When you're creating cool content on Twitch, YouTube, or your own podcast, getting people's attention is super important. Thumbnails and social images are the first things people see. They're like the movie poster for your content – making people want to watch or listen to what you've created. Given how important these images are to channel growth, it’s no wonder that they also are key to boosting traffic to your homepage. 

So what's a social share image for your home page? What is the right aspect ratio and photo size forTwitter? Should you use a png, jpg, or another format? Should they be cropped or resized?

This article walks you through the basics of how to create an optimal image size for your home page to stand out when shared on social media. 

What are social share images?

So what exactly are social sharing images or Open Graph Images (also known as "OG:Images")? When you or anyone else shares a link to your content on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Slack, or Discord, these are the images that pop up along with your link. It's a sneak peek at your content, so it's important to make it catchy.

This is the same concept as when you create a thumbnail YouTube image for your videos. They're like mini-preview of your home page. Just like how a well-designed thumbnail can make people want to click on your video instead of scrolling past it, the same is true for your e-commerce shop.

One of the best ways to visualize the photo size of your share image is to use OpenGraph.xyz. This tool lets you quickly test how it appears as a Facebook image, Discord image, Twitter image, Slack image, LinkedIn image, and more:

Make Your Visuals Stand Out: Creating Social Sharing Images

How do you make these images look great? That's where tools like Canva and Photoshop come in. They're packed with templates and cool features that make it super easy to create awesome images that fit your style. Plus, they have smart tools to quickly change the size of your images for different platforms, making sure your visuals always look their best.

For the best visuals across most social media platforms, we recommend creating 1200px width by 628px height image. Your image should be no more than 5mb, but we recommend trying to reduce the file size to be as small as possible (ideally under 150 KB). You can use a resizer tool like Sqoosh to help with this. While you can experiment with different aspect ratios, we've found that a1.91 aspect ratio ensures that your image is cropped optimally to share on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

We recommend using a PNG for your images. WEBP and GIF images are not supported on some platforms and devices, so PNG images help ensure a consistent experience. 

How to Upload Social Share Images to your Fourthwall Site?

Once you’ve created your images, you can upload these on a website builder platform like Fourthwall. Fourthwall is pre-configured with all of the best practices for your social sharing image to ensure it loads on all social media platforms. You can upload it under the General tab on your site's settings:

With awesome designs with the help of tools like Canva and a creator website builder like Fourthwall, uploading a Social Sharing Image is easy. Plus it will make your home page stand out when tweeting, posting as a Facebook image, sharing on your Instagram story, or any other social media.

This will help boost your page views and drive more of your fans to your shop or memberships page. No matter what type of content creator you are, we highly recommend adding this to your site to boost traffic to your shop, memberships site, and home page!

Just remember to try to maintain a 1.91 aspect ratio (ideally at a 1200px width and 628px height) and use an image resizer to reduce your file size! 

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