What makes a good social media post is one clear point that a person can read in about two seconds on a phone. In design terms that means a single message, a headline that is clearly the largest thing in the frame, text with strong contrast against its background, the brand visible, and a shape that fits the network. Everything else is refinement.
This guide covers social media post design for still images. Each principle is tied to published guidance or research where it exists: Meta's help pages for image ads, Nielsen Norman Group's usability research, the W3C contrast standard, and the creative guidance from Pinterest and TikTok. Sources were opened and checked in October 2026. Where the evidence is thin or the sources disagree, that is said plainly.
Every principle comes with a worked example. They all use Trailnote, an invented running log app, so the names, numbers and quotes in the examples are made up. After the principles you will find the contrast and type size numbers, layout recipes for the three posts an app has, a ten point checklist and the mistakes that come up most often.
Do still image posts still work?
Yes, on most networks. Buffer's 2026 analysis of more than 45 million posts compared median engagement rates by format. The picture for a single still image is better than the talk about video suggests.
| Network | Still image | Compared with | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.20% | Video 4.84%, text 4.76% | Images are the leading format | |
| 4.4% of reach | Carousels 6.9%, Reels 3.3% | Stills beat Reels on engagement rate, though Reels reach 2.25 times as many people | |
| 6.52% | Document carousels 21.77%, text 3.18% | An image doubles a text post, and a carousel beats both | |
| X | 3.40% | Text 3.56%, video 2.96% | Close to text, ahead of video |
| Threads | 4.55% | Video 5.55%, text 2.79% | Well ahead of text alone |
| 3.15% | Video 5.75% | Works, but video Pins earn more | |
| TikTok | 1.92% (photos and carousels) | Video 3.39% | The one network where stills clearly lose |
So the still image is worth designing well. A carousel is a set of still images, which means every principle below applies to each slide.
What makes a good social media post: nine design principles
1. One message per post
Decide what the post is for before you open a design tool: announce an update, show a review, mark a milestone, explain one feature. Meta's guidance on text overlays tells advertisers not to communicate too many messages, because an ad usually has only one call to action. The same logic holds for a free post. If you need three points, make three posts or a carousel.
Worked example. Trailnote ships version 3.2 with route sharing, a new watch face and a list of bug fixes. The first draft of the post puts all three under the headline "What is new in 3.2". The rebuilt post says "Share a route in one tap" and shows the share card. The watch face becomes its own post the following week, and the fixes stay in the caption. One release gives two posts, and each can be understood without the other.
2. A headline that is clearly the biggest thing
Size tells the eye what matters. Nielsen Norman Group's principles of visual design recommend using no more than three sizes in a composition and making the most important element the largest. Their article on visual hierarchy adds a test you can run in five seconds: squint at the design, or blur it, and check that the thing you see first is the thing you meant.
In practice: one headline, one supporting line, one small line for the app name or the source. If two elements compete for first place, shrink one of them.
Worked example. In the first Trailnote draft the app name, the headline and three bullet points were set at nearly the same size, so the squint test showed one even grey block. The fix used three sizes: a headline about three times the height of the supporting line, and a supporting line about one and a half times the small print. Squinting now shows one dark shape at the top, the cropped screen in the middle and a small mark in the corner. That matches the rule of thumb in the visual design article: small, medium and large elements, with two or three type sizes.
3. Few words, with the important ones first
People do not read posts, they scan them. In Jakob Nielsen's classic study of how people read on the web, 79% of test users scanned a new page and only 16% read word by word. Later eyetracking research on scanning patterns found that readers fixate on headings and on the first words of lines. Meta says the same about its own feeds in its best practices for image ads: "People scan Feed quickly, particularly on mobile devices."
Aim for a headline of four to eight words and put the specific part first. "Offline maps are here" reads faster than "We are excited to announce offline maps". Numbers help because digits stand out from letters: "2 taps to split a bill" beats "Splitting bills is now easier".
Worked example. The draft headline was "We are thrilled to announce that Trailnote now lets you share your favorite routes with friends", which is 16 words. Cut the announcement first, then the adjectives, then anything the picture already shows. What remains is "Share a route in one tap", 6 words. The words a scanning reader lands on first are now "Share a route", which is the news.
4. Contrast you can measure
Low contrast text is easy to miss while you design on a large bright monitor, and it is the easiest problem to check. The W3C contrast standard (WCAG 2.2, level AA) asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 between text and background, or 3 to 1 for large text, which it defines as 18 point or 14 point bold. The rule covers text inside images too. Logos are exempt.
Text placed on a photo or a screenshot is where this fails. Nielsen Norman Group's guidance on text over images lists fixes: a dark semi transparent layer over the image, a blur behind the text, or a gradient that darkens the bottom edge. Test the lightest image you will ever use, since a treatment that works on one photo can fail on the next. Any free contrast checker will give you the ratio from two color values.
Worked example. Trailnote's brand color is an orange, #F97316. White text on it measures 2.80 to 1 in WebAIM's contrast checker, which fails even the threshold for large text. There are two ways out that keep the brand. Set the text in near black (#111827), which measures 6.32 to 1. Or keep the white text and darken the background to #C2410C, which measures 5.17 to 1. Both pass at any text size. More pairs are in the contrast table further down.
5. Space and a short list of colors
Empty space is what lets a headline stand out. Nielsen Norman Group's hierarchy article suggests limiting a simple design to about two primary and two secondary colors and no more than three type sizes. Spreadcast's own teardown of 35 high performing creatives points the same way: 89% of the posts in that set had high or extreme whitespace, and 86% used a minimal or strictly brand focused palette. That sample is small and comes from product marketing, so read it as a pattern and not as proof.
Worked example. The Trailnote draft had a gradient background, a photo of a runner, three accent colors and a ribbon across one corner. The rebuild kept one background color, one text color and the orange for a single underline. Every element was then pulled into three groups with clear gaps between them: the headline with its supporting line, the cropped screen, and the icon with the app name. The same hierarchy article explains why this helps: things placed close together are read as one unit, so three groups read as three things to look at, in order.
6. Show the product so it can be read, or leave it out
Meta's image ad page recommends showing people using your product and cropping tightly around the important part of the image. The teardown found something different: 60% of the posts in that set showed no product at all. The two can be reconciled. A full phone screenshot shrunk into a feed post is unreadable, so it adds clutter without adding information. One cropped part of the screen, large enough to read, does the job Meta describes.
If you put the screenshot inside an iPhone, Apple's marketing guidelines apply: use the device images Apple provides without modifying them, show the app as it really looks, and keep the device at least 200 pixels tall on screen. A summary is in the App Store marketing guidelines guide.
Worked example. The route sharing screen in Trailnote is a full map with a toolbar, a stats panel and a share button. Shown whole, the share button is a speck. The post uses only the bottom third of the screen: the card with the route name, the distance and the share button, enlarged to the full width of the canvas. Text inside the crop is now about as large as it is in the app.
7. The brand on every post
Two platforms say this directly. Meta advises showing your brand or logo because people engage more with brands they know. Pinterest's creative best practices ask for the logo or brand name to be clearly visible on every ad without dominating it. For an app, the brand kit is short: the app icon, the app name, one or two colors taken from the icon, and one typeface. Use the same set every time so a follower recognizes the post before reading it. If you have never written those choices down, see what a brand kit needs.
Worked example. Trailnote's icon and name sit in the bottom left corner of every post, at the same size and with the same margin. A quick test: cover the name with your thumb and ask whether a follower would still know whose post it is from the color, the typeface and the icon. If the answer is no, the brand lives in the caption and not in the image. Holding that line over months of posting is the subject of brand consistency without a design team.
8. The right shape, with nothing important at the edges
Meta's aspect ratio guidance says images should cover as much of the screen as possible and recommends vertical 4:5 for single image ads in Facebook Feed. Pinterest's product specs recommend 2:3 at 1000 by 1500 pixels. TikTok's creative best practices call for 9:16. A square post gives up screen area on all three. One nuance: the same Meta page still recommends 1:1 for single image ads in Instagram Feed while supporting 4:5 there, so test both if you run ads. Pinterest has its own logic, explained in the Pinterest guide for app founders.
Edges get covered by buttons, captions and profile icons. Meta's text overlay page says that for Instagram Feed ads in 1:1 or 4:5, key elements, text and logos should stay clear of the bottom and side edges. A rule of thumb that is safe on every network: keep text and logos inside the middle 80% of the frame. Exact pixel sizes are in the social media image sizes guide.
Worked example. On a 1080 by 1350 canvas, 10% of the width is 108 pixels and 10% of the height is 135 pixels. Guides at those distances leave a safe area of 864 by 1080 pixels in the middle. Trailnote's headline, crop, icon and call to action all sit inside it, and only the background color runs to the edge. When the same post is needed as a Pin, the layout is rebuilt at 1000 by 1500 with guides at 100 and 150 pixels. It is never stretched.
9. One call to action and proof that is specific
TikTok's guidance tells advertisers to end with a clear call to action, and Meta's assumes one per ad. On a still image the call to action is a short line near the bottom, such as "Update now on the App Store". If you use the App Store badge, Apple's marketing guidelines allow one badge per layout, placed so it is not the dominant artwork, and at least 40 pixels tall on screen.
Proof works when it is exact. "4.8 stars from 2,300 ratings" persuades. "Loved by users" does not. Apple's ratings and reviews page sets two rules here: a rating used in marketing must reflect the current rating, and a customer review may be used only with the reviewer's permission.
Worked example. The first Trailnote milestone post said "Runners love us" above a button shape that read "Download". The rebuild says "4.8 stars from 2,300 ratings", with the date in small print and one line at the bottom: "Get Trailnote on the App Store". The position follows the teardown set, where 71% of creatives carried a call to action. Of those, 40% placed it at the bottom of the frame and 29% centered it.
Social media design tips: the do and do not table
| Do | Do not | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Make one point per image | Pack an update, a review and a discount into one frame | Meta: avoid too many messages, an ad usually has one call to action |
| Use up to three type sizes with the headline largest | Set everything at a similar size | Nielsen Norman Group: no more than three sizes, most important largest |
| Write a headline of four to eight words | Paste a paragraph of release notes onto the image | Nielsen: 79% of users scan, 16% read word by word |
| Check for 4.5 to 1 contrast, or 3 to 1 for large text | Put white text straight onto a light screenshot | W3C WCAG 2.2, criterion 1.4.3 |
| Darken or blur the image behind text | Trust that one photo test covers every photo | Nielsen Norman Group: test the lightest image you will use |
| Stay with about two main colors and two secondary ones | Add a new accent color for every post | Nielsen Norman Group on visual hierarchy |
| Crop one part of the screen so it is readable | Shrink a whole screenshot into a corner | Meta: crop tightly around the important part |
| Show the app icon and name on every post | Leave the post unbranded and hope the caption explains it | Meta and Pinterest: brand or logo visible |
| Use 4:5 for feeds, 2:3 for Pinterest, 9:16 for TikTok | Post one square image everywhere | Meta, Pinterest and TikTok specifications |
| Keep text away from the bottom and side edges | Place the call to action against the bottom edge | Meta: keep bottom and side edges free on Instagram Feed |
| Quote a review only with the reviewer's permission | Copy a review off the App Store without asking | Apple: reviews in marketing need the reviewer's permission |
| Show a rating only while it is current | Keep posting last year's higher rating | Apple: the rating must reflect the current rating |
How much text should go on a social media image?
Older guides repeat a rule that text must cover less than 20% of an ad image. Whatever limit applied before, Meta's best practices page for image ads now carries a note that there is no longer a limit on the amount of text in an ad image. What remains is a recommendation: text should not obstruct the visual, and it should be set in a clean font, at a large enough size, in a contrasting color.
A practical ceiling for a 1080 by 1350 post is about 20 words on the image: a headline, one supporting line and the app name. The caption carries the rest. If you find yourself reducing the type size to fit the words, cut words.
Font size and contrast for social media posts: the W3C numbers
No network publishes a minimum font size for social media posts. The closest thing to a standard is the W3C's accessibility guidance, which sets contrast thresholds by text size and says they apply to images of text as well as to live text. A feed post with a headline on it is an image of text.
| Element in the post | Minimum (level AA) | Enhanced (level AAA) | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal text | 4.5 to 1 | 7 to 1 | Supporting line, bullet points, small print |
| Large text: 18 point, or 14 point bold | 3 to 1 | 4.5 to 1 | Headline, the big number in a milestone post |
| Graphics needed to understand the content | 3 to 1 | No separate level | Stars in a rating, arrows, chart lines |
| Logo or brand name | No requirement | No requirement | App icon and wordmark |
The first two rows come from the contrast criterion already cited and from the enhanced contrast criterion. The third is the non text contrast criterion. The W3C also explains where 4.5 comes from: 3 to 1 is taken as the minimum for people with normal vision, and 20/40 vision is associated with a loss of contrast sensitivity of about 1.5 times, so 3 times 1.5 gives 4.5. The same reasoning for 20/80 vision gives 7 to 1.
A feed is read on a small screen, often outdoors, by people of every age, so treat the minimum as a floor. Three details matter in practice. The ratios are thresholds and are not rounded, so 4.499 to 1 fails. The scale runs from 1 to 1 up to 21 to 1, which is black on white. And brand colors get no pass: logos are exempt, but the W3C states that text with too little contrast because of brand guidelines is not. If your brand color fails against white, use it as a background for dark text or as an accent, and let another color carry the words.
What counts as large text on a post
The W3C defines large text as 18 point, or 14 point bold, and equates those to about 24 and 18.5 CSS pixels. Those are sizes on a screen. A post is a picture that gets scaled, so the point size you type into a design tool means little. For images of text the W3C gives a relative rule: large text should be roughly 150% of the default size for body text, or 120% when bold. Apple's typography guidance supplies the body size on an iPhone: 17 points by default and 11 points at minimum. It also advises against light font weights, which are hard to see when text is small.
Together these give a test that needs no arithmetic. Place one of your own iPhone screenshots on the canvas at full width. The body text inside it is your reference, because that is roughly how large the app's own text appears when a post fills the width of a phone. No line on your post should be smaller than the smallest label in that screenshot. The supporting line should be at least as large as the screenshot's body text. Only text one and a half times that size, or 1.2 times in bold, should be held to the lower 3 to 1 threshold. Then delete the screenshot. If you want pixel values to start from, the guide to app social media post design has a type scale for a 1080 pixel canvas.
Contrast ratios for ten common color pairs
These pairs were measured in October 2026 with WebAIM's contrast checker, which takes two hex values and reports the ratio with a pass or fail for normal text, large text and graphics. The colors are typical bright brand colors. The pattern is the useful part: white text fails on most bright mid tones.
| Text color | Background | Ratio | Normal text | Large text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White #FFFFFF | Orange #F97316 | 2.80 to 1 | Fails | Fails |
| Near black #111827 | Orange #F97316 | 6.32 to 1 | Passes | Passes |
| White #FFFFFF | Dark orange #C2410C | 5.17 to 1 | Passes | Passes |
| White #FFFFFF | Bright blue #3B82F6 | 3.67 to 1 | Fails | Passes |
| White #FFFFFF | Deeper blue #2563EB | 5.16 to 1 | Passes | Passes |
| White #FFFFFF | Green #22C55E | 2.27 to 1 | Fails | Fails |
| White #FFFFFF | Yellow #FACC15 | 1.53 to 1 | Fails | Fails |
| Near black #111827 | Yellow #FACC15 | 11.5 to 1 | Passes | Passes |
| Light grey #9CA3AF | White #FFFFFF | 2.53 to 1 | Fails | Fails |
| Mid grey #767676 | White #FFFFFF | 4.54 to 1 | Passes | Passes |
Three habits follow from the table. On orange, yellow and light green, use dark text. On blue, pick the deeper shade if any of the text is small. And never set small print in light grey on white, however refined it looks on a large monitor.
How to design social media posts for an app: update, review and milestone
An app produces three kinds of news without any extra work from you. Each one has an obvious hero element, which makes the hierarchy easy.
App update post
- Hero: the change, in four to eight words ("Dark mode is here").
- Support: two or three short points taken from the release notes, each under eight words.
- Visual: one screenshot cropped to the new feature. Do not show the whole app.
- Small: app icon, app name and the version number.
- Call to action: "Update on the App Store".
Good release notes make this post easy to write. There are patterns to copy in the app release notes examples and finished layouts in the app update announcement examples.
Review post
- Hero: the quote, cut to the one sentence that says something specific. Twenty words is plenty.
- Support: five stars drawn large enough to count at a glance.
- Small: the reviewer's name as they agreed to be credited, plus app icon and name.
- Background: a plain brand color. A quote on top of a screenshot rarely passes the contrast test.
- Permission: get it before you post, as Apple requires. Without it, post the rating alone.
Rating milestone post
- Hero: the number ("4.8" or "1,000 ratings"), set as large as the frame allows.
- Support: a short thank you line.
- Small: app icon, app name and the date, since a rating changes over time.
- Leave out: screenshots, feature lists and a second message. The number is the post.
Layout recipes on a 1080 by 1350 canvas
The same three zones serve all three posts, and only what fills them changes. The shares of the canvas are starting points to adjust by eye. The last row shows the wording for Trailnote, with an invented reviewer.
| Zone | App update post | Review post | Rating milestone post |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top, about 35% of the height | Headline of four to eight words, then one supporting line | Five stars and a short label such as "App Store review" | A short lead in line, such as "Thank you" |
| Middle, about 45% | One cropped screen in a rounded frame, as wide as the margins allow | The quote, set as the largest text on the canvas | The number, as large as the width allows |
| Bottom, about 20% | Icon, app name and "Update on the App Store" | Reviewer's name, icon and app name | Icon, app name and the date |
| Background | One brand color or a neutral | One brand color, no image | One brand color, no image |
| Largest element | The headline | The quote | The number |
| Example wording | "Share a route in one tap" | "I finally stopped losing my long runs." Dana R. | "4.8 stars from 2,300 ratings" |
A launch post uses the update recipe with a large icon in place of the crop. There are finished versions in the app launch announcement examples.
Social media post design ideas
When the feed starts to feel repetitive, change the treatment and keep the brand. These eight treatments each follow one or more of the nine principles, so a feed can vary from post to post and still read as one account.
| Idea | What it looks like | Use it for | The principle it leans on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big number | One figure filling the middle of the frame, a short label above it, the source and date in small print | Ratings, a time saved, a count you can verify | 2. A headline that is clearly the biggest thing |
| Quote card | One sentence in large type on a flat brand color, with a name underneath | Reviews you have permission to use, a line from a press piece | 4. Contrast you can measure |
| Headline and crop | Four to eight words on top, one enlarged piece of the screen below | Updates and feature posts | 6. Show the product so it can be read |
| Before and after split | The frame divided in two: the old way on one side, the new way on the other, one word label each | A redesign, a fix for a common annoyance | 1. One message per post |
| Short checklist | Three to five ticked lines, each under six words | Tips, setup steps, what is in a release | 3. Few words, important ones first |
| Comparison table | Two columns and three rows, your column marked in the accent color | A manual way against the app's way | 5. Space and a short list of colors |
| Text only statement | A single sentence in the brand typeface and nothing else | A note from the maker, a position you hold | 2 and 5 together |
| Carousel cover | A promise on slide one, such as "3 ways to log a run faster", with the same header on every slide after it | Anything with steps | 1. One message per slide |
For layouts written for apps with example copy, see the ten recipes in app social media post design. For what a set of strong creatives has in common, see the creative teardowns.
How to design social media posts on Canva
Canva is where many small teams make their posts, and each principle above can be set up there once instead of remembered every time. The steps use features described on Canva's own help pages, checked in October 2026. Several of them need a paid plan.
- Start from a custom size of 1080 by 1350 pixels rather than a square template, so the post is 4:5 from the first click.
- Set up the Brand Kit with your colors, fonts and logo. Canva's Brand Kit help page says its Brand Kit Builder, on Pro and higher plans, can pull these from your website or from a PDF of brand guidelines. Check what it extracts before you rely on it.
- Turn on guides. On a computer, File, then Rulers and guides, shows rulers in pixels, and dragging from a ruler adds a guide. Place guides 108 pixels in from the sides and 135 from the top and bottom for the safe area in principle 8.
- Build one layout per post type and use only three text styles in it: headline, supporting line and small print.
- Check contrast outside Canva, in a contrast checker, with the hex codes from your kit.
- Resize for other networks with Magic Resize, which is on Pro and higher plans. Each use counts against the monthly AI allowance, and the result is a starting point: move text back inside the new shape's safe area before you export.
- Make a batch with Bulk Create. It fills a template from a CSV or XLSX file, a Canva Sheet or a table you type, with one design per row and up to 150 data fields. It is on Pro and higher plans, and a selection from a Canva Sheet is capped at 300 rows.
Bulk Create suits posts that share a structure and change only the words, such as a set of tips or a month of feature posts. Keep the headline column short in the spreadsheet, because a long line can overflow its text box, and look at every design in the preview step before creating them.
If Canva is not the right fit for your team, the Canva alternatives roundup compares the other options.
How to create social media posts with AI
Chat assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT are good at the word side of these principles: cutting a 16 word headline to six, writing five versions to choose from, turning release notes into two short points. Ask for headlines of four to eight words with the specific part first, and paste in your voice rules so the result sounds like you.
The image side is harder. OpenAI's image generation guide lists the limits of its own image models: text can still come out imprecisely placed or unclear, recurring brand elements may not stay consistent from one image to the next, and layout sensitive compositions are hard to control. Those map onto principles 2, 4 and 7. A generated image with a garbled headline or a slightly different logo each week breaks the brand faster than posting nothing.
The approach that holds up is to let the assistant write and let a fixed layout carry the design. Paste the headline into your template, or connect the assistant to a tool that lays out your real assets. Spreadcast's social media MCP server does the second: from Claude or ChatGPT it designs posts and carousels in your app's brand, using its icon, screenshots in an iPhone frame, colors and fonts, in 11 kinds of layout, and it makes no AI photos. Results are saved as drafts you approve. The Claude for social media page shows that workflow from start to finish.
A prompt for headline drafts
"Here are the release notes for version 3.2 of Trailnote, a running log app. Write five headlines for a feed image. Each is four to eight words, covers one change and puts the benefit first. No exclamation marks, and no words like excited or thrilled." Then run the two second read from the checklist below on each draft and keep the one you can repeat after a glance.
What makes a social media post effective beyond the image
The image stops the scroll, and the caption decides what happens next. Feeds show only the opening of a caption before cutting it off, so the first line has to work alone. Say what changed or why it matters in that line, and leave greetings out.
Know the limits before writing. Meta's Instagram publishing reference allows captions of up to 2,200 characters. On hashtags the official pages disagree: that reference still lists 30, while Instagram's help page on hashtags says you can use up to 5 on a post and that a comment carrying more will not post. Write to five, and pick tags that describe the post over broad ones.
Write a caption for each network instead of pasting one everywhere. A LinkedIn post can explain the reason behind a change in a few short paragraphs, while a Pin description should say what someone will find when they tap. The social media caption generator covers length and structure for each network.
Social media post checklist: ten checks before you publish
Each check takes a few seconds. A post that fails one goes back to the design file before it goes anywhere else.
| Check | How to test it | If it fails |
|---|---|---|
| One message | Say what the post is about in one sentence without the word "and" | Split it into two posts |
| Two second read | Shrink the image to the width of a phone, look away, then look at it for two seconds | Shorten the headline until you can repeat it |
| Hierarchy | Squint or blur the image. You should see the headline first, the visual second, the brand third | Enlarge the headline or shrink whatever competes with it |
| Word count | Count the words on the image. About 20 is the ceiling | Move the rest to the caption |
| Contrast | Put the text and background colors into a contrast checker and look for 4.5 to 1, or 3 to 1 for large text | Darken the background or switch to dark text |
| Text over an image | Find the lightest area behind the words and check the contrast there | Add a dark layer behind the text or move it onto a flat color |
| Edges | Turn on guides at 10% from each side. Nothing important sits outside them | Pull the element inside the guides |
| Shape | 4:5 for feeds, 2:3 for Pinterest, 9:16 for TikTok and Stories | Rebuild the layout in that shape. Do not crop or stretch |
| Brand | Compare with your last three posts: same typeface, same colors, icon in the same corner | Fix the template, then the post |
| Proof and permission | The rating matches today's listing, and the reviewer has agreed to be quoted | Update the number, or post the rating without the quote |
Common social media design mistakes and how to fix them
| Mistake | Why it costs you | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Judging the design zoomed in on a large monitor | You approve it at several times the size anyone will see it | Check at phone width before every export |
| The app name as the headline | A stranger learns a name and nothing about the benefit | Lead with what the user gets and keep the name in small print |
| Release notes pasted onto the image | Most people scan and very few read word by word, so a paragraph in a feed goes unread | Choose one change for the image and list the rest in the caption |
| A thin or light typeface for elegance | Thin strokes look fainter than their color value suggests, and Apple advises against light weights at small sizes | Use regular weight or heavier, and bold for the headline |
| A whole screenshot inside a tilted phone | The interface is too small to read, and Apple asks for its device images to be used unmodified | Crop one part of the screen, or show Apple's device frame straight on |
| One square image posted to every network | It gives up screen area in Facebook Feed, on Pinterest and on TikTok | Keep three templates: 4:5, 2:3 and 9:16 |
| A new accent color for each post | The feed stops looking like one product | Two main colors and two secondary ones, used every time |
| Stars too small or too pale to count | The rating is the point of the post, and graphics that carry meaning need 3 to 1 contrast | Draw the stars at the size of the supporting line in a solid color |
| Last year's rating still on the template | Apple allows a rating in marketing only while it reflects the current one | Check the App Store listing on the day you post |
Most of these have one cause: the post was designed once, by eye, under time pressure. A template that already has the sizes, colors, margins and corner for the icon built in removes most of them before they happen.
Once the design holds up, the remaining decisions are where and when to post it. Those are covered in how to promote an app on social media and in the guide to the best social media platform for app promotion.
Where Spreadcast fits
Spreadcast applies these rules for the three posts an app has. You paste your App Store link at the start page and it checks the public listing every day. A new version becomes an update post with the release notes cut to two or three points and your own screenshot. A new 5 star review becomes a review post, and one that quotes the reviewer's words waits for your approval. A rating milestone becomes a thank you post, and a quiet week gets a feature post. Each is a 1080 by 1350 still image or a carousel of 3 to 8 slides with real typeset text, using your icon, your real screenshots in an iPhone frame and the colors read from the icon, with a caption written for each network. The free plan gives you drafts to download, and Pro at $29 a month publishes them. It designs no video, though it can publish a video you upload.