Guide to Creating the Best Facebook Cover Photos for Business
Raise your hand if you have a Facebook business page but aren’t really sure what to do with your cover photo. This is a common problem that we often get asked about so today we’ve put together some tips and suggestions to help local business owners design and create the best Facebook Cover Photos for your Business.
Not sure what a cover photo is or why it’s important? On Facebook, and most other social media platforms, the cover photo is the largest image you see when you are on any business page. In fact, when someone visits your social pages, the cover photo is often the first thing they’ll see.
On Facebook, the cover photo displays at 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall on computers and 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall on smartphones. This is a large portion of your Facebook page and it is always “above the fold”, meaning visitors will never have to scroll down to see it.
Tips to Create the Best Facebook Cover Photos
Facebook covers are basically a big online billboard that your business gets to use for free. Since it’s free to use, many people overlook it’s importance. Instead of ignoring it, use this space to deliver a targeted message and clear call to action to your customers and potential customers.
Let’s dig deeper on how you can use cover photo to your advantage in order to attract more customers from social media.
Have a Purpose for Your Facebook Cover Photo
If you’re trying to create the best Facebook covers photos, start by determining the purpose of your cover photo.
Not sure where to start? Ask yourself, “what message do I want this cover photo to deliver? Like a billboard, your cover photo is large and will get seen, so you should use it to achieve your marketing goals.
Most businesses waste their cover photo space by putting a generic photo up to fill the space, even though there is no marketing reason or purpose for the image. That would be similar to having a billboard with just a pretty image, but no business logo, contact information, or call to action. That would be a wasted opportunity to market your business and sell some of your products and services. The same is true for your cover image. You own the space, so do something with it.
Not sure what to put on your cover image? Like a traditional billboard, your logo and business name should be on every cover image you post, along with your contact information (address, phone, email, and website). Beyond those basics, here are some additional reasons/purposes for a great cover image:
– Provide a coupon or special offer
– Showcase a great review or testimonial from a real customer
– Highlight some of the products or services you provide
– Celebrate and wish your followers/customers a happy holiday
Keep Your Branding Consistent
Having consistent branding on all of your social media channels will make you look more professional and differentiate your company from your competitors.
Use cover photos to consistently brand your business on Facebook and all other social platforms. Since cover photo sizes differ from one platform to another, we’ve found a list by ThinkTank to help guide you through creating a branded image for each platform, specifically; Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Don’t Forget About Mobile
Cover photos are also shown to users on mobile browsers and apps, so the mobile user experience needs to be kept in mind when you’re designing your images.
While some platforms keep the same dimensions on all browsers, others cut off some of the outside edges of the image. For example, Facebook reduces the display width by nearly 100 pixels on each side on the app and browser. Since most people put information on the far right or left of their cover, if it’s not designed correctly then this reduction can make the Facebook cover photo useless to mobile users.
Update Your Facebook Covers on a Regular Basis
Billboards that are up for too long become redundant and can actually stop being seen by visitors. People driving by it each day will start looking past it so it’s important to change things up on a regular basis. Updating images quarterly is fine, but 9-12 times each year would be even better. The are many benefits to regularly updating your cover photos.
In addition to keeping things from getting boring to the people that see it most often, the biggest reason to update your Facebook cover is that it automatically creates a post every time you update your cover and Many of your followers will see this post on their timeline. This is a win-win and will often get more reach than your regular posts.
Facebook recently gave businesses the ability to use short videos in their cover area. This is great news for businesses, marketers, and anyone trying to create the best Facebook cover photo for business because video is currently being over indexed on most platforms, meaning video posts typically have a larger reach than text or photo posts. If you are good with video then look into Facebook’s terms for creating and posting videos and give it a try.
Don’t wait another day to get started!
The only thing worse than having a giant billboard with no contact information, no call to action, and no purpose is continuing to use it incorrectly after you’ve learned the correct way to use it.
If you are currently wasting the majority of your Facebook page on an image with no purpose, no branding, no call to action, and that looks horrible on the mobile app, then stop what you’re doing and fix it now. We’re here to help if you need a hand getting started!
LIMITED TIME BONUS: Our design team will create a FREE Facebook Cover Photo for your business ($299 value).
Have questions about creating the best Facebook cover photos? Join us in the comments!
