Like everyone else, I have a presence on several social media channels scattered across the interwebs. You can find my Artist accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, and some that I have already forgotten. I also have separate media channel accounts for Seismicmark. Then there are the accounts I manage for some of my clients. There are undoubtedly far too many accounts on my plate, but I recognize that I am not in a typical situation. However, I think that the time commitment involved in being a proper steward of any account is grossly underappreciated. The social media landscape is vast. You have your Social Networks like; Facebook, Linkedin, WhatsApp, and Messenger. You have your Blogs and forums like WordPress, Tumblr, and Medium. There are also the microblogs like; Twitter, Pinterest, Tik Tok, and Byte. Then there are social bookmarking platforms like Reddit, Digg, Mix, and Buzzfeed. And I still have not mentioned media sharing channels, geosocial, rating & reviews, or social knowledge categories!
When friends encourage me to join them on different or new social media platforms they recently discovered like Vero, I sigh. First of all, I have reservations about the founder. Second, I wonder what responsibilities having the account will bring. If it were just a handful that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but it is not. As I rattled off a dozen of the multitudes available you can see that these are all little time vampires. Above all, I value my time; it is the one thing I can not earn, cheat, or steal more of. As I grey and wrinkle it is inescapable and I simply can’t fool myself that I have more discretionary time or patience for that matter.
Allow me to briefly review some of my concerns: How much time will be required to participate and what about the other media channels? Will this be five, twenty, or forty minutes? How much information will I have to vet others who want to connect with me? What sort of content creation is expected and can or will I be up for it? The discussions generated, will I participate or walk away from it? That would like walking away after spilling a gallon of milk in the dairy aisle pretending it was not yours. What personal information will be public vs. private and how long before that changes? Then there is the profile pic that I will choose, will it be the same as other channels or a new one? What about the banner, is it like painting the walls where you choose a color, or will I need a photo that says something about who I am? Perhaps this is a branding opportunity, if so, I will have to coordinate it with all the other media channels. Now I have to consider the social media Venn diagram and tweak the messaging to optimize my branding campaign. Just writing this is tensing up my trapezius muscles at the thought of it. I haven’t even mentioned the engagement social media marketing cycle or RACE (Reach, Act, Convert, and Engage) management tools. Before I keep going down this rabbit hole I offer for your benefit and interest some cheat sheet notes.
Also I aggregated the Social Media Image sizes and guides on a downloadable text document. Here is the link.
Cheat Sheet Notes:
Facebook Page’s cover photo: Displays at 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall on your Page on computers and 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall on smartphones.
Twitter header photo: Displays at 1500 pixels wide by 500 pixels tall. You’ll also need to account for your profile picture and the invisible area around your display image.
LinkedIn company logo size: 300 x 300. The cover photo size: 1536 x 768. Dynamic Ads size: 100 x 100 (company logo)
Tumblr banner photo: Displayed as a 3000 pixels x 1055 pixels image for desktop and 640 pixels x 360 pixels on mobile.
YouTube recommends as the ideal size to use for your banner image is 2560 pixels wide by 1440 pixels tall.
Instagram profile picture size: 110 x 110. Instagram photo sizes: 1080 x 1080 (square), 1080 x 566 (landscape), 1080 x 1350 (portrait)