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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Guide

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Media monitoring helps organizations stay informed about what’s being said across online news, print, broadcast, podcasts, and other media channels. Whether you're tracking brand mentions, measuring PR performance, monitoring competitors, or identifying emerging trends, our expert guides, best practices, and industry insights will help you build a smarter media monitoring strategy and make more informed communications decisions.

Discover expert media monitoring guides, best practices, and industry insights to track brand mentions, monitor competitors, and stay ahead of the news.

Media Monitoring: Guides, Best Practices & Industry Insights

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.

Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?

The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

How do customers interact with my newly launched product?

How do I increase the productivity of my employees?

How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?

We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.

So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.

But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!

But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.

We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

AI adoption is no longer the challenge—trusted context is. Most organizations have AI tools, but many still rely on disconnected, stale, or unverified data, limiting the quality and trustworthiness of AI-generated outputs. Meltwater MCP brings trusted, real-time intelligence into AI assistants.

Your Best Context is Already in the Room

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIn to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Creating and maintaining your social media presence as a business, without a clear plan or budget, could result in a social media fail. Whether major or minor, a snafu on social can be catastrophic for brands if not dealt with properly, so knowing how to avoid them is key to a thriving social media strategy. This post outlines common social media mistakes to look out for, that can stymy your brand. Once you're ready to build a robust social program, download our ebook, Driving Growth With Social.

Social media is a big opportunity for most organizations, whether they are B2B or B2C, or whether they operate online or from a physical location. And while the theory of social media is simple (i.e. if I write great content, people will want to engage with it), the execution is not quite as straightforward. 

Here are some common mistakes that are made on social media that you should do your best to avoid:

1. Thinking All Social Media Platforms Are the Same

2. Not Having a Plan, or a Company-wide Social Media Policy

3. Always Selling, Ignoring Messages or Complaints

4. Not Taking Advantage of Social Media Marketing Tools

5. Focusing on the Quantity of Likes and Follows, Rather Than the Quality

To the novice social media marketer, most social media platforms may look and feel the same. Users have profiles and post status updates, videos, thoughts, complaints, photos of their food, and links to their favorite sites. 

But it would be unwise to treat all social media platforms the same, because they aren’t. Each channel targets different demographics and some of them also function very differently. For example, YouTube is for posting videos while Instagram is the most visual-forward platform overall, ideal for photos and short-form videos. Twitter remains the king of micro-blogging and LinkedIn is the place for business thought-leadership and professional community building. 

With this in mind, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin by being present on all social media platforms. Rather than creating accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, you should focus your efforts on one or two network to start with – the one where you are most likely to engage your audience (and they with you). Is your audience really interested in your content across all the social networks? Are you sure? All of them?!

If you don’t know what you want to achieve with social media, how can you possibly hope to achieve it? Do you want your account to drive traffic, entertain, be a customer service channel, be a PR platform, or something else?

Also, there’s a pretty solid chance that nearly every one of your employees is on some type of social media platform. Whether they’re posting on Facebook or blogging, they’re talking, and they might be talking about your company.

Nothing is ever truly private on the Internet, even on a private social media account. Some things that your employees post or share may end up coming back to bite you, especially if they’re talking about product or service plans. If your employees are bad-mouthing your company, it's not a good look. 

Establish a company social media policy and ensure that everyone reads through it and signs it. Outline what is appropriate to post and what is not appropriate, and when you’re discussing a new product or service launch, make sure your employees know that discussing it on social media will be considered a breach of contract. Use our handy template for drafting employee social media guidelines to get started.

Social media is all about engaging the end user — and nothing disengages people more than feeling like they're simply part of a transaction. That’s not to say that you can never sell on social, you just need to earn the right by posting other non-sales content. And make sure you pick your moment carefully, unlike these guys.

Almost all social media sites have a way to send and receive personal or direct messages, and they allow other users and brands to tag one another. Users can also write public messages on your business page’s Facebook page or Tweet at you on Twitter. While the majority of your feedback will probably be positive or neutral, you may face some problems with complaints from users who are upset with your company.

The worst thing you can do is ignore these posts. It comes off as cowardly to your followers and it makes you look guilty by default.

For every complaint you receive, you have the opportunity to turn the complaint into a positive experience and show your customers that you do care. Address the problem directly and make it clear that you are sorry and want to rectify the situation. Never engage in an argument or try to win it. If a customer gets out of hand and begins using rude or defamatory language, you can attempt to move the conversation to a private exchange rather than continue the discussion in the comments section. This shows you are actively attempting to resolve the issue. 

Most of the big social media platforms have their own marketing tools that businesses can use to reach out to new prospects and retarget lost visitors. To some marketers though, ignorance is bliss, and they’d rather not mess with social media advertising and concentrate on Google Adwords. 

Analytics packages for the 3 ‘old’ social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are pretty good to help you learn more about your presence on each platform. You should invest time looking at analytics to see where you could improve your social media offerings. And if your social media accounts drive traffic to your website, then it makes sense to continue posting. Checking your web analytics will also give you insight into which social channel converts to page views.

With Facebook advertising, for example, you can post advertisement banners along the sides of the newsfeed and promote your website, an offer or even an upcoming webinar or trade show. You can search for users with Facebook Audience by their geographical location, age, gender or even hobby, which will allow you to put your hand directly into the hands of those who need them the most.

But to really peek under the hood, and strategize based on what the metrics are telling you — across all the platforms you use, a more comprehensive analytics solution is necessary.

Social shares and followers are important, but are your followers actually clicking through to the content you’re sharing? How deeply engaged are they with your content? There are a million reasons why a person might like your page, but just because they liked your page doesn’t mean they want to buy from you. 

Marketing Land reports that while “social media enthusiasts” account for 85% of a brand’s social media interaction, they make up only 29% of a brand’s audience. Furthermore, many are designated as “dabblers” and “lurkers” rather than buyers. Digging into your metrics will help you better understand whether your brand is only connecting superficially with these dabblers and lurkers, or truly translating into deeper relationships and ultimately more sales.

At the end of the day, social media is about building customer relationships so that they will want to buy from you, but if your message is going out to people who never wanted to be your customer in the first place, then you’re wasting your time and efforts.

Remember, a “like” doesn’t equal a sale. Focus on building brand loyalty and awareness with the real customers who are connecting with you on social media, and you’ll be more likely to convert followers into buyers. 

Also, don’t buy followers. It never works. Ever. And it completely defeats the whole point of social media. You should be focused on your reach rather than your audience size. Just because they are following you, doesn’t mean they are listening. And if you buy followers, they are not listening and most likely, not real people.

With all the cool things you can do on social media, there are those who get just a little too wrapped up in it. If you’re guilty of a few of these overdoing-it crimes, check yourself before you wreck yourself. 

You should consider your audience when you are posting. Would they be interested in what you are saying? If you are using one platform to talk about your products, your sports team, your family, and your politics, you are doing it wrong. You should approach posting as your business through a more strategic and focused lens if you want to achieve success on social.

The number of times that you post per day should differ by social network
The lifespan of a Tweet is far smaller than the lifespan of a Facebook post, for example. So, spend some time working out what frequency you can commit to and dig into your analytics to find out when your audience is most likely to be online – this will maximize your reach.

Posting too frequently
There is definitely some merit to the saying, “too much of a good thing.” Even if your followers like your posts and engage with them, posting too frequently may result in unfollows and a decrease in engagement. Post no more than two or three times a day, if necessary, and try to space out your posts. Check out our guide to the best times to post on social for some helpful tips.

Liking too frequently
As a business, you shouldn’t really be liking your followers Tweets or posts unless they specifically mention you or your product or service

Posting too much through automation
Automation tools are great scheduling in advance and having a steady stream of content prepared. They're also very helpful for reaching audiences that are in different time zones. But it's a good idea to sprinkle in real-time posts with your automated posts to assure your readers that you’re authentic and a real person is behind your social media strategy. Responding to trending news is and memes is a great way to incorporate real-time posting. 

7. Ignoring Evergreen Content & Third Party Sharing

In order to build a steady audience, you need consistent posts to drive interaction and interest. What matters most is both the quality and consistency of the posts. Short on content? It's a common problem, and many companies make the mistake of thinking they only need push new articles out on social; when in fact you have a huge library of evergreen content to pick from. Repurpose or update an older post to re-share on social. The benefit here is you can compare how it performs against the previous time it was shared. Experiment with switching up the post copy or image used to see what your audience responds to. 

Another option for content to fill your calendar with is sharing third-party articles and thought-leadership pieces from your industry. This helps break up your profile and illustrates to your followers that you're actively involved in learning and appreciating everything going on in your sector.  

If the main purpose of your social media posts is to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website, it’s important to consider what customers see first when they visit your profile.

Make sure your profile picture / logo is accurate and up to date, and that your header image does the best job of helping explain who you are, welcoming people to your social profile.

“Social media marketing provides a tremendous opportunity to drive traffic to your B2B website. You can optimize your profiles with a detailed description of your company and a link that directs back to your site,” advises Emily Ahlbum of online marketing company Emagine.com. “It’s also important to know that social media content is now indexed by search engines. So be sure to consider each Tweet or status update as a piece of content that can be optimized for search engines.”

Depending on your industry or the services you offer, your audiences’ demographics may vary vastly. Tech start-ups tend to comprise of a younger audience, while established local business owners may skew a little older. For example, the 25-34 age group is the largest age group on social media, but not by much.

“Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest fall into this category. Millennials age 18-24 consist of the most users on SnapChat, and Tumblr. LinkedIn is the odd-one-out, with 35-44-year-olds leading the way,” explains Tyler Becker on Social Media Week.

Knowing who your audience is and where they are can save you time and money. Use a social listening tool to uncover where people are already talking about you on social media, and in what context!

In this day and age of social media marketing, many times you never get to see your client face-to-face. Your calling card is your social media shares, and your storefront is your website landing page. With this in mind, consider working with a social media marketer to get the cleanest campaign with the best results. Sloppy posts, not scheduling posts in advance, or inconsistent messaging invalidates the integrity of your company and decreases viewer click-through rates.

Ready to plan a social media program that avoids these common social media mistakes? Fill out the form to demo some social media tools that will help ensure your social strategy soars. 

10 Common Social Media Mistakes

Tracking your success on Instagram is a surefire way to make your Instagram marketing more effective. Like other social media platforms, Instagram collects and organizes a variety of metrics to help you see how you’re doing. Two all-important metrics you’ll want to pay attention to are impressions and reach.

But what does reach mean on Instagram? What is an impression on Instagram? And most importantly, why should marketers care?

This guide gives you the definitions you seek along with tips on how to use reach and impression data to improve your social media marketing.

What Does Accounts Reached Mean on Instagram?

How to Track Reach and Impressions on Instagram

Maximizing Reach and Impressions with Meltwater

Let’s start with the basics: What is an impression on Instagram?

Impressions represent how many times your Instagram content has been displayed on screen. Let’s say you post a piece of content on Instagram and a user sees it. That counts as one impression. Now, let’s say that same user sees that same content three more times. That counts as three more impressions.

Impressions do not measure engagement, nor do they indicate any form of interest from the user. So, how can we define the Instagram impressions meaning?

Simply put, impressions are a measure of visibility. The higher the number of Instagram impressions, the more your content has been seen by others.

The Reach metric shows how many different users have seen your content. There are different types of reach:

Organic reach refers to the number of people who saw your content in their feed. In other words, you didn’t have to pay for an ad to show them your content. These people probably see your content because they have chosen to follow you on Instagram.

Paid reach is the number of people who saw your content because of a paid ad. You’re paying to get in front of people who wouldn’t have otherwise seen your content.

Viral reach refers to the number of people who saw your content because other people have shared it.

Accounts Reached on Instagram refers to the total number of unique user accounts that have seen your content. Accounts Reached doesn’t take into account the nuances between the different reach types. It gives you a simple number that lets you see how far your content has traveled on Instagram.

Instagram impressions are often confused with Instagram reach, but the two aren’t quite the same.

Going back to our previous example, let’s say you post a piece of content and one user sees it. That means you have a reach of one. Now, let’s say that same user sees that same piece of content three more times. While this would result in four total impressions, your reach would still be one because the same person viewed the content multiple times. Those four impressions didn't come from four unique individuals.

Instagram impressions and Instagram reach are likely to be different numbers.

The Reach metric in your Instagram analytics can help you gauge the effectiveness of your ads. For example, if your reach is high but you have zero clicks and conversions, you might need to rethink your ad creative. Something might not be resonating with your audience, or you might not be reaching the right people.

On the flip side, if you have a healthy reach, you can feel confident your content is being seen and people are engaging. Analyzing reach alongside other Instagram metrics, like impressions, clicks, and shares, will help you demonstrate your content’s success.

Impressions also matter in your Instagram marketing. Similar to reach, impressions on Instagram let you know your content is being seen. It can also help put your mind at ease that you're not overwhelming your audience with too many ads. This could be the case if your impressions are significantly higher than your reach (e.g., 1,000 impressions with a reach of 100, which would be an average of 10 impressions per user).

Low Instagram impressions right after launch can also be a sign there’s something wrong with your ad. Something may not have loaded correctly, which should prompt you to go back and check your creative and fix any potential errors.

As with reach, you should measure impressions on Instagram alongside other metrics, such as clicks, conversions, and shares. These metrics work together to give you a more realistic picture of your Instagram performance.

Tip: Take a look at more important social media metrics.

Instagram analytics does most of the work for you in tracking impressions and reach. Log into your Instagram profile, then go to Insights. From there, you can see your Metrics in the Overview section to get a detailed breakdown.

You can only access Instagram Insights if you have an Instagram business account. If you're still using a personal account for Instagram, you will need to convert to an Instagram business profile before you can get metrics on your content.

In addition to Instagram impressions and reach, you’ll also see other helpful data, including:

Number of people who viewed your Instagram Stories

Number of people who forwarded your Instagram Stories

Number of people who swiped to the next Story

Tip: Take a look at our Complete Guide to Social Media Reporting for more insights.

In addition, you can also view some analytics data by clicking on your individual posts (images, videos, etc.). You’ll see basic engagement metrics, such as likes and comments. You can click on Insights at the bottom of the post for more details.

Beyond asking questions like, “What does reach mean on Instagram?” and “What are Instagram impressions?”, brands need to know how to use these KPIs to their advantage. Increasing your reach gives you more opportunities to improve your Instagram engagement rate — the more people who see your content, the more people you can connect with.

Your followers are likely to see the content you post without your having to pay for ads. But beyond your current fanbase, you can do other things to increase your reach.

Hashtags allow your content to be viewed by anyone, not just your own followers. Anyone who is interested in a hashtag will see content related to that hashtag. This also helps the Instagram algorithm understand what your content is about so it can be displayed to the right people.

Tip: Take a look at our ultimate hashtag guide for more insights on how to use hashtags.

In a perfect world, your content will be displayed to all of your followers every time you post. But that’s simply not the case. Your followers take breaks, might not scroll far enough in their feed, or won’t check their Instagram every day.

To increase visibility with your followers, make sure you’re posting at times when they’re most active. You can use a social media listening tool like Meltwater to pinpoint when your audience is most likely to engage on Instagram to optimize your publishing timeline.

Creating a post one day, then waiting a month to post again isn’t likely to catch the attention of your audience — or the Instagram algorithm. Creating a regular posting cadence makes you more likely to be seen by the right people.

Paying for ads gives you a shortcut into the feeds of people who don’t yet follow you on Instagram. You can choose your ad budget and customize your target profile, then let Instagram do its best work.

One impression isn’t always enough to stand out to your target audience. Research shows it takes an average of seven times before someone will recall or take action on your ad. Increasing impressions can help you earn more staying power with your content and build trust with your audience.

Similar to increasing reach, there are a few ways you can grow your Instagram impressions.

Instagram accounts aren't just a collection of selfies anymore. It’s become a feature-rich platform that gives brands more ways to connect with their customers and prospects.

One way to do this is to take advantage of those features. You can cross-promote your content in IG Reels and Stories, for example. Or turn single static images into a slideshow. This makes your content more engaging — and more shareable.

Instagram Stories only last for 24 hours. This limits the number of post impressions you can receive, as your content will only be seen by those who are active during that time.

A better approach is to turn your Stories into Highlight Reels. This helps you turn your temporary content into visuals your audience can enjoy again and again.

Use your Instagram Analytics to see what top-performing content is getting the most post impressions. This is a great way to learn more about what your audience loves so you can create more content like it.

Meltwater helps you take your Instagram content strategy to new heights with social listening data and intelligence you can trust.

Learn more about what your audience likes from you and your competitors. Connect with influencers and collaborators to craft winning campaigns that will grow your reach and impressions. Aggregate user-generated content that will resonate with more people in ways that matter. With Meltwater, you gain a leg up across your entire Instagram marketing strategy.

Instagram Impressions & Reach: Definitions

Although Facebook has more competition now than it used to, it’s still the largest social media site, by monthly active users. So you can still reach and engage audiences on Facebook by sharing high-quality, relevant content. 

Eye popping imagery and video are extremely important content types for any brand trying to build engagement today. Image sizes on Facebook vary, so it’s always important to check and make sure that you’re optimizing for multiple devices, and have the correct aspect ratios.

Facebook Business Page Profile Photo Size

Your Facebook profile photo is the main, square image that represents your brand or personal profile. It appears layered over the cover photo. Facebook now offers bits of “flair” that you can add to your profile picture to show your support of social justice causes, celebrate seasons, and more.

The Facebook profile photo also appears when you post over page walls or when you comment on other posts. 

Social media dimensions for a Facebook profile picture:

On desktop, Facebook profile pictures are located 16 pixels from the left and 176 pixels from the top of your cover photo.

On smartphone devices, profile pictures are located 24 pixels from the left, 24 pixels from the bottom and 196 pixels from the top of your cover photo.

Business Page Profile Photo: 360x360 pixels

There are a few similarities between a personal profile picture and your Facebook Business Page but there are certain characteristics that will make your Facebook business page profile image stand out more on the platform.

Dimensions for business profile picture on Facebook:

360x360 px (minimum dimensions are 180x180 px)

The image will be cropped to fit a square

Facebook cover photos, also called banner images, only appear on your specific Facebook page, layered behind your profile picture. 

While your profile picture may be an image of yourself or your brand logo, your cover photo is a space where you can get creative and include your brand tagline, a product photo, or anything else that speaks to who you are. 

For the best results, ensure that you upload an sRGB JPG file that is less than 100 KB.

If your cover photo includes an image or text, a PNG file is recommended.

Important tip: images less than the optimal size will be stretched.

As one of the common ways of sharing content on Facebook, shared images as posts will always appear on your timeline and should show up in most of your followers’ news feeds. 

The more people engage with your shared post, the more likely it is that the rest of your followers, and their followers, will see that activity. So it’s important to make sure that your shared Facebook images are eye-catching!

Shared images appear in the news feed at a maximum width of 470 px 

Appears on a Facebook page at a maximum width of 504 px

When you share a Facebook post with a link, you can allow the automatic snippet view to populate, as opposed to adding your own image to the post. This is a great way to encourage clicks, since the entire image essentially becomes a link. 

Link snippets on Facebook appear either as a small square image to the left and text on the right, or with a larger rectangular image on top with text underneath. How your snippet populates depends on how you set up the meta information when producing a landing page or blog page.

Social media dimensions for link preview posts on Facebook:

Square Photo in feed: 154x154 px minimum in feed

Square Photo on page: 116x116 px minimum on page

Rectangular Photo: 470x246 px minimum in feed

Social Media Management

10 Common Social Media Mistakes

Instagram Impressions & Reach: Definitions

Ultimate Guide to Facebook Image Sizes in 2025

The Most Innovative Social Media Content Ideas 2025

The 8 Top Chinese Social Media Apps, Sites & Platforms 2025

How to Boost Facebook Reach

The Best Examples of Interactive Posts on Social Media

Guide to Instagram Profile Pictures 2025

How To Get Verified on TikTok — Get the Blue Tick

Social Media Customer Service Best Practices

Salesforce Social Studio Sunset: Everything You Need to Know

When is the Best Time to Post on Instagram in South Africa?

Social Media Management

10 Common Social Media Mistakes

Instagram Impressions & Reach: Definitions

Ultimate Guide to Facebook Image Sizes in 2025

The Most Innovative Social Media Content Ideas 2025

The 8 Top Chinese Social Media Apps, Sites & Platforms 2025

How to Boost Facebook Reach

The Best Examples of Interactive Posts on Social Media

Guide to Instagram Profile Pictures 2025

How To Get Verified on TikTok — Get the Blue Tick

Social Media Customer Service Best Practices

Salesforce Social Studio Sunset: Everything You Need to Know

When is the Best Time to Post on Instagram in South Africa?

Interested in learning how Meltwater can help you? Fill out the form to learn more.