Same as all your graphics and design elements, your Cover Photo needs to tie in with your Brand Style. Consistency is the key when trying to increase your personal brand’s online presence.
Use your colours, brand elements, fonts and vibe. There is nothing worse than to have a perfectly designed Brand Style and not use it the right way.
First of all, why you should care about your cover photo to start with?
Well
- The first impression, when someone checks you out is not reversible
- Pretty huge free space to tell more about you and WHY you
- It helps to build brand identity, awareness and trust
I recommend keeping your cover photo sweet and simple and with sweet I mean on point.
Do not overcomplicate it. Less is more. You want to make immediate First Impression and you want to make sure you are not confusing your audience. So when they check you out, they know immediately – who you are and what you can offer.
If you decide to add Call-To-Action, then make sure it is clear. Limit it to 1 thing that people need to remember or do.
The right size matters when we talk about the Facebook cover photo. As simply it can sound as complicated it can get. Some of my clients once even told that he has multiple engineering degrees has been the best in math, but still can’t figure out how the size works.
So here I come to rescue you.
When you create the cover photo, you need to remember that different devices will have a different position.
The best size that I have found is 1200 x 675px or in ratio 16:9. Yes, FB says different and most of the online design programmes have it otherwise too. Sometimes feels that they want you to have an ugly profile for reason! It is difficult to keep track – because Facebook keeps changing the dimensions and has different requirements for each of its images {profile photo, sponsored posts, group cover photo, thumbnails, shared links etc}.
I also suggest to use a .png file, if you have quite a lot of text on your cover photo {it will reduce Facebook from compressing image too much and your letters will not be too blurry}.
Upload your cover photo from PC – always!
Here is the fully optimized template you can use in any of design programmes, which supports layers {you can make it with 50% or less opacity/ transparency and see if all will be visible}. This will work for both desktop and mobile. You can save it straight from here, no opt in needed.
Let me explain what it all means.
So the full image you will see on the mobile devices, the middle part {darker} you will see on the desktop.
The blue transparent shapes are where the text and profile image appears, so basically for your visuals and text, you want to use all the empty field on the darker spot.
That is the way how you can assure that you will not lose some information on either of devices.
Here is how it looks in real life:
Same cover photo, but on mobile, it looks different as it appears on the desktop.
2020 UPDATE:
Facebook obviously changing things all the time, this time the size is the same, the overall position too, but you might consider profile image position this time.
Here is the Canva template you can use and test your cover + also the image you can use overlaying your cover with transparency:
What do you think? How important is to create outstanding visuals for your brand?
Now you are ready! Your Facebook Cover Photo mobile version can rock just like on the desktop! Share with a friend!
