How to Add Alt Text to Images in Hootsuite

You spend hours crafting the perfect social post. You pick the right image. You write a sharp caption. Then you hit publish — and most people never actually see your content the way you intend.

Here’s the part most social media managers miss: 2.2 billion people worldwide live with some form of vision impairment, according to the WHO. Screen readers translate visual content into audio for these users. Without alt text, your image is invisible to them. Your post just becomes noise.

But it’s not just an accessibility issue. It’s a reach problem. It’s a discoverability problem. And for teams managing social publishing at scale, it’s a workflow problem too.

Hootsuite now lets you add alt text directly within your publishing flow — no workarounds, no platform-hopping. This guide walks you through exactly how to do it, platform by platform, with best practices that actually move the needle.

What Is Alt Text — And Why It’s Not Optional Anymore

Alt text (short for alternative text) is a written description of an image embedded in your post’s metadata. Screen readers use it to describe images to visually impaired users. Search engines use it to understand and index your visual content. Platforms use it to categorize and surface your posts in relevant feeds.

Think of it as the behind-the-scenes layer that makes your content work harder for everyone.

Here’s what the data says:

• 54.5% of all homepages still have missing alt text for images, according to WebAIM’s 2024 accessibility report. That’s the single most common accessibility violation on the web.
• 4,605 ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2024 alone. Average settlements range from $25,000 to $75,000.
• 81% of visually impaired adults actively use social media, yet most social content is built without them in mind.
• Image search accounts for nearly 27% of all search queries across major platforms — and alt text is a direct ranking factor for those results.

The European Accessibility Act came into force in June 2025. The WCAG 2.2 standard mandates alt text for all informative images. This isn’t a trend. It’s a legal and competitive reality.

Still treating alt text as optional? That’s a risk you can’t afford.

Why Hootsuite Makes Alt Text Easy to Scale

Before Hootsuite built alt text into its Composer workflow, teams had two bad options: add alt text natively inside each platform after publishing (slow, error-prone) or skip it entirely (risky and exclusionary).

Hootsuite changed that. Alt text is now part of your publishing and approval workflow. You add it once, right inside Composer, alongside your caption and scheduling — and it moves through your team’s review process without creating extra steps.

In December 2025, Hootsuite added full alt text support for Instagram single images and carousels directly within its publishing interface. This sits alongside existing support for Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and Facebook — making Hootsuite one of the most complete tools for accessible social publishing.

For teams managing multiple platforms and high content volume, this is significant. You’re not jumping between dashboards. You’re building accessibility into the content creation process itself.

How to Add Alt Text to Images in Hootsuite

Instagram (Single Images and Carousels)

Instagram allows up to 100 characters of alt text per image. Screen readers typically cut off content at 125 characters, so concise descriptions matter here.

Steps:

1. Open Hootsuite and click New Post to open the Composer.
2. Select Instagram as your publishing network.
3. Upload your image using the Media section — drag and drop or select from your media library.
4. Once the image is added, look for the Alt Text field that appears below the image preview.
5. Write a clear, descriptive sentence that captures the subject and context of the image.
6. For carousels, Hootsuite provides a separate alt text field for each individual image. Complete all of them.
7. Proceed through your approval workflow as normal. Alt text travels with the post through review stages.
8. Schedule or publish. The alt text is automatically attached when the post goes live on Instagram.

Pro tip: Instagram’s auto-generated alt text is often too generic (e.g., “person standing near a building”). Always write custom alt text to give your audience and algorithm accurate context.

Facebook

Facebook’s algorithm uses alt text to understand image content and improve content recommendations. Hootsuite supports alt text for Facebook within the same Composer workflow.

Steps:

1. Open Composer and select Facebook Page as your network.
2. Upload your image in the Media section.
3. Once uploaded, an Alt Text option appears alongside the image. Click it to open the alt text field.
4. Write a description focused on the key subject, action, and context within the image.
5. Facebook also auto-generates alt text using object recognition. You can accept this as a starting draft, but editing it for accuracy and relevance is strongly recommended.
6. Continue through your standard publishing workflow and schedule the post.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s audience skews professional, and its algorithm increasingly favors accessible, well-structured content. Proper alt text strengthens both your visibility and your credibility on the platform.

Steps:

1. Open Hootsuite Composer and choose LinkedIn Page or Profile as the destination.
2. Upload your image from the Media section.
3. An Alt Text field appears beneath the image thumbnail.
4. Add a description that reflects the professional context of the image — what it shows, who’s in it, or what data or concept it illustrates.
5. LinkedIn supports longer alt text than Instagram. Aim for clarity over length, but don’t cut off important context.
6. Move through the review and scheduling workflow as usual.

Twitter / X

Twitter/X has supported alt text since 2016, but adoption remains low industry-wide. Hootsuite’s Composer makes it seamless.

Steps:

1. Open Composer and select Twitter/X as your network.
2. Upload your image in the Media section.
3. An Add Alt Text or Create Alt Text button appears directly below the image.
4. Twitter/X allows up to 420 characters of alt text — more room to describe complex visuals like charts, infographics, or event photography.
5. Write your description, then continue scheduling as normal.

Note: Hootsuite limits alt text entry to the New Post / Composer view. If you’re still using an older Hootsuite compose workflow, switch to Composer to access this feature.

Best Practices for Writing Alt Text That Actually Works

Adding alt text is only half the job. Writing it well is where most teams fall short.

Poor alt text reads like this: “Image.jpg” or “Photo of a product.”

Good alt text reads like this: “Two team members reviewing a sales dashboard on a laptop in a modern open-plan office.”

Here’s what makes the difference:

Be specific, not generic. Describe what is actually in the image — the subject, action, setting, and any relevant context. Vague descriptions defeat the purpose.

Front-load the most important information. Screen reader users often stop listening early. Put the essential detail first. If it’s a chart, start with what the chart shows and its key takeaway.

Include text that appears within the image. If your image contains numbers, a headline, or a label, include it in the alt text. A screen reader won’t see it otherwise.

Match the alt text to the purpose of the image. If you’re posting a product shot, describe the product. If you’re posting an event photo, describe who’s in it and what’s happening. Context matters.

Keep it concise but complete. Instagram caps you at 100 characters. Twitter/X gives you 420. Let the platform’s limit guide your length — but don’t pad or cut to hit a number. Serve the user first.

Avoid starting with “image of” or “photo of.” Screen readers already announce it as an image. Jump straight to the description.

Do not keyword stuff. Yes, alt text is an SEO signal — but search engines penalize unnatural keyword usage. Write for the human first. The algorithm benefits will follow.

What Platforms Support Alt Text in Hootsuite Right Now

Not every network supports alt text equally, and Hootsuite’s implementation continues to expand. Here’s the current state:

For video content, Hootsuite also supports SRT closed caption file uploads for LinkedIn Page videos as of December 2025 — extending accessibility features beyond static imagery.

Common Alt Text Mistakes to Stop Making

Even well-intentioned teams make these errors. Watch for them.

Leaving alt text blank. No description is worse than a poor one. Blank alt text means your image is completely inaccessible to screen reader users.

Writing captions instead of descriptions. Alt text is not your caption. Your caption can be playful, branded, conversational. Your alt text needs to be functional and accurate. These serve different purposes.

Identical alt text for every image. If you’re posting a multi-image carousel, each image tells a different part of the story. Write unique alt text for each frame.

Over-describing purely decorative images. If an image is only decorative and adds no informational value, use a null alt attribute (alt=””) so screen readers skip it. Unnecessary narration adds friction for assistive technology users.

Ignoring platform-specific limits. Instagram’s 100-character limit will cut off longer descriptions. Write with the constraint in mind rather than getting cut off mid-sentence.

How Alt Text Impacts Your Social Media SEO

Here’s the business case beyond accessibility.

When Instagram began allowing public content from professional accounts to be indexed by Google in July 2025, alt text became a direct SEO lever for social content — not just a platform accessibility feature. Your Instagram posts can now appear in Google Image Search. Alt text is what Google reads to understand and rank them.

One e-commerce site that added descriptive alt text across 1,000 product images saw a 32% increase in organic traffic from image search within three months, according to data from AllAccessible.

For social teams, this means every image you publish on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook is also a search asset — if you’ve written the alt text to support it.

The math is straightforward: better alt text equals better indexing, better indexing equals more reach, more reach equals more people at the top of your funnel.

Conclusion

Alt text is one of the highest-leverage, lowest-effort improvements you can make to your social media publishing workflow. It takes seconds to write. It affects accessibility, SEO, discoverability, and your brand’s credibility — all at once.

Hootsuite now makes this a native part of your publishing process. There’s no reason to skip it.

The teams winning on social in 2025 and beyond are the ones building inclusive content systems from the ground up — not retrofitting accessibility as an afterthought. Start with alt text. It’s the simplest version of that commitment.

And if you’re looking to go beyond organic reach and build a pipeline that doesn’t depend on algorithms, SalesSo helps growth-focused teams build high-converting outbound campaigns across cold email, LinkedIn, and phone — with the targeting, copy, and infrastructure to scale. Book a strategy meeting and see what a structured outbound system looks like for your goals.