Tutorial on creating a facebook cover photo for beginners

When people visit your Facebook page, the first thing that catches their eye is your cover photo.  Located at the top of your company page, it takes up a quarter of the screen on most desktop browsers, and is the first chance you, as a business, have to engage a customer.  Whether you’re using Facebook to create a community, close a sale, or generate leads, it’s vital that your cover photo does the job it’s intended for.  With this in mind, keep reading for a list of Facebook cover photo essentials.

 

beginner's guide to creating a  Facebook Cover Photo

 

Abide By Facebook’s Guidelines

Facebook are continually changing their guidelines so make sure to check out the current Facebook rules page before designing a cover photo.  At present, they require cover photos to represent your brand, without being misleading or infringing on anyone’s copyright.  Facebook can and will remove Facebook pages that don’t abide by their rules, which is the last thing any business owner wants.

 

Make Sure Your Cover Photo is the Right Size

If you’ve ever tried to crop a Facebook profile picture to fit into a square, you’ll know how hard it can be to keep everything in the photo.  This also applies to cover photos.  The current Facebook cover image size is 315 pixels tall by 851 pixels wide.  Either set these standards prior to designing a cover photo, or download a template that already has them set.

 

Integrate Your Cover Photo with Your Profile Picture

This won’t work for every company, but if you can integrate your cover photo with your profile picture, you’re sure to impress your fans.  The Simpsons Facebook page did this very successfully (photo above).

 

Include Hashtags

Hashtags may be synonymous with Twitter, but Facebook has also integrated hashtags onto their platform this year.  By including hashtags in your cover photo, your fans will be encouraged to use them elsewhere on the site.  When done correctly, this can improve the discoverability of your page.  Try not to use more than one or two though, as this can look unprofessional andconfusing for users.

 

Include a Call to Action

Some businesses and brands are choosing to place a call to action in their cover photo.  This could be something like ‘click here to download our ebook’ or ‘sign up to our newsletter to receive a discount voucher’.  Although Facebook photos cannot be hyperlinked, you can include a link to the off-site page within the cover description.  You can update your Facebook cover photo with a new call to action whenever you need to promote something.

 

Use Photos Over Text

In July, Facebook removed their rule which stated that only 20% of a cover photo could be text.  This rule has since been removed, but it’s still advisable to create a cover photo that is engaging and bright, over a cover photo that is rammed with text.  Keep the text on your cover photo concise, and focus on engaging people through your design and photos instead.


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