The Ideal Length of Social Media Posts

Are you writing too much or too little in your social media posts? Is the length of your videos optimized, too long, or not long enough?

In this post, we look at the leading social media networks and present the research on the ideal social media posts length for all the social media platforms you can think of at this moment.

It’s not always about the limits set by different platforms but rather the optimal number of characters for user engagement.

For example, you probably know the character limit for a post on X is 280, but did you know using less is more effective? it’s not a surprise if you don’t; most people don’t recognize the importance of the length of a post.

We get it, You don’t have the time to tirelessly compile a list of the ideal length of social media posts for every social media platform.

So we did it for you.

Why Character Count Actually Matters

Each social media site has a post character restriction of its own. Knowing the optimal character count to employ in your postings is crucial, as we previously discussed. It goes beyond the character constraints imposed by these platforms.

Let’s examine the top 5 factors that emphasize how crucial character count is to your content strategy:

1. Platform algorithm optimization

The algorithms used by various social media sites vary, but most of them take post length into account to increase the visibility of information. Your message will rank highly in the algorithm’s ranking system if you stick to the “ideal” character count. This increases the likelihood that your material will show up in the feeds of your audience.

2. Makes it easier to read

Have you ever encountered a long text block? Isn’t it overwhelming? Posts that are shorter, more succinct, and have an ideal character count are simpler to read and comprehend. They increase the impact of your message because they appear less daunting and are more likely to be read through to the end.

3. Makes the message more clear

Following a character limit compels you to communicate intelligibly and succinctly. This improves the overall efficacy of your message by cutting out superfluous words and ensuring that your main point is understood.

Short, direct posts are more likely to be shared. Particularly on sites like X and Threads, where character restrictions are more stringent, they are simpler for people to quote or repost, which could expand the audience for your work.

5. Improves the user experience on mobile devices

Character counts are growing more and more significant as more individuals use mobile devices to access social media networks. Ideal character counts increase the likelihood that a post will be mobile-friendly, providing your mobile audience with a better reading experience.

Keep on reading to find our carefully chosen research on the optimal character counts for social media posts—which should not be confused with character limits.

Let’s start by getting into the Ideal Social Media Posts Length,

The Ideal Facebook Post Length

Facebook posts can be as long as you want them to be, but shorter ones tend to get more likes, comments, and shares.

A short message that gets the point across is liked by many. It’s satisfying.

Organic post length: 1 to 80 characters

We looked all over the Internet for research, and the most current one was done in 2016… an eternity in Social Media Years. It’s the best place to start, though, since that’s all we have to work with:

BuzzSumo looked at more than 800 million Facebook posts in 2016. Based on their results, 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 better engagement.

There are a couple of reasons for this…

A barrier to entry is that Facebook cuts off longer posts with an ellipsis, so users have to hit “See More” to see the whole message.

It may not seem like much, but this extra step will make people less interested. Every time you ask the crowd to take action, a percentage of people will lose interest.

Complication: reading for a long time makes the brain work harder to understand what it’s reading. Content that demands less work to read and understand will enjoy higher engagement rates.

Paid posts length: 5 to 19 words

Every Facebook ad needs three types of content: a Headline, Ad Text, and a Link Description.

After analyzing 752,626 Facebook ads back in 2018, AdEspresso found that ads did best when the copy in each part was clear and concise. According to the data, the best length for a:

The headline, the first text people read, is 5 words.

The ad text, which is shown above the ad, is 19 words

The link description, which shows below the headline, is 13 words

The bottom line: Whether the post is organic or paid, brevity seems to drive interaction.

Capitalize on this by keeping your ad writing concise: don’t use two words when one will do. And keep it clear: remove adverbs, jargon, and the passive voice from your copy.

Video length: 30 to 60 seconds

Sure, you can upload a 240 minute movie to Facebook… but will anyone actually watch it all the way through? With video, one of the main measures of success is how long people watch, also known as your video retention rate.

For viral content, Facebook suggests videos that are less than one minute or stories that are less than 20 seconds in length.

That being said, if you’re trying to qualify for in-stream ads, you might want to linger a little longer — videos need to be over three minutes to qualify.

Facebook also suggests videos over three minutes for episodic series, live streaming, or story development.

Don’t go over the following limits:

Facebook Post	33,000
Username	50
Page Description	255
Facebook Ad Headline	40
Facebook Ad Text	135
Facebook Link Description	30

The Ideal X Post Length

So, how many characters are allowed in a Post on X? In 2017, X, known as Twitter at the time, doubled its tweet character limit from 140 to 280 to help make writing on the platform easier.

But, it bears repeating, so bear in mind, just because you have twice the room doesn’t mean people want to see you use it.

The reason for that is, when it comes to social media platforms, people are looking for authenticity to engage on, they won’t be engaging on anything that looks forced or dodgy in a sense.

Organic and promoted X Posts length: 71 – 100 characters

Whether you’re running an ad or not, data from Buddy Media shows that tweets containing less than 100 characters receive, on average, 17 percent higher engagement than longer tweets.

This is, in part, because shorter Posts are easier to read and comprehend.

There is a way to get around the word count limit:

Warby Parker cleverly combined a long list of short tweets to get the best of both worlds by creating a long thread for the longest day of the year: quick and cheeky content delivered in a large volume.

The best TikTok video length

People have downloaded TikTok more than 3 billion times, which means you’ve got a lot of short attention spans out there in the world to please.

Sure, the short-form video app recently expanded their max movie length to 10 whole minutes. But just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. On TikTok, brevity lives.

Organic TikTok video length: 7 to 15 seconds

To hook a viewer and keep their attention, try for a 15-second video.

The more people who watch and like your movie, the more likely you are to appear on someone else’s For You Page, so it’s important to really knock it out of the park. (For more on pleasing the great TikTok algorithm, click here.)

That being said, you may still want to try out TikTok’s 7-second dare. When our own social team tried it, they got half a million likes on their movie — not too shabby at all.

TikTok ad length: 21 to 24 seconds

For top performance of ads, TikTok suggests 21-34 seconds.

But of course, length isn’t everything: content and quality formatting count, too.

Don’t go over the following limits:

Caption	300
Handle	24
Bio	80

Ideal LinkedIn post length

More than 810 million workers use LinkedIn. And as the platform’s user base grows it is more and more difficult to win organic notice. Marketers must continually optimize their message for quality, timing, and, of course, length.

Organic and paid changes length: 25 words

The research on this topic isn’t very current, but Hootsuite finds that, as with all other types of social updates, it’s best to keep LinkedIn updates short.

The LinkedIn post word limit before the “See More” button is 140. Your message will be cut off at the 140 character mark — like Shopify’s ad here did. As a general rule of thumb, we stick to 25 words or less.

shopify plus best guide to site speed

Article length: 1,900 to 2,000 words

Paul Shapiro, founder of Search Wilderness, analyzed more than 3000 of the most successful posts on LinkedIn’s publishing site. These posts, on average, got 42,505 views, 567 comments, and 138,841 likes.

He found that articles with more words performed better.

“Posts between 1900 and 2000 words perform the best,” writes Shapiro. “[They] gain the greatest number of post views, LinkedIn likes, LinkedIn comments, and LinkedIn shares.”

Shapiro also learned that the best LinkedIn character limit for titles is between 40 and 49 characters. Titles in this range got the greatest number of post views overall.

Video length: 30 seconds

In 2017, LinkedIn gave its users the ability to directly upload videos that play automatically in their followers’ feeds. Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn also shares video data (e.g., viewers’ companies and job titles), making it a useful resource for marketers.

According to LinkedIn, the most popular video ads are less than 15 seconds long. But lengths can change when it comes to LinkedIn native video.

For brand awareness and brand consideration videos, LinkedIn suggests keeping the length under 30 seconds.

Meanwhile, videos that meet upper-funnel marketing goals should stick to a 30-90 second video length.

So, long story short, don’t exceed the following limits:

Company Page About	2,000
Comment	1,250
Company Page Status Update	700
Article Headline	100
Article Body Text	110,000

The best Instagram post length

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, the ideal word count for Instagram post is more dependent on the visual content. The platform was made to showcase compelling pictures and videos, but the right mix of words will promote engagement on any post.

Engagement, of course, is crucial to increasing your content’s reach since Instagram’s algorithm places posts with the most Likes and comments near the top of your followers’ feeds.

Organic Instagram post description length: 138 to 150 characters

A successful Instagram caption adds context, shows off your brand’s personality, entertains audiences, and compels your fans to take action.

The Instagram comment limit is 2,200 characters. But you’ll only need a fraction of that limit to move the needle (as our very scientific experiment about caption lengths can prove).

Most people scroll through their stories quickly, so it makes sense to keep your captions clear, concise, and punchy.

Brief copy is easy to swallow. It also doesn’t get cut off with an ellipsis. Need some writing inspo? Find 264 creative Instagram comments to get you started right here.

Instagram video length: 15 seconds

Most people are going to be watching your Instagram video (organic or marketing) on their phones, so following best practices for mobile video length is important if you wanna keep the viewer’s attention.

That means keeping videos here to 15 seconds or less. Short! And! Sweet!

Instagram hashtags: 3-5 per post at less than 24 characters each Instagram post can have up to 30 hashtags, making it tempting to stuff each comment with as many as possible. As an advertiser, fight this urge. Using more hashtags won’t necessarily yield better visibility.

In fact, Instagram recently revealed that 3-5 hashtags will actually get you the best results, and our own little experiment confirmed just that.

Of course, picking the right hashtags to use is a whole other story. Our guide to Instagram hashtags will walk you through your choices.

Instagram Stories length: 7 to 15 seconds

Instagram’s parent company, Meta, notes that people consume Stories much faster than other material, so it’s important to capture their attention right off the bat.

You’ve really only got 15 seconds to work with — that’s the maximum length of an Instagram Story — so hit the ground running.

Instagram Reels length: 7 to 15 seconds

While Reels can be much longer than Stories — up to a minute in length for most people and 90 seconds for select beta-testers —that same short-attention-span concept applies here. Get to the point quickly, and keep it short.

So, its recommended to not cross the following limits:

Caption	2,200
Hashtag Limit	30 hashtags
Reels Caption	2,200
Ad Text	2,200
Bio	150
Username	30

The best length for YouTube posts

At the end of the day, YouTube is a search engine, meaning it relies on text to order and rank the nearly 500 hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute.

Therefore, in addition to improving video length, marketers must front load their content’s title and description copy with relevant keywords—and that means keeping an eye on character count.

YouTube video length: 7 to 15 minutes

Whether you’re watching movies on YouTube or anywhere else, one of the most important KPIs is retention.

How long do people actually watch? Are viewers finishing your movies at a high rate? If so, you’re doing something right.

Statista reports that the average video is 11.7 minutes long, and the Social Media Examiner supports this as the ideal, writing that videos between 7 and 15 minutes have the best performance.

Of course, there’s more to a great Youtube strategy than just the right length for your video. Here’s everything you need to know about making great Youtube content for your business.

YouTube title length: 70 characters

The most important SEO thing to consider for Youtube is the title of your video.

Include relevant keywords to make sure you’re hitting high rankings in Google and YouTube search, while simultaneously being compelling enough to encourage clicks and views.

J.J. McCullough relevant terms YouTube titles

It’s a tall order! And, P.S., it should be pretty tightly crafted: Influencer Marketing Hub suggests keeping it to 70 characters maximum so that it doesn’t get cut off.

If you need help improving your YouTube title, we’ve got a free AI tool that’ll do it for you. Check out our YouTube title generator for the quickest way to video success.

YouTube description length: 157 characters

The first 100 to 150 characters will show until your video, so optimize that chunk of text with both rich description and lots of intriguing keywords.

Here are the recommendations for YouTube posts:

Video Title	100
Video Description	5,000
Username	20
Bio	1,000
Playlist Title	100

The ideal size and length for Pinterest posts

On Pinterest, image size matters. So does the length of your description.

Pinterest images: 1000 X 1500 pixels

According to Pinterest’s best practices, images on the platform should have a 2:3 aspect ratio, which is how the height and width of an image relate.

Description length: 200 characters

Studies show that descriptions containing about 200 characters receive the most repins.

Your Pinterest caption is your chance to add context, persuade, and sell. It’s your chance to tell a story and conjure emotion, to make a promise. The description is your chance to compel.

A well-written description is also an opportunity to get discovered, so make sure to brush up on your Pinterest SEO best practices.

Don’t go over the limit:

Pin Title	100
Pin Description	500
Username	30
About	160
Board Name	50
Board Description	500

Ideal Snapchat Story length: 15 seconds

Snapchat Story movies can be up to 60 seconds long, but it’s pretty rare for engagement to be high for those (relatively) long-form pieces of content.

Instead, aim for short-and-sweet videos that hit hard off the top, like this hot sauce ad, which clocks in at just 20 seconds but makes a major impact.

Ideal Snapchat video comment length: 50 characters

Captions for snaps can be up to 80 characters, but they’re secondary to the visual content, so don’t stress too much about making the most of this.

Story Length	15
Video Caption	50

Conclusion:

Although best practices are broken down in this post, each social media account is ultimately a different beast. and you are the one who knows it best (or can learn to know it!).

What appeals most to your particular users and following will become clear with time and experimentation. To find out if the character counts recommended in this tutorial are actually the best for you, try conducting A/B tests.

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