How Long Should Your Social Media Posts Be? Here’s What You Should Know

Posting on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook takes some time to learn when it comes to creating quality and optimized content. Brands are now aware of the power of social media and how it can positively impact their business, aside from having a business website and an effective SEO strategy.

Each of these social media platforms caters to different market and serve different purposes. However, all of these have one thing in common: each post has a character limit. Meaning, you have to consider the limit but also make sure you create a meaty and valuable post. 

If you are not familiar with social media platforms’ character limits and recommended post lengths, then you have come to the right place. This article will explain to you just that, and how you can improve your posts to achieve maximum results. 

 

What are Facebook’s character limits and ideal post length? 

Generally, Facebook has the same character limit except for in-stream video and carousel ads (20 characters). 40 characters for the headline, 125 characters for body text, and 30 characters for link descriptions.

Facebook is also ideal for posting long-form content, which allows 63,206 characters in a single post. But according to social media experts, Facebook posts get more engagement with shorter posts – ideally around 50 characters or less. Still, it is best to test which post lengths will work for your brand. 

 

What are Instagram’s character limits and ideal post length? 

Meanwhile, Instagram’s character limit for ads is also the same as Facebook. For captions, Instagram has a 2,200 character limit and is truncated at the 125-character mark. The bio limit is 150 characters. 

As for ideal length, social media experts recommend about 50 characters for more engagement. However, you can also try longer captions and see how your target audience reacts to them. Also, the caption length depends on the post intention. You need longer captions for informative posts, while you can settle for fewer characters (and add a couple of emojis there) for casual and fun posts. 

Instagram is also popular for its hashtags. The platform allows up to 30 hashtags per post. However, try not to stuff hashtags in one go as it can cause your account to get shadowbanned. Aim for 10 hashtags at most. 

 

What are Twitter’s character limits and ideal post length? 

Originally, Twitter has a 140-character limit but has since expanded into 280 characters. Meanwhile, Twitter bios have a 160-character limit, while DMs have a maximum character limit of 10,000. 

Interestingly, longer posts tend to work better on Twitter according to studies. The same report also reveals that tweets between 240 and 259 characters get the most Retweets, impressions, likes, and replies. 

 

Make the most out of the word count 

Less is more, as they say. That is why you should also be aware of the social media character limit and plan how to curate posts by utilizing what you only have. You also need to have an effective SEO strategy to get your business out there. A digital marketing expert in Franklin TN will help you with your SEO and digital marketing needs, so make sure to contact one today.