Why Size Matters: Aspect Ratio for Social Posts

By Kaitlin Hefner

If you were to tell me 5 years ago that I should film my phone videos in portrait, I would’ve told you you were crazy and that you’re a total amateur (sorry, Mom!). Fast forward to present day social media and here we are, holding our phones vertically to capture video and images. 

Now I’m not saying that portrait mode is the right way for EVERYTHING, but for social platforms it makes a lot of sense. The majority of us are scrolling through social feeds on our smartphones vs. desktop. In January 2020, 98% of active Facebook user accounts worldwide accessed the social network via any kind of mobile phone vs. 1.9% only on desktop (statista.com). That means that our eyes spend more time on an image when it takes up more of our phone screen real estate. 

There are certainly some instances where it just doesn’t make sense. Maybe you have previously shot content created for web videos where there are too many important details to cut out or perhaps you’re a photographer and are showcasing your original work. You wouldn’t want to crop for the sake of social feeds (you could make a show-stopping Instagram grid layout but I’ll save that for another blog post).

Aspect Ratio

What do I mean when I say “aspect ratio?” Well, it’s simply the proportional relationship of the width to the height of an image (or screen). For example, since a square’s width and height are always equal dimensions, that means its aspect ratio is 1:1. The relationship between its width and height determines the ratio and shape, but not the image’s actual size. 

Stories

Another reason for shooting in portrait mode is to fit the aspect ratio for Stories on Instagram/ Facebook and now the dreaded (or amazing depending on your outlook) Tiktok videos. The user experience is not as enjoyable if we have to constantly flip our phones sideways to view media. 

Which brings up a great point when planning out content for stories. We can’t just film in landscape (say, for Youtube) and then try to crop it and use on Stories. Most likely you’ll have important details getting cut out of your final product so you must plan accordingly. 

Cheers to Portrait

My apologies to all the Youtube videos I turned my nose up to for being in portrait mode. Maybe y’all were just ahead of the game. However, you won’t catch me watching The World’s First Vertical Format Blockbuster any time soon.

All in all, don’t get nervous when navigating the correct size for assets. It can be a little overwhelming, especially when you are making a post across multiple platforms. This handy chart below can help you determine the best size for your asset.