Facebook cover photos are all about first impressions. The first thing prospective fans see when they visit your page is your cover photo, therefore its the first connection to your brand and indication of your services/offerings they experience.
So will they be impressed?
They won’t be if your cover photo is low-quality, random or out-of-date.
Remember:
You’ll never get second chance to make a first impression!
So make sure your cover photo is:
- High Quality
- Representative of your Brand
- Current
Let’s break those three points down:
High Quality
Whether you use a photograph or an image you created, your cover photo needs to be high quality.
You can start by using an image that’s the right size — 851 pixels by 315 pixels.
If you upload an image that’s smaller than these dimensions, Facebook will expand it and the results are…well, blurry at best.
The best — and cheapest — way to produce a great cover photo is to just use your camera & take a photo of your business or your employees. But make sure your logo is prominent in the image (or just photoshop it in later).
If you don’t have a location or employees, then use a high-quality background with some text & your logo layered on top.
There are some great tools out there to create cover photos for those of us who are “graphically challenged”.
I’d recommend the inexpensive Timeline Slicer Pro or Cover My Timeline. Cover My Timelines doesn’t require you to install an app, but they do add their logo to every image.
Representative of Your Brand
If you sell kayaks, then it makes sense to show kayaks on your Facebook cover photo. It doesn’t make sense to show of Ford trucks. This seems intuitive, but it’s surprising how often brands sway from their product or mission.
Remember: your cover photo is your #1 branding opportunity on your Timeline — and in the “Like” stories that show your page in the News Feed.
It only makes good business sense then for the cover to include images & text ABOUT YOUR BRAND.
An consistent example of good cover photo branding is Coca-Cola.
Current
I see a lot of page owners loading a cover photo and then never changing it. This doesn’t make sense to me — and is a poor use of the space and opportunity. When you’re driving on the highway, do you notice how often billboards get changed? It happens all the time, even when the brand doesn’t change.
Why?
Because our minds tend to tune out images that we’ve seen over & over once they become part of our everyday routine. The same thing applies to cover photos on Facebook.
Red Bull changes their cover photo often and typically to suit seasonal sports, activities, and signature Red Bull events. Their photos reflect their brand in a timely manner and keep people interested and excited about what’s next to come from the company.
Great Cover Photo Checklist
So there you have it. Great cover photos on Facebook are:
- High Quality
- Representative of your Brand
- Current
And as always, remember the 20% text rule.