Design System

Social media visuals

Strong visuals help our content stand out—but they also need to meet brand and accessibility standards to ensure they appropriately present the agency and are designed for all audiences.

All visuals should be ADA-compliant for both content and design, and include common aspect ratios for flexibility across platforms. Learn more about creating inclusive content on our social media accessibility page.

Contact the social media team at socialmedia.dot@state.mn.us with any questions.

Sizes

Static visuals

• For the best results, use high-resolution images with a minimum file size of 1MB.
• Submit graphics in JPG, PNG, or GIF format (no PDFs).

Videos

• Submit videos in MP4 format.
• Most platforms allow much larger uploads (up to 4GB), but keeping files under 250MB ensures quicker processing and better cross-platform performance.
• Include both open (burned-in) and closed captions for accessibility.

Ratios

16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels)

Platforms for 16:9

• Facebook
• Calendar event
• Group or page cover photo
• Business page cover photo
• Organic posts – ideal if you would like the visual used as a link preview (or Open Graph) image.
• Paid ads
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Threads
• Bluesky

9:16 (1080 x 1920 pixels)

Platforms for 9:16

• Instagram
• Stories
• Reels
• Paid ads
• Facebook
• Stories
• Reels
• Paid ads

4:5 (1080 x 1350 pixels)

Platforms for 4:5

• Instagram
  • Organic posts – ideal size so that they appear correctly in the Instagram grid.

4:3 (1024 x 768 pixels)

Platforms for 4:3

• Facebook
• Organic posts
• Threads
• Bluesky

1:1 (1080 x 1080 pixels)

Platforms for 1:1

• Facebook
• Organic posts
• Paid ads
• Instagram
• Paid ads
• Threads
• Bluesky