you set the parameters for your target audience and budget, then let the algorithm do its magic.

It analyzes data and adjusts targeting, bidding and placement in real-time. This means your ads are always in the right place at the right time while staying within budget.

The best part? You’re still in charge. Regular check-ins and a clear understanding of your objectives ensure you maintain control over the brand message and overall campaign direction.

10 Facebook automation tools to use in 2024

So where do you even start with Facebook automation? Tools make it easier and there are plenty to choose from, including:

1. Sprout Social

At Sprout, we understand the importance of combining a holistic social media strategy with automation and AI. Our tool inherits your manual tasks in publishing, listening, analytics and customer care so your team can focus on the strategic decisions that require human insight and creativity.

Data fragmentation across multiple tools also causes communication breakdowns, resulting in a disjointed customer experience and potential loss of crucial customer information. That’s what we’ve eliminated with Sprout’s Facebook integration. Publishing features, response management, approval workflows, reputation control and even scheduling posts across multiple pages and accounts—everything comes under one roof.

Tool-switching also leads to reduced efficiency and increased response times due to constant shifts between different platforms. Sprout gives you a unified inbox to simplify your workflow so you can view all your customer interactions across your other social channels as well in a single source of truth. This ensures you never miss a time-sensitive comment or message and have a holistic view of your social process.

Our AI Assist tool generates options for your post text and tone. Create posts in bulk to speed up content creation and never fall behind schedule.

Sprout’s Optimal Send Times in Compose also identifies the best send times for posting content on a specific day.

This helping hand eliminates guesswork by offering a list of suggested times based on engagement factors, enabling you to optimize your content’s reach.

Then, Sprout brings it together with detailed Facebook analytics that provide insights into post, page and tag performance.

Track these metrics to see how your social strategy measures up against quarterly goals and pivot accordingly.

Dive deeper with competitive Facebook insights on fan growth and top posts from other pages for a comparative overview of how your presence is doing. Identify content gaps and opportunities to capture specific audiences.

A combination of all these features allows you to automate your social media marketing from start to finish and your social media marketing from start to finish and focus your efforts on creative and strategic tasks that build your brand and engagement with customers.

2. Meta for Business

Meta for Business is a native Facebook and Instagram automation tool.

Features like automated responses based on pre-set keywords and phrases make it convenient for businesses to engage with their audience without constantly monitoring their social media pages. Plus, connected scheduling for posts across both platforms saves time and effort in content distribution.

What makes Meta for Business stand out is its Advantage+ feature, which uses machine learning to optimize sales campaigns and target the most likely converters within your advertising budget.

Say goodbye to manual ad targeting and hello to a smarter, more efficient way of reaching potential customers.

3. Loomly

Loomly’s Facebook automation features are quite straightforward and make it easy to schedule and publish your posts with minimal effort.

Loomly also has approval workflows to keep your team in sync. Complementary features like commenting systems, version logs and post mockups ensure everyone approves content before it goes live.

Beyond that, Loomly also offers audience targeting and post ideas. These features work together to ensure you create content your audience enjoys. Plus, advanced analytics make pivoting your strategy that much easier.

4. Tailwind

Tailwind is primarily a Pinterest and Instagram automation tool that now extends to Facebook as well. It uses generative AI tools called Ghostwriter and Tailwind Create to generate copy and design that matches your brand.

With automation and scheduling capabilities, Tailwind takes care of posting for you at the best times for maximum engagement from your audience.

Tailwind also has a powerful hashtag finder that pinpoints popular and hyper-relevant hashtags to ensure posts receive the visibility they deserve.

Plus, with one calendar for all your social networks, streamline and organize your content across platforms to maintain a consistent brand image.

5. NapoleonCat

NapoleanCat incorporates automation at several levels.

The tool includes an AI assistant that helps with content ideation and creates engaging post captions.

NapoleonCat also recognizes how important responsiveness is and has built-in features to automatically reply to simple questions and comments and redirect issues to relevant consultants.

Overall, NapoleonCat is a conversational tool that simplifies managing social media for businesses.

6. Agorapulse

Another tool for Facebook automation is Agorapulse.

This platform offers a variety of features that streamline your workflow and have a special focus on protecting your brand’s reputation on Facebook.

Features like automatically assigning, hiding, labeling and deleting content make social media monitoring simple and fast. Like other Facebook automation tools, Agorapulse has a Writing Assistant to help improve your content.

And for those messy inbox situations, the Inbox Assistant steps in to organize and manage your incoming messages. It detects questions and assigns them to the right person, saving you time and hassle.

7. IFTTT

IFTTT is a handy tool for automating tasks on Facebook. You’ll find it user-friendly, especially if you’re not tech-savvy. It connects different apps and services (like Sprout!), so you can create custom ‘recipes.’ Sync posts, manage content and trigger actions based on your page’s activity on Facebook.

IFTTT is a bit of a generalist tool, so you need to play around with it to find the recipes that are useful for you. Plus, you need to connect different apps and workflows to squeeze the most value out of it.

8. Planly

Planly is a scheduling and automation tool that streamlines content ideation and planning for businesses and creators on Facebook.

With its intuitive interface, Planly makes it easy to create and schedule posts in advance. Then, view and manage all your content in one convenient calendar.

Planly includes features for sending auto-responses and keeping your audience engaged with pre-written comments on Facebook, although the number of auto-responses is limited.

An integrated hashtag research tool and audience insights boost content optimization. These features save time with planning and maintaining consistency with your posts on the world’s largest social media platform.

9. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo specializes in content research, analysis and monitoring.

Find trending topics, track brand and competitor performance and identify influential content creators and publications from one platform.

While Buzzsumo doesn’t offer a wide breadth of Facebook automation features, it makes up for it by providing an in-depth analysis of your page’s performance. From monitoring engagement metrics to identifying top-performing content, Buzzsumo offers valuable insights to guide future posts.

10. CoSchedule

Plan, organize and execute marketing strategies with CoSchedule.

Features include content calendar management, social media scheduling, project workflow coordination and campaign analytics. AI Social and Project Assistants speed up content ideation and generation to make sure you’re never stuck for ideas.

A highlight of CoSchedule’s automation features is its ReQueue function, which automatically republishes your evergreen content on social media and adjusts the schedule according to when your audience is most active. Automating repeating promotions like Motivation Monday also supports brand consistency and frees up time for more creative tasks.

Overall, CoSchedule is a valuable tool for streamlining and optimizing your social content efforts on Facebook and beyond.

How can your brand use Facebook automation?

As a social platform, Facebook is nowhere near a thing of the past. Your audience is very much there and very much active.

Through scheduling, analytics and content suggestions, Facebook automation tools speed up the process without sacrificing creativity.

See how Sprout compares to other social media management platforms and how it can amplify your brand’s presence across social networks.

The post Facebook automation: The ultimate guide for your brand appeared first on Sprout Social.

In fact, without continuously engaging your Facebook audience, you may lose credibility, authority and brand loyalty, on top of your reach. If the concept of maintaining a steady stream of content seems daunting, don’t worry—you have the ability to schedule Facebook posts in one of three different methods.

Automating your Facebook posts will create a streamlined process for you to focus on your overall Facebook marketing strategy. Your audience never sleeps and neither should your Facebook content.

Why you should schedule Facebook posts

Scheduling content ahead of time has a number of benefits. Discover more about why scheduling Facebook posts can be a smart productivity hack for your schedule.

Consistency

Consistency is key when it comes to social media algorithms. So ensuring your Facebook posts remain consistent is going to be an essential part of your strategy. And scheduling ensures that reliability. If your internet is down or you can’t get to your computer, a scheduled Facebook post will still publish at the right time.

Time management

Time batching is a common time management tactic that is possible when you start scheduling your social media content ahead of time. Set aside a block of time to research and plan your content ideas, a block of time to create your content and a block of time to schedule your content. You’ll find you’re much more productive than if you did each standalone post on its own.

Global reach

When you schedule content ahead of time, you can plan it for any time of the day or night, giving yourself the ability to properly reach people across a number of time zones. Instead of staying up late or setting a 3am alarm just to publish a Facebook post, reach audiences across the globe with a scheduled post.

Strategic planning

When you’re scheduling social media posts for a full month (or longer), you can make sure they support the narrative you want to convey. For example, if you’re running a limited-time offer, you could craft and schedule each Facebook post to build a sense of urgency throughout the month.

Improved content quality

If you publish as you go, there are likely to be certain times that you’re not feeling as creative as others, resulting in a poor content strategy. But if you’re time blocking and saving content creation for one of your more inspired moments, you can end up creating much more quality content—consistently.

Audience engagement

When you’re able to schedule content ahead of time and stick to a consistent plan, your audience engagement ends up increasing. Facebook’s algorithm will start to recognize that your page is a hub for regular, quality content, and put it in front of your audience, helping to boost overall engagement.

Boost productivity

Finally, scheduling content is the perfect social media tip for boosting productivity. Beyond time batching, it can free up your time so that you’re not always having to have your phone or computer ready to publish a new post. Instead of needing to make time each day to publish Facebook content, you can free up your schedule for other important social media management tasks.

Best practices for optimizing scheduled Facebook posts

There are ways to make sure your scheduled posts find the right audience and help improve your strategy. Keep these five tips in mind as you schedule your Facebook content.

Tips for choosing the right scheduling time

First things first, you need to make sure you’re scheduling your posts for the right time. Ensuring you get your content out when your audience is most active is key in reaching the most people.

Global data states that the best times to post on Facebook are:

• Mondays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

However, you should also pay attention to your specific audience. You can check out your Facebook analytics and see when your followers are most likely to be online and schedule your content around those time periods.

You can also take advantage of Sprout Social’s Optimal Send Times feature that analyzes your audience and selects the best times to schedule your content.

Maintaining brand consistency in scheduled posts

Next, it’s important to make sure you’re keeping up with your branding throughout all of your scheduled content. If you batch your content creation, this should be a simple enough process.

Maintaining brand consistency includes things like:

• Keeping a similar brand voice throughout all of your captions
• Using the same color scheme and font choices throughout all graphics
• Sticking with the same filters and effects for all videos
• Creating graphics using similar templates so everything looks cohesive

If you’re reaching a wider audience due to your scheduled content, you want to make sure that content is representative of your brand and assists with overall brand recognition.

Balancing scheduled and live content

Keep in mind that not everything needs to be scheduled ahead of time. Your company might decide to put on a last minute promotion that you want to share on social media, you might have a stroke of inspiration and want to publish something different from what you had scheduled, or you might need to share a last minute company update.

Whatever the case, understand that you don’t have to stick to one extreme or the other—all scheduled content or none of it. You can still make last minute changes, switch up your content and share live posts when they come to you.

If you do, just make sure you’re not publishing a live post around the same time as a scheduled post is going live. Be sure to readjust your schedule to make room for your new content.

Avoiding over-scheduling

Don’t go crazy scheduling content—there is such thing as too much of a good thing, and you don’t want to end up with 5+ posts each day. Though many brands do post 4-5 times per day on Facebook, you don’t need to over-schedule. This can dry up your well of content ideas more quickly and annoy your audience if they see too much content from your brand.

Instead, come up with a scheduling plan that makes sense for your business, your content creation load and your audience—and stick with it.

Track analytics and engagement

Finally, pay attention to your Facebook analytics and overall audience engagement. Although global data and your insights can give you a good idea as to when to start scheduling, keeping up with your analytics can show you which types of posts and which days/times garner you the most engagement.

Use this data to inform and adapt your Facebook strategy. This can improve your overall Facebook organic reach, engagement and other important metrics.

How to schedule Facebook posts

You can schedule posts for your Facebook page using either the Meta Business Suite (formerly known as Creator Studio) or a third-party scheduling platform (like Sprout Social).

Schedule posts with Meta Business Suite

Step 1: Start by logging into your Facebook account. Head to your Facebook Page, then switch profiles so you’re managing your Page. In the left hand sidebar, click on Meta Business Suite.

Step 2: Click on the Planner tab in the main dashboard to see your content calendar, then click Schedule post.

Step 3: Create your post and select which account (either your Facebook or Instagram account, if you have them connected—or both) you want it to publish to. Add your photo or video, input your caption, preview your post, then scroll down to select a date and time to publish your content.

That’s it! You now have a scheduled post. Repeat the steps above to schedule additional posts.

How to schedule Facebook posts with Sprout Social

Here’s how to create scheduled Facebook posts with Sprout:

1. Click the Compose icon to open the Compose window.
2. Click the Profile Picker to select the Facebook pages for your post.
3. Create your post.
4. Select Specific Days & Times from the When to post dropdown, then choose.
5. The date and times for your post.
6. Optionally add more scheduled times.
7. Click Schedule.

Schedule Facebook posts with the Sprout Queue

What do you do when you have meaningful Facebook content, but don’t need to publish at any specific date or time? Use the Sprout Queue.

You can build your Sprout Queue to fill engagement gaps throughout the day with content around product tips, links to thought leadership articles or industry news.

Choose the number of posts per day, your date and times and Sprout will do the rest. To set up your Sprout Queue setup, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Publishing tab.
2. Click Sprout Queue.
3. Click Compose and create your post.
4. Choose Auto-schedule with Sprout Queue from the When to post dropdown.
5. Select Queue Next at the first possible time slot or Queue Last to move the post to the end of the queue.
6. Click Queue or Submit for Approval to schedule your content.

Configure your queue timeline

Sprout’s suite of social media publishing tools places the content in the Queue Timeline for you to choose a specific time or date. There you can identify your publishing time gaps and plan your content.

You can configure this feature to run during specific times or dates. This makes it simple for social media managers to post during the best times to post on Facebook. Select various post times for each Facebook Page.

Sprout’s Queue even makes it simple to see your daily post times throughout all your different social media profiles.

Take advantage of ViralPost

ViralPost is Sprout’s tool for publishing at the most optimal times. Configure ViralPost in your Sprout Queue to publish your queued content at optimal times for audience engagement (only available in Standard Plans and above).

When you use ViralPost, it analyzes your audience’s usage and engagement patterns to determine the optimal times to publish content on your Facebook page.

To configure your ViralPost settings, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your Publishing settings.
2. Click Sprout Queue.
3. Click Edit for the profile you want to configure ViralPost for. The Configure Queue Settings popup opens.
4. Select ViralPost for the Scheduling Method.
5. Choose whether you want to set your schedule by Individual Day or Weekdays/Weekends.
6. Select the number of times you want to post for each day of the week.
7. Select the time range for your post.
8. Click Save.

Add Facebook content to the Sprout Queue

It’s always best practice to queue content when it’s top of mind. Draft a message directly from Compose, share content you found on the web with Sprout’s Chrome Extension or add content to the queue directly from the RSS Reader. Whichever type of content you wish to publish on your Facebook page, our tools will suit your needs.

Pro Tip: Add content anytime, from anywhere by queueing content from Sprout Social’s web, mobile or browser extension apps.

Share your calendar

Last but not least, once you have your content in order, easily view, share and collaborate on your content calendar. Sprout’s Publishing Calendar gives you insight into your publishing schedule and more.

Here’s how to view and share your calendar as a PDF:

1. Navigate to the Publishing tab.
2. Click Calendar.
3. Choose List, Week or Month.
4. Select your Date Range, Profiles and Content Types.
5. Click Share.
6. Click Download PDF.

Simplify your Facebook post scheduling

The post How to schedule Facebook posts: 3 strategies in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Staying relevant and capturing your audience’s attention is a constant challenge for marketers. And now that brands rely on video content more than ever, it’s critical to use the correct social media video specs and advertising video sizes.

To simplify marketers’ efforts, we created a complete guide of every single social media video spec and advertising video dimension.

Before we start, here are some additional resources that keep the information in one place:

• Easily reference our social media video specs in our always up-to-date Google Doc.
• Looking for image sizes? Check out our social media image sizes guide for help.
• Want to get better results with video? Download our social media video content workbook.

Social Media Video Specs & Ad Sizes By Network

We’ve gathered data on each social network’s specific video sizes and specs. Simply click the links below to jump to your desired network:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Twitter
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Snapchat

Start your free trial

Facebook Video Specs

Facebook video is consumed at higher rates each year, so it’s no wonder why so many marketers search for the correct Facebook video specs.

There are simply so many types of videos you can share on Facebook and the platform updates its design frequently. Each video format has different dimensions and specs, which can make it confusing to know whether or not you’re uploading the correct format for organic or paid posts. Follow the specs below to optimize your posts.

In-Feed Shared Post Video (Landscape & Portrait)

The most common type of video on Facebook comes from shared posts. This type of video lives in your Facebook Feed, and can be shared by brands or your friends. While it’s not as easy to get organic reach on Facebook, it’s still a viable way to share video.

You can choose between two video orientations: Landscape and Portrait. Here’s a look at the video specs for both.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1280×720, 720×1280
• Minimum width: 1200 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 9:16
• Max file size: 10GB (3GB max in Sprout)
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV
• Video length: 1 second to 240 minutes (45 minutes max, if uploading in Sprout)
• Bitrate: 256kbps
• Frame rate: 30fps

360 Video

Facebook’s 360 Video allows users to get a complete 360-degree view by scrolling with a cursor on the web, by touch or turning the device on mobile.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution depends on the type of content:
  • Monoscopic: 5120×2560 maximum
  • Stereoscopic: 5120×5120 maximum
• Aspect ratio depends on the type of content:
  • Monoscopic: 2:1
  • Stereoscopic: 1:1
• Max file size: 10GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV
• Video length: 1 second to 30 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fp

Facebook Reels

The convenience of cross-posting your Instagram Reels to Facebook expands the reach of your videos. This format appears organically in feeds but often gets priority on Facebook feeds.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: No file size limit
• Recommended video formats: MP4
• Video length: 3 seconds to 90 seconds
• Frame rate: 24fps – 60fps (30fp recommended in Sprout)

Facebook Stories

Similar to Instagram Stories, you can post Facebook Stories to extend the reach of your posts. Users who may not follow you on Instagram will be able to view and interact with your Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080p
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 and 4:5 to 1.91:1
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: 1 second to 60 seconds

Facebook Video Ad Specs

There are more than 10 million advertisers now on Facebook and having the right specs for your ads can be tricky. Each type of Facebook video ad is different, so let’s break down the specs for each type of video you can produce.

In-Feed Video Ads

These Facebook video ads are the sponsored equivalent of in-feed posts, and they follow similar guidelines to in-feed video posts.

Video guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080 minimum
• Minimum width: 120 pixels
• Minimum height: 120 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only)
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 seconds to 240 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 27 characters
• Description: 27 characters

Carousel Video Ads

Facebook Carousel Video ads allow brands to showcase multiple videos (or images) and a landing page link within a user’s Facebook feed. It has grown in popularity because its unique scrolling feature allows users to see more content before clicking. In fact, Digiday estimated Carousel Ads to be 10x more effective than standard social media ads.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080 minimum
• Aspect ratio: 1:1
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 seconds to 240 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 32 characters
• Description: 18 characters
• Landing Page URL: Required

Collection Video Ads (Mobile)

The Facebook Collection ads showcase multiple images and a main video above it. This is perfect for displaying multiple products (or various colors of a single product) plus a video. The ad type has been popular so far with retailers and clothing companies as an instant storefront or lookbook.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080 minimum
• Aspect ratio: 1:1
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 seconds to 240 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline max: 40 characters
• Landing Page URL: Required

Instant Experience Video Ads

Facebook Instant Experience ads open up a full-screen experience after the first click, which can be further customized with a variety of interactive features. This can include multiple video experiences, including features to auto-play on loop.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum width: 720 pixels
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV
• Video length: Up to 2 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Slideshow Video Ad

Facebook’s Slideshow videos were built for advertisers wanting to reach audiences with slower internet connections. Instead of a regular video, slideshows are just that–a slideshow of images or video in an ad display.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 1:1
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MPV
• Slideshow duration length: 15 seconds

Facebook Stories Ads

Facebook added the Stories feature – photo or short video posts that are only available for 24 hours. In addition to user-generated organic posts, Stories ads are available to run between sets of posted Stories. While most users will be sharing immediate and organic updates from their phone’s camera, the guidelines for this format are similar for both paid and organic ad posts.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MPV and GIF
• Video length: 1 second to 2 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters

For more information on the video specs for Facebook, visit the Facebook Help Center.

Instagram Video Specs

Instagram launched video capabilities in 2013 and quickly saw enough success to start advertising on the platform in 2015. Since then, video only continues to grow as an engaging social format. Needless to say, Instagram videos are absolutely worth the investment.

Carousel Video

Since 2015, Instagram crafted its video formats to allow three different styles: landscape, square and vertical. However, like the app, Instagram and how video is presented has evolve. Gone are the days of IGTV and Instagram Video. Video can be natively included as a post or carousel post, or they can be uploaded as Reels, but more on Reels later.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080, 1080×1350
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV
• Video length: 3 seconds to 60 minutes
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Instagram Reels

Introduced in 2020, Instagram Reels are another option for your video strategy on Instagram. These short-form, easily digestible videos are becoming the preferred type of content in Instagram feeds.

Fortunately for social content creators looking to easily generate a lot of content for Instagram, most of the video specs for Instagram Reels are fairly similar to other formats on the platform.

As Instagram has started to add separate tabs for different content types, thumbnails will be cropped differently on each view. If the viewer is on the first tab that has all content types, the thumbnail will be cropped to the traditional square post size of 1:1–center your subjects and plan to avoid undesirable vertical cropping.

Video Guidelines:

• Resolution: 720p minimum
• Aspect ratio: 0.01:1 to 10:1; 9:16 recommended
• Max file size: 4GB max (1GB in Sprout)
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: 3 seconds to 15 minutes
  • Recording in-app is limited to 90 seconds; users can upload videos up to 15 minutes
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Cover Photo Size:

• Size: 420p x 654p
• Aspect ratio: 1:1.55

Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are short-form videos that display for 24-hours on your profile. Followers and users can access your Stories directly from your profile; followers have the luxury of accessing your Stories directly from their feed, where Stories for accounts they follow display directly at the top of their screen.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 second to 90 seconds
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters

Consider leaving roughly 250 pixels of the top of the video free from text to avoid covering them with the profile icon.

Instagram Video Ad Specs

Instagram’s advertising revenue has significantly increased over the last year. In fact, Instagram reportedly earned $43.2 billion in ad revenue in 2022. The push for Instagram advertising is real and marketers have to be ready to take advantage with engaging videos.

Carousel Video Ad

Much like Facebook’s Carousel Ads, Instagram offers a similar feature. Carousel ads allow users to see more of a product or feature than a single image or video. With Instagram, your carousel video ads can have 2-10 cards with a full-width call to action below the ad.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Aspect ratio: 1:1
• Max file size: 4GB (video) 30MB (image)
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 second to 2 minutes
• Number of Carousel cards: 2 (minimum) to 10 (maximum)
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Instagram Stories Ads

It didn’t take long for Instagram Stories to feature ads within users’ story feeds. Brands can seamlessly integrate their video content between other Instagram users’ Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1080
• Minimum width: 500 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 4GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or GIF
• Video length: 1 second to 60 minutes
• Frame rate: 23-60 fps

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters

Consider leaving roughly 250 pixels of the top of the video free from text to avoid covering them with the profile icon

If you’re looking for further information including images, check out our complete guide to all the Instagram ad sizes.

For more information on the video specs for Instagram, visit the Facebook Help Center.

TikTok Video Specs

TikTok has quickly gained attention in the social space. Fortunately, TikTok’s focus on easy to create and share videos means it’s not hard to start producing video content for the platform, and there are plenty of trends to inspire TikTok content creation.

TikTok In-Feed Videos

TikTok videos are all about the ease of creation, editing and sharing, so it makes sense that specs are more or less oriented around typical mobile phone dimensions. One key trait to keep in mind if you’re trying to repurpose video content across platforms is that videos uploaded from another file source, rather than recorded on the app, can be longer than 60 seconds.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 72MB (Android users) and 278.6MB (iOS users)
  • 1GB maximum in Sprout
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: Up to 3 minutes recorded in-app or 10 minutes when uploaded from another source
• Frame rate: 23-60fps

TikTok Feed Ads

TikTok ads are a rapidly evolving opportunity for brands. The in-feed option for paid TikTok content is fairly similar to the formatting for existing organic content. To fine-tune paid content for the best performance, be sure to consult TikTok’s business center for the latest tips.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 540×960, 640×640 or 960×540
• Aspect ratio: 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9
• Max file size: Up to 500MB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV, MPEG, 3PG or AVI
• Video length: 5 seconds to 60 seconds
• Bitrate: 516 kbps minimum
• Frame rate: 23-60fps

Character Limits

• Ad description: 1-100 Latin alphabet letters and 1-50 Asian characters

Twitter Video Specs

X (formerly Twitter) is a popular space to share and interact with different social media videos. For marketers, it’s all about keeping a user’s attention with enthralling and click-worthy video content. In the sports and entertainment industry, Twitter is often the go-to for sharing video content, so it’s critical to learn the correct Twitter video specs.

Twitter Landscape & Portrait Videos

Twitter provides two formats of in-feed video content to share with your followers: landscape and portrait. These specific formats are only available for uploading video directly to Twitter, rather than sharing YouTube or other links.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)
• Max file size: 512MB*
• Video length: 0.5 seconds to 140 seconds*
• Frame rate: 30fps or 60fps

*Twitter Pro Media users can upload files up to 1GB and videos up to 10 minutes.

Character Limits

• Maximum count: 280 characters.

Twitter Videos Ad Specs

Looking to promote your video through paid ads on Twitter? Luckily, you can use the same exact formats from Twitter organic videos. Stick to the same specs for both organic and paid video to ensure maximum visibility.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)
• Max file size: 512MB
• Video length: 0.5 seconds to 140 seconds
• Frame rate: 30fps or 60fps

Character Limits

• Maximum count: 280 characters.

For more information on the video specs for Twitter, visit the Twitter Help Center.

YouTube Video Specs

As the second-largest search engine behind Google, YouTube is an essential network for video content. For marketers, YouTube is a great space to promote, educate and share video content around your brand.

As YouTube continues to grow as a destination for video content, it hosts everything from short-form promotional videos to full-length movies and TV. This means users are streaming content on all sorts of devices, which could have different levels of zoom or overscan.

While there’s no hard and fast rules from the platform on how to approach the video editing concept of “title safe” areas where text like titles and subtitles aren’t cut off, you do want to avoid placing these types of visual elements right at the edges of your video area. Read on for more specifics on each format available on YouTube.

Video Player (Standard YouTube Video)

While YouTube allows users to upload various types of media formats and use plenty of different dimensions, organically, there’s truly only one format for the video player. Organic videos should all follow a 16:9 ratio, but can be uploaded 4:3. However, the smaller ratio will automatically pillarbox the sides to still make it fit in the player.

YouTube has seven recommended dimensions and ratios for standard YouTube videos:

Video Guidelines

• Resolution:
  • 4320p (8k): 7680×4320
  • 2160p (4K): 3840×2160
  • 1440p (2k): 2560×1440
  • 1080p (HD): 1920×1080
  • 720p (HD): 1280×720
  • 480p (SD): 854×480
  • 360p (SD): 640×360
  • 240p (SD): 426×240
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 default
• Max file size: 256GB or 12 hours, whichever is less (5GB max in Sprout)
• Recommended video formats: MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4, MP4, MPG, AVI, WMV, MPEGPS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm, HEVC (h265)
• Video length: Up to 12 hours, dependent on file size
• Frame rate: 24, 25 or 30fps

YouTube Shorts

Introduced late 2020, YouTube Shorts have recently made its debut as another short-form video feature. These videos are a new way to watch, create and discover short-form content. Because people are watching more short-form videos globally, using Shorts is a new way to reach wider audiences to entertain or educate.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution:
  • 4320p (8k): 4320×7680
  • 2160p (4K): 2160×3840
  • 1440p (2k): 1440×2560
  • 1080p (HD): 1080×1920
  • 720p (HD): 720×1280
  • 480p (SD): 480×854
  • 360p (SD): 360×640
  • 240p (SD): 240×426
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 or 1:1
• Recommended video formats: MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4, MP4, MPG, AVI, WMV, MPEGPS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm, HEVC (h265)
• Video length: Up to 60 seconds

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

YouTube Video Ad Specs

Standard YouTube videos are pretty straightforward, but there are a few video ad formats to learn if you want to advertise on the network. According to data from Google, brands advertising on YouTube with Discovery ads see incremental conversions.

Skippable, Non-Skippable, Mid-Roll, Bumper Video, In-Feed Display Ads

We’ve put these five YouTube video ads specs together because in the end, they all play through the standard YouTube video player. That means all of these ad types follow the same dimensions as the non-ad videos, but only differ in video length. Let’s look at each ad type:

• Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before, during or after the content and becomes skippable after 5 seconds. This ad format is the only one allowing advertisers to monetize views from any viewing device.
• Non-Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before the content and users must watch the full 15 seconds maximum ad (can also be added during or after video).
• Mid-roll Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played mid-view (like TV commercials) and is only available for videos 8 minutes or longer. Ads are added either manually or automatically. Mid-rolls can be skippable, but users must watch 30 seconds or the entire ad (whichever is shorter).
• Bumper Video Ads: This YouTube ad type is played before the content. This short 6-second max video cannot be skipped and is usually optimized for mobile views.
• Display Ads: These ads are shown in users’ search queries and sometimes appear in the right video column when watching a video. These ads are static, which means they don’t automatically play. However, once the video is clicked, the type of content displayed can simply follow the standard video player guidelines.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (horizontal), 1080 x 1920 (vertical), 1080 x 1080 (square)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (horizontal), 9:16 (vertical), 1:1 (square)
• Max file size: 256GB
• Recommended video formats: MPG
• Video length:
  • Skippable Video Ad: No maximum, but recommended 15 – 20 seconds for awareness, 2 – 3 minutes for consideration, and 15 – 20 seconds for action.
  • Non-Skippable Video Ad: 15 or 20 seconds, depending on marketing
  • Mid-roll Video Ad: 30 seconds minimum
  • Bumper Video Ad: 6 seconds maximum
  • In-Feed (Display) Video Ad: 15-20 seconds for awareness, 2-3 minutes for consideration

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

LinkedIn Video Specs

With 66% of consumers finding short-form video the most engaging type of in-feed social content, LinkedIn adopted the use of video on the platform. If you’re looking to incorporate video into your LinkedIn marketing strategy, then it’s important to do it with the right specs. While some technical requirements may match other networks, there are some specs that are specific to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn In-Feed Video

While before the only video format you were able to upload was a shared video, LinkedIn has expanded its capabilities to upload your own videos into the platform.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 256×144 (min) and 4096×2304 (max)
• Aspect ratio: 1:2.4, 2.4:1
• Max file size: 5GB (5GB max in Sprout for Company and Personal Pages)
• Recommended video formats: AAC, ASF, FLV, MP3, MP4, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MKV, WebM, H264/AVC, Vorbis, VP8, VP9, WMV2, WMV3
• Video length: Up to 10 minutes
• Frame rate: 60fps
• Bitrate: Up to 30mbps

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn, visit the LinkedIn Help Center.

LinkedIn Video Ads

As of 2018, LinkedIn now offers video ads. The requirements are a little bit different than in-feed video, so be sure to consider them when developing ads for your paid campaign.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions and resolutions:
  • Vertical (4:5): Min 360 x 450 pixels, Max 1536 x 1920 pixels
  • Vertical (9:16): Min 360 x 640 pixels, Max 1080 x 1920 pixels
  • Landscape (16:9): Min 640 x 360 pixels, Max 1920 x 1080 pixels
  • Square (1:1): Min 360 x 360 pixels, Max 1920 x 1920 pixels
• Aspect ratio:
  • Vertical: 4:5, 9:16
  • Landscape: 16:9
  • Square: 1:1
• Max file size: 200MB
• Recommended video formats: MP4
• Video length: 3 seconds to 30 minutes
• Frame rate: 30fps

Character Limits

• Ad name: 255 characters
• Headline: 70 characters recommended; 200 characters maximum
• Introductory text: 150 characters recommended; 600 characters maximum

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn ads, visit LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help.

Pinterest Promoted Video Specs

Pinterest allows video upload for business accounts only, so they have specs designed for brands to get the most out of the highly visual and inspirational lifestyle content frequently shared on the platform.

Shared Video Pins and Standard Width Video Ads

In addition to ads, Pinterest Business Accounts can upload organic video content. There are two formats: standard and max width video. Below are the dimensions for standard width video ads and standard Pins.

Video Guidelines

• Aspect ratio: 1:1, 2:3, 4:5, 9:16
• Max file size: 2GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or M4V
• Video length: 4 seconds to 15 minutes

Character Limits

• Title: Up to 100 characters
• Description: Up to 500 characters

Max Width Video Ads

Pinterest allows you to publish standard width and maximum width video ads. Maximum width videos expand across mobile users’ entire screens. These specs apply only to maximum width video ads; standard video ad specs can be found above. Note that maximum width video ads are only paid ads.

Video Guidelines

• Aspect ratio: 1:1
• Max file size: 2GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4, MOV or M4V
• Video length: 4 seconds to 15 minutes

Character Limits

• Title: Up to 100 characters
• Description: Up to 500 characters

For more information on the video specs for Pinterest ads, visit Pinterest Business Help.

Snapchat Video Specs

Snapchat is still an active network for younger generations to share video content. Whether it’s through FOMO-inducing filters, Snapchat is a hotbed for video sharing.

Single Videos and Single Video Ad

This video format is the most common across the channel and is the main way users communicate back and forth through the app. However, your business can post videos to its story so others can see what your business is up to. Just follow these specs:

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 1GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: 3 seconds to 180 seconds

Character Limits

• Brand: 25 characters
• Headline: 34 characters

Long-Form Story Video Ad

Snapchat currently offers one main video format for ads, which is known as the Story Ad. However, the Snapchat Story Video Ad is what users see in between viewing users’ Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Max file size: 1GB
• Recommended video formats: MP4 or MOV
• Video length: 3 seconds to 180 seconds

Character Limits

• Brand: 25 characters
• Headline: 34 characters

For more information on the video specs for Snapchat, visit the Snapchat Ads Help Center.

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The post Always Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Video Specs appeared first on Sprout Social.

Think about it: From personal brands run by individual creators to large-scale corporate marketing efforts, the competition is heating up. Without the right tools, you’re essentially navigating a stormy sea in a leaky boat.

Competition is high—you need the right tools at your disposal to streamline your efforts and compete with millions of creators in the same space.

Tools like Creator Studio for Facebook and Instagram can help. In this guide, we cover what it is, how you can access it and what features you can use to build a powerful creator profile.

What is Creator Studio?`

Creator Studio is a dashboard content creators and brands use to manage their content, audience engagement and data analysis of their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

You can schedule posts, interact with your community and even monetize your content. It’s a one-stop shop that’s excellent for beginner creators and brands.

It has recently been renamed Meta Business Suite and combines Facebook and Instagram Creator Studio features—like planning posts and sending messages—in one place. Plus, it includes more advanced tools for monetization, like billing and commerce.

What is the difference between Facebook and Instagram Creator Studio?

Facebook Creator Studio and Instagram Creator Studio were previously two separate dashboards, each with their own platform-specific features. Meta has streamlined the experience to create a comprehensive dashboard that houses both studios under one roof.

This unified approach makes it easier for marketers and content creators to manage, analyze and optimize their social media activities across Facebook and Instagram.

Getting started with Creator Studio

You can access Creator Studio from your desktop and mobile.

To access Meta Business Suite on your mobile, simply download the Meta Business Suite app on iOS and Android. Once you connect your accounts on mobile, you’ll be able to:

• Create, schedule and manage posts and stories across Facebook and Instagram.
• Respond to all of your messages and comments in one place.
• View your notifications and to-do list.
• See post and ad insights across Facebook and Instagram side-by-side.
• Access and manage your published and scheduled posts within a calendar.

If you’re new to Meta Business Suite, here is a quick breakdown of how to connect your accounts to start using Creator Studio.

How to connect Facebook to Creator Studio

To log in from your desktop, you’ll need to first log into your Facebook account. You’ll also need access to a Facebook Page since the tool is specifically for content creators and brands.

Once you’re logged in, go to Pages from the main menu on your personal profile.

Within the Pages settings, click on Meta Business Suite.

You will now have access to Creator Studio.

Have multiple pages? You can easily switch between them. Just select the dropdown menu, and you’ll see a list that displays your different pages. Select each page to manage and monitor its content and analytics.

How to connect Instagram to Creator Studio

Connect your Instagram creator account to Meta Business Suite on your desktop with these steps.

1. In the Meta Business Suite desktop, select Settings from the left-hand sidebar.
2. Select Business assets.
3. Click Add Assets and select your Instagram account.
   
4. Then click Claim Instagram account after reviewing and agreeing to the terms.
5. Enter your Instagram username and password in the new window, and click Log In. If you’re already logged into Instagram, you can also choose Continue as [Instagram handle] if that’s the account you want to connect.
6. If your Two-Factor Authentication is turned on (which it should be), enter your security code.
7. Click Confirm.

Once you’ve linked your Instagram account, simply head over to the Meta Business Suite app or the website on desktop to access it.

Roles and permissions in Creator Studio

To secure your account, it’s a smart idea to provide only those permissions people need to do their work. For example, assigning access to your Business Account or your Instagram account. Limiting access organizes the workflow and secures your account against unintended changes or breaches.

Your Business Account allows you to assign partial access or full control to people. To do this, you need to:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Click People.
3. Select the name of the person whose access you want to change.
4. Under Business Account access, select Manage.
5. Make your changes.

Here’s what each level of access means:

Partial access:

• Basic: Users with basic access only see tasks and assets assigned to them. This is the default permission when adding people to a Business Account.
• Apps and integrations: App and integration owners create access tokens, monitor events, edit application files and set up the Conversions API.

Full control:

• Everything: People with full control of a Business Account can manage everything—settings, permissions, tools and business assets. They can also delete the Business Account.

Key Creator Studio features

Creator Studio comes with multiple features that provide unparalleled control over your Facebook and Instagram accounts. Whether you’re a solo content creator or managing a larger team, Creator Studio offers the tools you need to refine and execute your Instagram and Facebook marketing strategy. Here are some key features:

Content

Within the Content section, view all the content you’ve previously posted: posts, reels, stories and collections.

Use the dropdown filters at the top to sort your posts by type, date or other categories like marketing channels. The search bar is also quite handy when you want to find a specific post.

Sort your posts using the tabs at the top by published, scheduled, drafts, expired and expiring.

Want in-depth insights on a specific post? Click on “View Insights” to get a snapshot of how it’s performing and see what it looks like in your feed.

The Content tab also makes it convenient to manage your posts. Click on these three dots to access options like edit, boost or delete. Action lists are different for photo posts and video posts.

Insights

The Insights feature provides granular data on various aspects of your content and audience. Deep-dive into metrics like reach, impressions and follower demographics.

This feature offers four categories of general insights:

• The Overview section allows you to compare your current reach with a previous period and provides actionable tips for expanding your audience.

• The Results section displays key performance indicators like the number of visits to your page or profile, new likes and follows, and trends.

• The Audience section gives you data on your followers from Facebook and Instagram, along with geographical information like the cities and countries where your audience is most concentrated.

• The Benchmarking section enables you to gauge your performance by comparing it with businesses operating in the same niche or category as you.

The four categories are just the tip of the iceberg. You can also dig deeper into the insights by going to the Content, Messaging and Video tabs.

Inbox

The Inbox feature puts all your chats and comments from Facebook and Instagram in one spot, eliminating the need to jump between apps.

Organize and classify messages to make sure you’re not missing anything urgent. Other features like creating orders directly from messages and inserting saved replies streamline administrative tasks so you can focus on more meaningful interactions.

These features work together to create a centralized hub for all your audience interactions.

Live Dashboard

The Live Dashboard in Creator Studio allows you to manage and monitor live videos on Facebook or Instagram. It gives you the controls to start, stop or manage various aspects of your live broadcast.

See real-time data while streaming live, such as how many people are watching, comments coming in and even reactions to your video.

Use the Resource Hub as your control room for live videos, where you can engage with audiences in real-time and track how well your content performs.

Planner

The Planner feature in Creator Studio brings together your content calendars from Facebook and Instagram.

It offers a unified view to make content management more seamless. Toggle between weekly and monthly views to get a broad or detailed look at your content calendar.

 The calendar displays posts for Instagram and Facebook. A view on platform-specific content helps you plan your Instagram marketing strategy as well as Facebook marketing strategy separately.

The Planner tool’s filters help sort posts by content type, like posts, stories, reels and ads. Click on each post to view individually and see metrics like interactions and reach.

Sound Collection

The Sound Collection feature is a library of music tracks and sound effects you can freely use in your Facebook and Instagram videos.

It’s an easy way to elevate your videos, engage your audience and add a professional touch to your social media posts.

Monetization

The Monetization section in Creator Studio supports anyone looking to earn money from their Facebook and Instagram content.

You’ll find different monetization methods, like in-stream ads for your videos, fan subscriptions and branded content partnerships.

Some users also get access to Stars, a video monetization tool. Your audience can buy Stars and send them to you on your posts with Stars enabled.

Ads

The Ads tab is a centralized command center for all your Facebook and Instagram advertising needs. You can create new ads, oversee existing ones and monitor their performance.

The Ads section provides a quick snapshot of your campaign’s reach and engagement levels.

It offers audience insights, breaking down the demographics of the people your ads are reaching, which you can adjust for different time frames using the calendar.

For those wanting to dive deeper, the All Ads tab offers even more granular data on individual campaigns. Details such as the amount spent on each ad, its reach and overall progress are available here.

You can also view complete results for each campaign and boost an ad again if you’re satisfied with its performance using this tab.

Scale your social media presence with Creator Studio

Meta Business Suite is a powerful toolset that elevates your social media management by bringing together the best features of Creator Studio and other Meta services. It’s your go-to hub for all things Facebook and Instagram.

Of course, sometimes you need a bird’s eye view that goes beyond just these two platforms. That’s where Sprout Social comes in.

Sprout offers extensive features beyond what the native Creator Studio can provide. It’s a convenient way to scale your social strategy beyond Instagram and Facebook in one unified dashboard.

Learn about more social media marketing tools that optimize your social media management and help you build a strong presence at scale.

The post Creator Studio for Facebook and Instagram: A guide for marketers appeared first on Sprout Social.