The New Facebook Cover Photo and Strategies

By Jan Stewart, Writer, Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics

Just in case you missed the memo, Facebook has moved all business pages into their new timeline layout as of March 30th. In case you missed the notice, here is a quick tutorial that will help you spruce up your Facebook Business page fast!

Fix Your Ugly Facebook Page Now

If you have not added a large cover image to your Facebook business page, your page will look very ugly as of this past weekend.

Here’s how you fix it fast:

• Select a photo from your digital camera, existing online photo album on Facebook, or from iStockPhoto.com (a paid resource for photos).
  
  
• Login to your Facebook profile and then into your business page.
  
  
• Click the "add a cover" button at the top right of your page. Make sure to follow Facebook's guidelines. "Note: This space is not meant for promotions, coupons, or advertisements. Your cover photo should not be primarily text-based or infringe on anyone else's copyright. Learn more about choosing a cover photo."
  
  
• You can either choose from your own business page’s photo albums or upload a photo you own.
  
  
• Drag the image to show the most important part of the photo if your image is larger than 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. Click save.
  
• Mouseover your profile thumbnail on the left clicking "edit profile picture".  Select the choices of choose an existing photo or upload a photo.  Move your cursor in the image to select your thumbnail making sure your image is not cut off. Click save.

Taking these quick and easy steps will buy you some time to choose a better cover picture later if you desire to do so.

Here are some tips to save you time about choosing a cover photo:

• Choose a large high definition image. If the image you supply is smaller than 851 by 315 pixels, Facebook will stretch and distort it. Use the highest resolution possible.
  
  
• We don't recommend using a screen shot of your website banner. First, it appears too busy at the top and second, you cannot make any items clickable in the image.
  
  
• Even if you don't have the perfect photo now, fix your page quickly by even using an image that is indicative of your home town. That will buy you some time to select the "right" photo without having your page look unfinished or "broken".

Facebook Strategies to Help Your New Timeline Look Great

Now that the timeline layout is active on your business page you will find that some things that you previously used to interact with fans are gone. No longer can you have a fan gate or a large opening image to try to encourage visitors to like your page. The timeline has taken over. Any custom pages you have made for your business profile are now hidden and only accessed from a nearly hidden navigation bar that resided directly under the cover image. You can click these links and visual icons to see your previous welcome page, contest pages, and any other special pages you had created.

As a result of the new timeline layout, key pages you used before are now effectively hidden. Many visitors will simply not find your old pages easily, so you need to have a new strategy to make your Facebook Page interesting for visitors.

Here are a few tips to help make your new Facebook Business Page Look Good:

• As the new timeline layout is more visual in nature, Consider adding one or more photos (that you own the digital rights to) once or twice a week. Make sure to only load high resolution photos. Once loaded consider featuring the status update containing the photo by clicking the star that appears in the top right of that status update or photo that appears on the home page of the timeline. If you don’t see the star, mouseover the top right location with your cursor. Clicking the star in this spot will stretch the photo the width of your timeline and keep the image big for seven full days. After seven days the photo will shrink back to fill only one of the two vertical columns on your page.
  
  
• Highlight or feature text status updates to break up the two column layout of your timeline. You can do the same action you did with a photo (in number one above) but with any text update. Starring the update will make it stretch across the page for seven days as well. You don't need to choose just new updates. Work down your page featuring items to add visual design interest. It only takes a moment, but really improves the look especially for first time visitors.
  
  
• To help add visual interest to your new timeline add a video once a week to your business page. The videos must be a video that you have created and uploaded directly to Facebook. Simply linking or pointing to a YouTube video will not give the same full size effect on your timeline. When you load a new video one of the two columns will be filled.
  
  
• It is clear from these changes that more hands-on attention is needed to keep your Facebook business page looking good, but you don’t have to take hours of time to make it look interesting.

Conclusion

It is not hard to make the most of the new visually impressive look that timeline brings to Facebook business or brand pages. This is a great time to consider snapping a few pictures with your phone or digital camera everywhere you go and even consider purchasing either or both for certain team members. In this age of digital sharing, you can make your business page look creative and interesting with just a little bit of attention.

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About the Writer

Jan Stewart is a professional writer for Medallion Fulfillment & Logistics, a family owned Los Angeles based fulfillment firm. She writes exclusively for Strategies for Success on topics of business tips, how to promote your business online, and establishing your brand in the marketplace.