Last week we highlighted some companies breaking the official Facebook Cover Photo guidelines for Pages.
With Facebook Timeline for Pages still only a few weeks old, it increasingly seems that their guidelines are unenforceable.
We noticed two more dubious Cover Photos this week, from the ski areas of Sun Peaks and the Portes du Soleil:
Does it actually matter?
With an estimated 42 million Facebook pages already in place, of which 4 million are businesses (the others are public figures, movies, sports teams etc), how likely is it that a Cover Photo with a special offer or a call to action on it is likely to be spotted?
Surely Facebook is too busy trying to get companies to do business on their website, rather than discourage them?
Should you join in?
It’s certainly advantageous to include your website address, or special offer on your Facebook Cover Photo.
Timeline already makes a Facebook brand page more of a destination, so brand owners will want to make most of any visit to that page.
We believe it’s inevitable that the Cover Photo will become a key – active – marketing tool. However, for now, our advice would be to take the following approach:
– Refrain from breaking Facebook’s guidelines
– Use the description in your Cover Photo to include links and your message (like this from Erna Low)
– Consider including additional branding in your Cover Photo (like this from Neilson Holidays)
– Change your Cover Photo on a regular basis
For more detailed advice on use of Facebook Timeline and social media consultancy, please contact us.
By Iain Martin
1 comment
iain says:
Mar 20, 2013
Turns out Facebook have now changed their rules anyway…see 3b
https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php