Skip to main content
Publish: Channel-Specific Options

Capabilities for social media posts within Engage

Cheyenne V. avatar
Written by Cheyenne V.
Updated over 2 months ago

This table lists the support for each social media channel in Meltwater Engage when creating new posts from Publish. Learn more about Channel-Specific Options in Engage Conversations.

All text, mentions, hashtags, emojis, and media attachments are validated within Engage, before sending to native channels, to ensure compliance with API limitations enforced by each social channel.

Facebook

Instagram*

LinkedIn

TikTok

X

YouTube

Post Text length
Note A

8,000

2,200

3,000

2,200

280

5000

@mention

Yes

Yes - exact @handle only

Yes

Yes - exact @handle only

Yes

No

Images
Note B

Yes (max 10)

Yes (max 10)

Yes (max 9)

No

Yes (max 4)

No

Links
Note C

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Videos
Note D

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Reels/Shorts

No

Yes

n/a

n/a

No

Yes

Hashtags

No limit

Limit 30 hashtags in caption and the first comment combined

No limit

No limit

No limit

Limit 15 in video description

Emojis

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Animated GIFs
Note F

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Alt Text

Yes (500 characters)

No (Not available in API)

Yes (300 characters)

No

Yes (420 characters)

No

Stories

No (Not available in API)

Yes

No (Not available in API)

No

No (Not available in API)

No

Multilingual
Note H

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

Partial

*Instagram accounts are limited to 25 API-published posts within a 24-hour moving period.


Notes

A. Post text length

  • Instagram

    • A post cannot contain more than 30 hashtags between the caption and first comment, combined.

  • X

    • The following items are included in the message length and will affect the character limit:

      • New non-reply Tweets starting with a @mention.

      • Any @mentions added in the body of the Tweet.

      • Embedded links and URLs typed within the message body.

    • the following items are not included in the message length and won't affect the character limit:

      • When attaching images or videos to the message, the generated URL.

      • Leading spaces before the first character of a message.

  • YouTube

    • The description cannot contain more than 15 hashtags.

B: Image restrictions

All images must be JPG, or PNG format. In addition, be aware of the following channel-specific limitations:

  • Facebook

    • The maximum file size is 8MB

    • PNG images larger than 1MB may appear pixelated

  • Instagram

    • Feed

      • The maximum file size is 8MB

      • Photos must be within a 4:5 to 1.91:1 aspect ratio range

    • Story

      • The maximum file size is 8MB

      • Photos will automatically crop to a 9:16 aspect ratio.

      • Resolution will auto-scale

    • Reel

      • Images are not supported for Instagram Reels

  • LinkedIn

    • The maximum file size is 8MB.

  • TikTok

    • Images are not supported for TikTok

  • X

    • The maximum file size is 5MB.

    • Although X allows multiple images, you cannot mix a GIF image (animated or static) with any other image type.

  • YouTube

    • Images are not supported for YouTube

C: Links

Links are added through the automatic detection of links in all composers (general and channel-specific). If a bit.ly account has been connected, the links can be converted to shorter bit.ly links.

  • Facebook

    • Attached links will appear in a 'card' below the post. At this time, the 'card' can not be edited.

  • LinkedIn

    • Attached links will appear in a 'card' below the post. The 'card' can be edited by customizing the title, description, and Thumbnail for LinkedIn Links.

  • X

    • If X Cards have been enabled for the domain, attached links will appear in a 'card' below the tweet with an image and description. At this time, the 'card' can not be edited. If X Cards have not been enabled, you will receive an error message and the link will need to be embedded.

    • Note: For all links posted to X, the URL will not appear in the body of the post when posted, even if it appears in the body of the post in the Engage Publisher. This is because when posting, X strips the link and attaches it as a 'card' below the post. If two links have been added to a post, only the last link will have a 'card' once posted.

Learn more about the link process here.

D: Video restrictions

The following tables describe channel-specific limitations for videos.

Facebook

  • Max file size: 3GB

  • Video length: Maximum 40 minutes

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

16:9 to 9:16

recommended but not enforced

None specified

None specified

None specified

Hevc or H.264

recommended but not enforced

AAC

None specified

None specified

Instagram - Feed post

  • Max file size: 1GB

Note: Per Instagram, while they do allow videos up to 1GB it is recommended that videos stay under 100MB to decrease the likelihood of post fail.

  • Video length: Min 3 seconds, max 15 minutes

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

Between 0.01:1 and 10:1 will crop those to 9:16 when published

1920 max horizontal pixels

23 fps to 60 fps

25 fps max​​

Hevc or H.264

AAC or 48KHZ

128 kbps

1 or 2

Instagram - Reel

  • Max file size: 1GB

Note: Per Instagram, while they do allow videos up to 1GB it is recommended that videos stay under 100MB to decrease the likelihood of post fail.

  • Video length: Min 3 seconds, max 15 minutes

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

Between 0.01:1 and 10:1 will crop those to 9:16 when published

1920 max horizontal pixels

23 fps to 60 fps

25 fps max​​

Hevc or H.264

AAC or 48KHZ

128 kbps

1 or 2

Instagram - Story

  • Max file size: 100MB

  • Video length: Min 3 seconds, max 15 minutes

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

Between 0.01:1 and 10:1 will crop those to 9:16 when published

1920 max horizontal pixels

23 fps to 60 fps

25 fps max​​

Hevc or H.264

AAC or 48KHZ

None specified

None specified

LinkedIn

  • Max file size: 5GB

  • Video length: Min 3 seconds, max 10 minutes

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

1:2.4 to 2.4:1

min 256x144 max 4096x2304

10 fps to 60 fps

None specified

None specified

None specified

None specified

None specified

TikTok

  • Max file size: 1GB

  • Video length: Min 3 seconds, max 10 minutes

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

None specified

Min height and width 360 px

23 fps to 60 fps

None specified

None specified

None specified

None specified

None specified

X

  • Max file size: 512MB

  • Video length: Min 0.5 seconds, Max 140 seconds

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

1:3 to 3:1

Between 32x32 and 1280x1024

recommended but not enforced

60 fps

None specified

H.264 or HEVC

AAC . recommended but not enforced

None specified

1 or 2

YouTube

  • Max file size: 3GB

  • Video length: Max 15 minutes

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

None specified

None specified

None specified

None specified

H.264

recommended but not enforced

AAC

recommended but not enforced

None specified

None specified

E: Reels / Shorts

Instagram Reel

  • Max file size: 1GB

  • Video length: Min 3 seconds, max 15 minutes

  • File type: MP4, MOV

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

Between 0.01:1 and 10:1 will crop those to 9:16 when published

1920 max horizontal pixels

23 fps to 60 fps

25 fps max​​

Hevc or H.264

AAC or 48KHZ

128 kbps

1 or 2

YouTube Short

  • Max file size: 3GB

  • Video length: Max 60 seconds

  • File type: MP4, MOV

  • NOTE: There is no specific workflow to make the video appear as a YouTube short. The video will show up natively as a short as long as it is >60 seconds long and in portrait orientation.

Aspect Ratio

Dimensions/Resolution

Max. Frame Rate

Video Bitrate

Video Codec

Audio Codec

Audio Bitrate

Audio Channels

None specified

None specified

None specified

None specified

H.264

recommended but not enforced

AAC

recommended but not enforced

None specified

None specified

F: Animated GIFs

Limit 1 GIF attachment per post.

Channel

Aspect Ratio

Max. Size

Max. Resolution

Formats

Facebook

4:5 to 1.91:1

(recommended)

8MB

1200x630

GIF

LinkedIn

4:5 to 1.91:1

4MB

1200x627

GIF

X

4:5 to 1.91:1

15MB

1200x675

GIF

  • X: Although you can attach multiple images to a Tweet, you can only have a single GIF. You also cannot mix a GIF image (animated or static) with any other image type.

G: Instagram Stories

  • Using the web app only - Learn More

  • Using the web app and mobile app together - Learn More

  • You can publish 1 media file (image or video) at a time for Instagram stories.

  • Instagram stories do not support descriptions, unique links, or first comments.

H: Multilingual

  • When creating content to publish, you can publish in any language.

  • Engage does not auto-translate text before you publish content.

I: Tagging Pages/Profiles

When creating content to publish, you can use an @mention:

  • When using @mention for Facebook, you are only able to tag pages, not specific profiles. This is an API limitation for Facebook.

  • For X, you are able to mention any public account that has not blocked your page.

  • When using @mention for LinkedIn, you can tag pages and profiles.

    • LinkedIn personal profiles must have certain settings enabled in order to be @mentioned:

      • Personal profiles must follow your page

      • Personal profiles must have Off-LinkedIn Visibility setting turned on

    • When creating your mentions please keep in mind the following functionality

      • The input is case-sensitive.

      • Multiple words should be joined using a space.

      • Numeric characters, wildcards, and Boolean logic are not allowed.

      • There is a minimum length of 3 characters if no special characters are included, and a minimum of 6 characters if including special characters.

  • You are not able to use the cross-channel compose box for @mentions. You will need to use the individual post compose box by selecting "Edit" under the post preview panel shown below:


💡 Tip

Need more help? Feel free to reach out to us via Live Chat or check out our Customer Community.

Find answers and get help from Meltwater Support and Community Experts.


Did this answer your question?