By now I’m sure that you’ve become familiar with the new Facebook Page format that includes a timeline, app boxes and a full width Cover Photo. That huge piece of editable real estate presents a major opportunity for businesses to express themselves and to get a brand message across to readers quickly.
But what’s the best way? And what’s allowed?
Those are the major questions that brands are now facing. They know that the Cover Photos can be used in very effective ways, but aren’t sure what the best ways to do it is, or what the laws of Facebook restrict us from doing.
With our clients we’ve tested a few different uses for Cover Photos, and by far the most effective has been to simply place the face of the brand in a relatable way as prominently as possible.
Many brands use cover photos to insert calls to action that point users to Like the page or sign up for newsletters. While this can work sometimes, there are two major drawbacks:
Risk: Cheap Likes
The people who Like the page may not actually like your business. While the Like gave you the opportunity to interact that person, which is valuable, it may have substituted for any real brand awareness that may have otherwise happened.
Risk: Facebook Police
Facebook has very specific rules about what can and can’t be included in a cover photo (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/search/?q=cover+guidelines" target="_blank"Facebook Link). Putting any sort of promotion, special or even a call to Like the Page violates those conditions and could lead Facebook to delete your page without notice.
It’s happened, and not just to big pages. There are many examples of small local brands who have violated the Facebook rules, like cover photo content and, and had their pages permanently removed.
Think about that, all of the work that you put into your page, all of your Likes, all of your comments and recommendations would be gone.
Thousands of Pages get away with breaking the rules every day but in my opinion, leaving such a valuable asset’s very existence up to the whims of the Facebook moderators is a more risky business proposition than its worth.
So, What Should I Do?
Show your personality, have fun and be genuine. You have the opportunity to show anything you want to the world in a very prominent way so, take some time, devote some resources and put up something that you’re really proud of.
Once you’ve done that, start thinking about the next one because the best cover photos change at least once every two months.
