How to Create Social Media Images That Get Shared

Platform Image Size Reference

When someone shares your link on social media, the preview image often determines whether others click. A compelling OG image can increase click-through 2–3x compared to no image. Yet most sites either don’t set OG images or use a single generic image for every page. Each piece of content should have a unique, descriptive preview that communicates what the reader will find. It’s essentially a thumbnail for your content.

Designing Effective OG Images

The universal safe size is 1200×630 pixels (1.91:1 ratio). This works across Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Discord, Slack, and iMessage. Design with generous padding — platforms crop differently, so keep critical content in the center 80%. Include your page title in large text (previews are often shown small on mobile), a subtle brand element, and if relevant, a supporting visual. Avoid small text or detailed graphics — they’re illegible at preview sizes.

Automated Image Generation

For sites with many pages, manual creation doesn’t scale. Use templates with dynamic text injection. The Social Media Image Generator creates branded preview images automatically from your page title and colors. For advanced setups, tools like @vercel/og generate images at the edge using HTML/CSS templates. Define your template once, and every page gets a unique branded preview.

Testing Social Previews

Test OG images before publishing. Use Facebook Sharing Debugger (developers.facebook.com/tools/debug) for Facebook previews, Twitter Card Validator for X, LinkedIn Post Inspector for LinkedIn. Add meta tags: og:image with absolute URL, og:image:width and og:image:height, and twitter:card set to ‘summary_large_image’. Clear platform caches manually after changing your OG image.