2 Tips for Facebook Images That Stand Out From The Crowd

Your company's Facebook cover photo might seem inconsequential at first glance.

Does anyone really look at those? Does it really matter what it is?

Your choice of cover image actually is important, and so is your header image.

Why? Because they reflect your brand.

They're important visual design elements, and should be consistent with the rest of your visual branding.

First of all, your cover photo needs one key thing: a clear objective.

You need to know what you want the image to accomplish. You can use it to drive conversions, and even place an eye-catching “Buy Now” button just beneath it.

Basically, it's visual real estate that you can use to its maximum potential.

Then, you need on-brand visual imagery.

The fonts, the colors, and other design elements are part of your visual branding.

People are visual, and we associate visual elements with brands easily — Coca-Cola's classic red and white logo is a good example of this. You want a color scheme and aesthetic that make sense for your brand.

In a recent post, Hootsuite explains how to create a Facebook cover photo that turns heads and gets things done.

1. Pick an objective for your cover photo

Believe it or not, a cover photo can be more than just a logo slapped onto a plain colored background.

While they can be great for branding purposes, cover photos can also help you achieve other business goals. This could be driving signups for your product, advertising a sale, or promoting an upcoming webinar.

Take a look at marketing and automation tool Drip from Leadpages’ cover photo.

You can see there’s a clear objective here and that’s to drive registrations for their free training. They’ve accomplished this while still keeping their branding intact and showing a glimpse of the product’s capabilities.

Another great example is Bootea.

Image via Bootea on Facebook.

As you can see, they’re not wasting any real estate here. Instead, they’re smartly using their Facebook cover to promote a brand new product. This is highly effective since there’s a “Shop Now” call to action directly below the cover image.

Drip and Bootea are two of many companies effectively using cover photos to achieve an objective. The takeaway here is that you should put a bit of thought into what you want your Facebook cover to accomplish.

2. Stay on brand

We mentioned that a cover photo shouldn’t always be a company’s logo slapped on a background and this is true. However, regardless of what objective you’re trying to accomplish, you should always stay on brand with your cover photo. In fact, you should aim to create a social media style guide for your entire online presence.

So how do you stay on brand when designing cover photos?

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Color palette

Whenever possible, always try to include your brand colors. As users continue to interact with your brand, you’ll become more ingrained in their mind provided that you remain consistent with your branding elements.

Blue is a primary color in our brand kit at Snappa, so it’s no surprise we use it for our cover photo. When users visit our website, they’re met with the exact same shade of blue.

Fonts and typefaces

You don’t necessarily need to use the same font for every single cover photo. In fact, that would be kind of boring.

However, the font itself should still represent your brand. For example, if you’re selling luxury watches, your fonts will likely contain crisp lines and be very easy to read.

On the flip side, it makes sense for a kid’s playground like Cosmic Adventures to use wacky fonts like the ones shown in their cover photo below.

Secondary elements

Almost every business uses of brand colors and fonts. However, you may also make use of secondary elements throughout your marketing. These might include graphics, patterns, icons, or other design items to support your brand.

You can find more great Facebook photo tips over at Hootsuite.