Ideal Sizes for Video Content on Social Media

There are many reasons why you might want to use video on social media to promote your product or services, but when research shows stats such as, 69% of consumers prefer to learn about a product or service through video rather than text… Or 77% say that they were convinced to invest in a product or service through watching a video, it might be time to start seriously considering video marketing on social media!

Video marketing on social media needs to captivate the consumer quickly, or with the impermanence of social media it could be scrolled past and forgotten under subsequent posts. You’ll also want to make sure that your brand’s story is clear, eye-catching and engaging. Consumers are far more likely to watch a video to the end if it has a short run time, so getting across your material concisely is important.

Different social media platforms have different requirements for uploading video content; we’ve taken a look at the top 3 to get you started:

Facebook

To make sure that your videos posted on Facebook have maximum impact, make sure that they are in either MOV or MP4 format, with H.264 codec and AAC audio. The ideal upload will have a width of 1280px, and a frame rate of 30fps or below. Facebook limits videos uploaded to a length of 45 minutes and a file size of 4GB. It’s important to remember that some videos posted to Facebook will start to play without the user having to click on them as they scroll through their feed – therefore it’s important to make the first few seconds of your video captivating.

Key takeaways:

• MOV or MP4 format
• 1280px width
• 30fps or lower
• The shorter the better!
• Up to 4GB

Twitter

Videos posted on Twitter are restricted to a much smaller running time. They must be no longer than 140 seconds, and accordingly have a stricter requirement for file size at only 512MB. The preferred form for this platform is MP4 (again, with H.264 codec and ACC audio), with a frame rate no more than 40fps. You are allowed dimensions up to 1280 x 1024px, though naturally in a user’s Twitter stream, videos will be compacted down to a smaller size.

Key takeaways:

• MP4 format
• 1280 x 1024px
• 40fps or lower
• No longer than 140 seconds, videos of 6.5 seconds or less will automatically loop
• Up to 512MB

Instagram

Similarly to the options above, Instagram prefers videos in MP4 format, once again with H.264 codec and AAC audio. Like Facebook, Instagram will only allow videos at 30fps or less, but has a slightly smaller size for preferred dimensions at 1080px maximum width (height is variable). Out of these three platforms, Instagram deals in videos of shortest run-time; files posted must be no longer than 60 seconds and no shorter than 3 seconds, with a 15MB limit on file size.

Key takeaways:

• MP4 format
• 1080px maximum width
• 30fps or lower
• 3 – 60 seconds long
• Up to 15MB

Whenever you post a video to social media, it is important to remember the nature of the platform; consumers are absorbing huge amounts of information so your content must stand out from the crowd and catch their eye within the first few moments. To have the greatest effect your video should be entertaining as well as informative, identify your brand clearly, and make full use of the maximum quality options for the platform being used.