DESIGN
SIZE YOUR GRAPHICS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
What you’ve been thinking is true: creating graphics for social media is a total pain. Why does your logo have to be one size for Facebook, another for Twitter, another for Google+ (and work in a round space), and so on? Why do images also have to be sized differently for each social-media channel? And what’s with that long, squatty cover photo on Facebook?
My advice is to accept that there's no consistency among social-media channels, and then develop a process to manage the differences. Whether you’re designing graphics on your own, working with a freelance graphic designer, or utilizing an in-house graphics department, be sure that you require every image to be sized for every channel you’re on, and that each image is labeled as such. For example, you might include the date, and keyword, and the social-media channel or size in the file name, like this:
2014-10-15 statistic on growth Facebook-Instagram
2014-10-15 statistic on growth Twitter-LinkedIn
or
2014-10-15 statistic on growth square
2014-10-15 statistic on growth wide
This way, you can search by date, by keyword, or by channel if you’re looking for files in the future.
In addition, create templates for each channel, so that you can just plug in your content, over and over. Start with a cover photo template for Facebook, along with a profile picture template and a shared image template. Then do the same with Twitter's various sizes, and then create a template for every other channel you're on. I use this guide from SproutSocial because it’s updated regularly.