In just over a decade, social media has transformed our world. Your social media profile picture is often the first thing that followers, clients, and audiences see when they encounter you or your brand online for the first time. And you want that impression to be a good one!
It’s hard to say exactly what effect a profile picture has on your audience, but it’s safe to assume that choosing a bad social media profile picture gives a poor impression. If you’re looking to project an image of maturity, creativity, or professionalism, then you’re going to want to make sure your social media profile picture is on point.
In this article, we cover about the importance of a good social media profile picture, tips to consider when taking photos, and share how to put your best foot forward with a cool profile picture.
Importance of a Good Profile Picture
With much of the world’s global commerce being online, it is more important than ever to use your online presence to ensure you’re communicating the right messages to your audience. Your profile picture is especially important in this regard. It is a way to develop a personal brand and build an online network of supporters, followers, clients, patrons, and contacts. The line between personal and professional is only getting blurrier, so you might as well assume that what you put on social media will eventually have some professional consequences.
via PicsArt5 Elements of a Good Profile Picture
There is, unfortunately, no formula for a great profile picture, and what yours should look like largely depends on the platform you’re on, as well as reasons for having a profile at all, and whether they are professional or personal. But assuming a professional intent, here are the top five things to look out for when devising your profile pic.
1. The Smile: Use your profile pic as an opportunity to emphasize important facial features, like a smile. Studies show that people who smile with teeth have a greater tendency of forming a good first impression, so don’t be shy about letting your teeth have a moment.
2. The Background: Particularly if your photo is a headshot, you should be careful about making sure the background is not too busy. Keeping it a bit out of focus is your best bet. But also try to choose a backdrop that will contrast nicely with your crystal clear face. Keeping a bokeh effect in the background can be a lovely way to create a mood and some nice contrasting colors. The blur will allow you to have a busier landscape, like maybe trees or skyscrapers, without detracting from the main attraction: you!
via PicsArt3. Composition: Profile pics which place the subject at the center of the photograph make a lot of sense, but having the subject a bit off-center can still achieve a professional look, and even give you a bit of an edge.
4. Clarity: It can be very tempting to experiment with all the filters out there. But there’s a time and place for that and the profile pic is usually not it. Unless that is, you’re wanting your picture to be black and white, which is always a classy move.
5. Consistency: This is especially important if you are someone who has a common name. Using the same headshot across your social media profiles can help people searching for you to identify you from the crowd of Gregs and Mikes with your same last name.
Profile Picture Sizes and Tips for Every Social Media Platform
Every social media platform has its own conventions, rules, and guidelines for image sizes and profile pictures. That’s why we’ve put together an up-to-date cheat sheet with social media image sizes, including dimensions and file types for the most popular platforms! And always remember, people can be viewing your profile from a desktop or a mobile device, so you should try to find something that will be clearly viewed by both.
Twitter Profile Pictures
Dimensions: 400 x 400
Image Types: JPG, GIF, or PNG.
Pro Tip: Maximum file size 2 MB
Why it matters?
Twitter has hundreds of millions of monthly active users. While that puts it pretty far down the list in terms of usage (behind behemoths like Facebook and YouTube), Twitter’s power is in its professionalism. It’s a great platform for media professionals to make a name for themselves. It gives journalists, authors, and creatives an opportunity to interact directly with audiences. For this reason, the profile picture is even more important on this platform. Your profile photo is the main image that represents you or your brand across the network, and it appears across the site in a number of places.
via PicsArt
Facebook Profile Pictures
Dimensions: 180 x 180 (applies to both personal and professional pages)
Image Types: JPG, GIF, or PNG
Why it matters?
With 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook is by far the world’s largest social network. While many use this platform to interact with friends and family online, Facebook pages are steadily becoming more of a professional networking tool (especially as the internet continues to dissolve the lines between personal and professional). Recognizing this, the platform has moved towards a more professional and career-oriented service. Personal profiles now give more space to work and education information. And it’s well-known that employers have checked applicants on Facebook for years. So especially as your thumbnail, your Facebook profile picture is likely to come up in a cursory Google search, better make it count.
Instagram Profile Pictures
Dimensions: 110 x 110
Image Types: JPG or PNG
Pro Tip: Maintain an aspect ratio of 1:1
Why it matters?
Instagram, boasting 1.12 billion active monthly users, is the world’s most popular photo-sharing social network. Its humble origins allowed users to upload snapshots of their lives, the instant it was happening, but today, it is much more highly curated. Many users still use it for this original function — to give glimpses into their personal lives — but it has also become a place for creatives (illustrators, designers, and artists) to showcase their work and build their brand. On Instagram, the profile picture is important, but in a way, it’s kind of an afterthought, as it shows up quite small on the app so as not to detract from the images being shared. For this reason, many brands will use shortened versions of their logos as the Instagram profile picture.
via PicsArtLinkedIn Profile Pictures
Dimensions: 300 x 300 (applies to both personal and company pages)
Image Types: JPG, GIF, or PNG
Pro Tip: Maximum file size 10MB
Why it matters?
With over 722 million registered users, LinkedIn is a platform for professionals that is growing in relevance. The platform has been evolving rapidly in recent years to meet the needs of an increasingly digital workforce, with a sleeker, more simple user interface and a new layout for personal profiles. While on Facebook, Instagram, and even maybe Twitter, you can get away with a profile picture that speaks to your more quirky side, on this platform, professionalism reigns supreme, so if you’re looking for a reason to whip out that pantsuit, this is probably it.
via PicsArt
YouTube Profile Pictures
Dimensions: 800 x 800
Image Types: JPG, GIF, BMP, or PNG
Why it matters?
YouTube is second only to Facebook as the most widely used content-sharing platform, with 2 billion active users every month. It is attractive both to brands as well as individuals because it provides a more direct route for reaching new and old audiences. It’s a video-sharing network, so as you can imagine, the value of the profile picture on this platform is less than it would be on, say, Facebook or LinkedIn, where the focus is more on the user, as opposed to the content that user is sharing.
via PicsArtTikTok Profile Pictures
Dimensions: 200 x 200
Image Types: JPG, PNG
Why it matters? TikTok, a short-form video-sharing platform, enjoys about 850 million active monthly users. That’s a lot, especially for a platform that was virtually unheard of until a couple of years ago. in 2018, the app was downloaded more times than Instagram. Like YouTube, your profile picture is second to the videos being shared, but it’s still an opportunity to build your brand.
via PicsArtHow To Make and Resize Your Profile Picture for Any Platform
Now that you have an idea of what the stakes are for profile pics, are you feeling the pressure to make sure yours is up to snuff? If so, we’re here to help! PicsArt has easy-to-use photo editing capabilities that will allow you to edit your profile pic to perfection before uploading it to social platforms.
To get started in the PicsArt mobile app:
- Open the PicsArt app and tap on the plus sign at the bottom of your screen.
- Upload the picture you’d like to use, or you can also take a picture right in the app by scrolling down and selecting the Camera icon.
- From here, you can make some professional adjustments to your photo by clicking the Retouch icon. Use the Smoothing icon to give your photo more of a sheen. You can even whiten your teeth.
- To make basic adjustments to elements like contrast or color, select the Tools icon, and choose the Adjust tool, Curves, or Enhance.
- Finally — and most importantly — crop the image to be the appropriate size (see dimensions for each platform listed above). You can do this by selecting the Crop tool in the Tools category.
- Click Next and download or share your image.
To get started on PicsArt Web:
- Open the PicsArt Web Editor and tap the Upload button in the bottom right.
- Make adjustments to the photo by selecting the Adjust icon right above it. Here you can play with Opacity, Saturation, Brightness, and Contrast. You can make some professional adjustments to your photo by clicking the Retouch icon. You can use the Smoothing icon to give your photo more of a sheen. You can even whiten your teeth.
- Next, you can crop the image by selecting the Fit icon on the left sidebar. Make sure to unlock the proportions by clicking the lock icon, and type in the dimensions.
- Click Download and you’ve got a great new profile pic to share across all your social platforms!
Make Awesome
PicsArt all-in-one Photo and Video Editor, Collage, and Sticker Maker is the world’s largest creative platform with over 150 million monthly active creators and influencers. PicsArt has collaborated with major artists and brands like Taylor Swift, The Jonas Brothers, Gwen Stefani, Maroon 5, Lizzo, Meghan Trainor, One Direction, MONSTA X, Warner Bros. Entertainment, iHeartMedia, Condé Nast, and more. Download the app today to level-up your photos and videos with thousands of quick & easy editing tools, trendy filters, fun stickers, and brilliant backgrounds. Unleash your creativity with PicsArt and upgrade to Gold for awesome premium perks.
