The home feed is a place with endless updates. Depending on how many people you follow, swiping down to refresh the page could give you a whole new set of posts from them - even if you do it over and over again.
In other words, all those posts are competing for the user's attention. If it's interesting, then great, you'll get the interaction that you hoped for. But if not, then you'll risk being swiped and skipped.
This brings us to a very important question: How do we ensure that we capture enough attention to have the audience interact with our post?
This is a very broad question and there's definitely a lot of strategies to tackle this particular issue. However, there is one simple thing that everyone can do.
The key here is to be smart with our choices for the dimensions when making a post. Instagram has 3 main sizes (or dimensions) when posting.
Landscape - 4:3
Square - 1:1
Portrait - 3:4
Quick History
If you've been on Instagram since the Brown Icon era, you'd probably know that Instagram has been very obsessed with the strict requirement to upload only square photos, they have dropped this rule since 27th August 2015. That's a very long time ago!
They've introduced the ability to upload both in Landscape and Portrait mode, and this is perfect for videos and portrait shots.
Ever since then, there have been many attempts by content creators to maximize this feature and use it to its fullest potential.
On AiCreativv, we've shared many ways for businesses to take advantage of the features in order to gain visibility and engagement.
Comparing Sizes
The three sizes Instagram has allowed us to upload have their own purpose. Before talking about which is the best one, let's go through them one by one.
For this purpose, let's use a typical phone screen size for comparison.
Landscape Size
4:3 in pixels can be 1080 x 720 and 1920 x 1080.
The Landscape size is mainly used for videos with a 16:9 ratio, to get the full-screen view. However, this occupies the least screen space.
What does this mean?
This means that you will compete with the following posts coming from other people that your user follows. If theirs are more interesting than yours, you risk being skipped.
Visibility-wise, this is the least amongst the other two.
Square Size
This is the traditional IG Size before the other two were introduced. It comes with a 1080 x 1080 px dimension and is widely used everywhere.
However, there is still room for the following post to show up on the screen. The 1:1 dimension covers half of the screen, but the remaining one lets the following post peek through.
At most, they can see half of the following picture, the profile picture along with the name and the location. This can still be risky for you and you will still have to compete for the user's attention.
Portrait Size
The portrait size is arguably the best IG dimension for content creators to opt for. Not only that this brings more room for your content, but it also covers up the whole screen.
If you receive a few comments, the screen will additionally be flooded with them for two extra lines down below - further hiding the following post.
The 3:4 size in px would be 1080 x 1350 px. This gives an extra space for you to include other elements such as your logo, watermarks, contact details as a way to uplift your brand.
In other words, the 3:4 ratio gives you the best chance for better visibility on Instagram, on most phone screens. Occupying more screen space means less competition, which means better attention retention from your audience.
Takeaways
For our clients, we have always stressed the importance of using the 3:4 ratio, an equivalent of 1080 x 1350 px for every single post that they plan to upload as part of our Social Media strategy. It makes a lot of sense to opt for the Portrait size, as it comes with no extra cost and reaps the most benefits in terms of visibility.
The Portrait Size can also be extended with another 9 slides, filling up the 10 slide carousel limit. This gives you the best space for your designs and content, leaving you with a lot of options to play around with.
Let us know if you found this post helpful. And if you haven't, feel free to check other blogs for more tips on Social Media, Branding & Design from us at AiCreativv.
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