The Ideal Length for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Posts (2023)

When it comes to writing text for your blog and social media posts, many marketers wonder, "But what's the character limit?" It's never a simple question -- sometimes, it's answered by parameters established by certain channels. And on other occasions, it's more a question of what's ideal.

The Ideal Length for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Posts (1)

For example, you probably know the character limit for a tweet is 140, but did you know that the ideal length is actually less than that? (Hold tight -- we'll explain why.)While we've written before about optimizing your actual content, we thought it would be helpful to gather the numbers of character limits -- both enforced and ideal -- for different online channels, all in one place.

Below, you'll find a more detailed guide to character limits and ideal character counts for posts on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, SnapChat, and YouTube.

The Length & Character Count for Everything on the Internet

1. Blog Posts

The Ideal Length for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Posts (3)
Source: Medium

Quick reference:

  • Post length: 2100 words
  • Title:Under 60characters
  • Meta Description: Under 155 characters

The Ideal Length for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Posts (4)

Featured Resource:6 Free Blog Post Templates

Post Body

When it comes to the length of blog posts, there are a few different items to consider. For example:

  • According to Medium, posts with an average read time of seven minutes captured the most attention.
  • The average reading speed of native English-speaking adults remains commonly cited as 300 words per minute, according to research conducted in 1990.
  • At that reading rate, the ideal post length is 2100 words.
  • That aligns with research previously conducted by Capsicum Mediaworks, which indicated that, on average, the top 10 results for most Google searches are between 2,000 and 2,500 words.

The Ideal Length for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Posts (5)Source: Capsicum Mediaworks

That means that this ideal word count can address goals around both readability and SEO. But that's just the actual body of the post. Plus, when we looked at our own blog on organic traffic, wefound that the sweet spot was 2,250–2,500 words.

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But that's just the post body -- let's have a look at the other areas of text that comprise a full blog post.

Title

The length of your title depends on your goals, and where it will appear.

Let's start with SEO. Do you want this post to rank really well in search? It turns out, that often has to do with the dimensions of each entry on a search engine results page (SERP). For Google, titles of search results are usually contained at a length of 600 pixels -- which Moz measures as being able to display the first 50-60 characters of a title tag. So, if you don't want your title to get cut off in the search results, it might be best to keep it under 60 characters. But when in doubt, you can double-check the length of your meta description and title tags with this handy tool from SEOmofo, or you can use Moz's title tag preview tool.

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Then, there's optimizing your title for social sharing. On Twitter, for example, consider that each tweet has a limit of 140 characters -- however, if you include an image, that doesn't count toward the limit. But consider that even the average shortened URL takes up about 23 characters -- that leaves you with about 116 characters left for the title and any accompanying text.

In our own analysis at HubSpot, we found that headlines between 8–12 words in length got the most Twitter shares on average, while headlines with either 12 or 14 words got the most Facebook Likes.

The Ideal Length for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Posts (8)

Meta Description

A meta description refers to the HTML attribute that explains the contents of a given webpage. It's the short description you see on a SERP to "preview" what the page is about.

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Moz notes that Google seems to cut off most meta descriptions -- which are sometimes called snippets -- after roughly two lines of text -- though there's some conjecture that, like title tags, it's actually based on pixel count. In any case, it amounts to about 160 characters, though this particular outlet recommends keeping it at 155.

Again, you can double-check the length of your meta description and title tags with this handy tool from SEOmofo.

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2. Facebook

Quick reference:

  • Status updates: 63,206-character maximum | Ideal length is 40 characters
  • Video: 120-minute maximum | Ideal length is two minutes

Facebook Character Limit

Facebook offers a generous character limit of 63,206. However, you should aim to keep your posts to a sentence or two for better engagement.

Facebook's character limit on status updates is 63,206. However, that's far from ideal, says HubSpot Social Media Marketing Manager Chelsea Hunersen. "The social gurus will throw around the number 40 characters. That data seems to be backed up by BuzzSumo's ranking of HubSpot's own Facebook Page."

But why 40, specifically? "Ideally," Hunersen says, "you'll want to use the copy in a status update to provide context for whatever you're linking to." That said, she notes, the copy of the status update itself isn't as important as the copy in the meta title or meta description that gets pulled in when you insert a link into your post. That's right -- social media posts have their own meta data too.

"Often, people look at the image of the article and then directly down at the meta title and meta description for context clues," she explains. "A lot of people don't realize you can change those."

Even on Facebook, it's still best to keep your meta title to fewer than 60 characters, and to 155 for meta descriptions. There are some resources available to those familiar with coding that let you play around with social media metadata character counts, like these templates. But unless you're a developer, we recommend keeping it short and sweet.

Video

While Facebook allows a maximum of 120 minutes for videos, we wouldn't advise posting anything that long, unless you're doing a special, social-media-only screening of a full-length film.

According to research conducted by Wistia, two minutes is the "sweet spot" -- even a minute longer than that shows a significant drop in viewership. "Engagement is steady up to [two] minutes, meaning that a 90-second video will hold a viewer's attention as much as a 30-second video, the research reads," so "if you're making short videos, you don't need to stress about the difference of a few seconds. Just keep it under [two] minutes."

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Source: Wistia

However, optimal length can vary depending on the topic. "If you produce something as catchy as BuzzFeed and Refinery29 are putting out there, it can be up to five minutes long," says Hunersen.

Regardless of the length of your video, Hunersen reminds us that all Facebook videos start without sound, meaning users have to make a conscious decision to stop scrolling through their feeds and unmute the video. Facebook videos should be visually compelling from the get-to, make sense without sound, and be engaging enough to encourage the user to stop and watch.

3. Twitter

Quick reference:

  • Tweets: 280-character maximum
    • Does not include images, videos, polls, or quotes tweets
    • Ideal length is 120-130 characters
  • Hashtags: No more than two
  • Videos: Maximum length is two minutes and 20 seconds

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Featured Resource: How to Use Twitter for Business

Twitter Character Count

In recent years, Twitter doubled its tweet character count from 140 to 280.

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Marketers everywhere rejoiced when Twitter finally eased up on its character count parameters, and such media as images, videos, and polls, as well as quoted tweets, ceased counting toward its 140-character limit.

Still, the "Quote Tweet" feature remainsavailable, providing even greater character-saving measures. That happens when you press the rotating arrow icon to retweet a post, and then add a comment in the text box provided. You've still got 140 characters all to yourself to comment.

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Ideal Length Overall

Like so much of what we've covered, it seems that when it comes to the overall length of a tweet, aim for short and sweet. (See what we did there?) That's resonated in research conducted by social media scientist Dan Zarrella, who found that tweets with 120-130 characters showed the highest click-through rate (CTR):

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Source: Buffer

The same goes for hashtags. While they can technically be any length up to 140 characters, remember that people will want to accompany the hashtag with other copy. Short hashtags are always better. Ideally, your hashtags should be under 11 characters -- shorter if you can.

Also, in a single tweet, stick to one or two hashtags, and definitely don't go over three. Buddy Media found that all tweets with hashtags get double the engagement metrics than tweets without any. But tweets that kept the hashtags to a minimum -- one or two -- have a 21% higher engagement than tweets with three or more.

The Ideal Length for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Posts (15)
Source: Buffer

Videos

You can post a video on Twitter by importing a video or recording it using the Twitter app. In any case, the maximum video length is two minutes and 20 seconds.

4. LinkedIn

The Ideal Length for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn Posts (16)

Profiles

Here's a handy list of some of LinkedIn's most important profile character maximums, according to Andy Foote:

    • Professional headline: 120
    • Summary: 2,000
    • Position title: 100
    • Position description: 2,000 (200 character minimum)
    • LinkedIn Post Character Limit

      LinkedIn statuses on company pages can be up to 700 characters while individuals can post updates up to 1,300 characters long.

      Foote also notes that, "if you select to also post on Twitter from LinkedIn, only the first 140 characters will show on your Twitter post."

Featured Resource:

Original Content

With LinkedIn's publishing platform, users can now compose and share original written content with their networks, or publicly. Of course, that comes with its own character counts, according to Foote:

      • Post headline: 100
      • Post body: 40,000

LinkedIn Summary Limit

There is not a hard Summary limit, but users can fill in two lines or 200-250 characters before triggering a See More call-to-action.

(Video) How to post a video on LinkedIn the correct way (aspect ratio, closed captions, video format,...)

5. Instagram

Quick reference:

      • Bio: 150
      • Hashtags: Up to 30
      • Captions: Ideal length is under 125 characters

      Instagram Caption Character Limit

      Instagram captions allow the use of 2,200 characters, however there are limits when hashtags are involved.

Since Instagram is, first and foremost, a platform for sharing photos and videos, the primary focus is typically your visual content. However, it's always helpful to provide some context, and let users know what they're looking at.

Given that, here are some helpful character counts for the text you include with your visual content:

While Instagram doesn't seem to specify a maximum total number of caption characters, it does note that, within users' feeds, the caption is cut off after the first three lines. For that reason, it's advised to limit captions to 125 characters. However, don't leave out important information just for the sake of keeping your entire caption visible. Instead, frontload it with crucial details and calls-to-action, leaving any hashtags, @mentions, or extraneous information for the end.

As for Instagram Stories, there doesn't seem to be a ton of detail on character limits there, either. However, because the text overlays the visual content -- which is the focus -- don't obscure too much of the photo or video with a caption.

Instagram Bio Limit

Instagram's bio limit is 160 characters

Here's a quick example of a short Instagram bio from my colleague.

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Instagram User Name Limit

An Instagram user name can be up to 30 characters.

(Video) How to Write the Best Captions for your Social Media Posts | For Beginner Social Media Manager [Eng]

6. Snapchat

Quick reference:

      • Character limit: 80 per post

Speaking of not obscuring visual content -- that brings us to Snapchat.

Instagram Stories was, many believe, an effort to emulate the features of Snapchat, to create an opportunity for users to share quickly-disappearing photos and videos. And again, because the focus here is on the visual, you'll want to prevent distracting viewers from it with too much text.

According to Teen Vogue, Snapchat's character limit is 80 per post, which is more than double its previous 31-character limit. And, if you're looking for more guidance, just look to this particular app's name, and remember the "snap" element of it -- a word that implies brevity -- and try not to ramble. Here's a great example of how SXSW uses its captions efficiently:

7. YouTube

Featured Resource: YouTube for Business – A 30-Day Roadmap

Here we have yet another network that's focused on visual content, leading some to incorrectly assume that accompanying text -- like titles and descriptions -- don't matter as much.

That's not entirely false -- as a video-hosting platform, YouTube should primarily be used to showcase a brand's quality videos. However, like any other visual content, it needs context. People need to know what they're watching, who it's from, and why it matters.

Unfortunately, YouTube doesn't appear to provide any specific parameters over its character counts -- except for your channel description, which according to the official help site is limited to 1,000 characters. But other than that, it seems that the only guideline available is the alert display that lets you know, "Your [title or description] is too long," if you've entered too much text in either of those fields.

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In this case, we would advise taking the same approach as adding text to support your visuals on Instagram and Snapchat. Like the former, a video's description is cut off after the first line or two, so frontload the most important descriptors and CTAs, leaving extra details for the end.

Show Your Character

As you set out to determine the length of your text, regardless of the platform, remember to do so with the user in mind. Many of these channel-mandated character limits are established for that reason -- to keep audiences from getting bored or overwhelmed.

Like anything else in marketing, however, it's never an exact science, despite the best data. We encourage you to follow these guidelines, but don't be afraid to experiment if they don't always work.

Test different amounts of text within your various channels, and keep track of how each post performs. From there, you can make decisions about which types of content, as well as its accompanying titles and descriptions, are the most well-received from your audience.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in January 2016 and was updated in December 2019 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Topics: Social Media Marketing

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FAQs

What is the ideal length for a LinkedIn post? ›

Best Number of Characters in a LinkedIn Status Update

And just like the others, short performs best on LinkedIn. The ideal length for a LinkedIn status is around 100 characters. The “See More” button cuts off messages at about 140 characters.

What is the ideal length of an Instagram post? ›

The ideal Instagram post is between 138 to 150 characters. While the Instagram captions can be up to 2,200 characters long, captions get visually cut off at around 125 characters.

What is the ideal post length for LinkedIn 2023? ›

LinkedIn

The thumb rule of keeping the post concise also applies to LinkedIn. Ideally, experts suggest keeping it around 100 characters, as, beyond 140 characters, the text is truncated with the See More option. Thus, the ideal length comes down to 25 words for both paid and organic posts.

What is the ideal length of a Facebook post? ›

Ideal Facebook post length

But just because you can post a lengthy status update on Facebook doesn't mean you should. In fact, short posts tend to perform better even on Facebook. According to a BuzzSumo analysis, the ideal Facebook post length is around 50 characters (or fewer), which tends to get the most engagement.

How long should a twitter post be? ›

In most cases, the text content of a Tweet can contain up to 280 characters or Unicode glyphs. Some glyphs will count as more than one character.

Should LinkedIn posts be short or long? ›

While long-form content is great for establishing your brand and providing valuable information to your target audience, you also need short form-content to reel them in and keep them engaged when they don't have time to read a 2,000 word article.

What is too long of a Facebook post? ›

The list goes on. But don't fret, Facebook keeps the maximum character count the same across most post types. In 2020, your Facebook post can be up to 63,206 characters long. You're not penalized for using images or videos either, so you have tons of room to play with.

Is 7 a good time to post on Instagram? ›

Best times to post on Instagram (in your local time zone)

Thursday: 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., 11a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday: 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m. Saturday: 9 a.m. Sunday: 1 a.m., 7 a.m., 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

What is the longest ratio for Instagram post? ›

While Instagram recommends a post ratio of 1.91:1, you can actually go as far as 16:9. In any case, we recommend you make the height of your horizontal photo at least 1080px. That way, when Instagram compresses the file, the quality should remain pretty high.

What's the 80 20 rule regarding Twitter posts? ›

In terms of Twitter, the rule of thumb here is that 80% of your posts should be content driven about trends or knowledge while 20% should be promotional about your company.

What are the best 3 times to post on Twitter? ›

The best time to tweet totally depends on your audience. Still, the most popular time to post on Twitter is between 8-10 am and 6-9 pm. If you are looking for better engagement, then you should either post early in the morning (7-9 am) or late in the night (8-11 pm).

What is the character limit for Facebook posts 2023? ›

Facebook's character limit is 63,206 characters, which is quite a bit longer than Twitter's.

What are the rules for LinkedIn posts? ›

Remember to be professional and don't post anything misleading, fraudulent, obscene, threatening, hateful, defamatory, discriminatory, or illegal. You're responsible for the content of your articles, including any harm caused by you to others, or harm caused to you through your use of this service.

How long should social media posts be? ›

Based on their findings, posts with less than 50 characters “were more engaging than long posts.” According to another, more precise study by Jeff Bullas, posts with 80 characters or less receive 66 percent higher engagement.

What is the average lifespan of a Facebook post? ›

Though a Facebook post's lifespan varies, it typically receives around 75% of its total activity within the first five hours. It also reaches roughly 75% of its entire audience in the first two hours. It quickly loses steam after that and eventually gets lost in the crowd.

Does Facebook punish you for posting too much? ›

Violations can include inappropriate content, frequent multiple posts, or too many liked posts. The penalties can range from getting banned from posting for a few hours, days, or weeks to permanently removing an account.

Is my Instagram post too long? ›

Caption truncation: In an Instagram post, if the caption is longer than 125 characters, everything after 125 characters will be hidden and you will need to click "more" in order to read the rest of the caption. It's a good idea to get your most important point across and hook the reader in those first 125 characters.

Should Instagram posts have long captions? ›

For brands, in particular, this can be a really great opportunity for storytelling that goes beyond product information and builds a much stronger brand affinity with your audience. Longer captions also typically result in higher engagement.

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