Facebook Cover Photos Update

Up until very recently, Facebook had a restriction on cover photos. As a brand, you weren’t allowed to occupy more than 20% of your cover photo with text. Now you’re free to add as many words as you’d like to this space.

Cover photos are hot property. It’s one of the first things someone sees when they come to your brand page on Facebook. Previously, if you were having a sale, a contest, or wanted to reach out to your customers via your cover photo, it had to be through a photo. In other words, words were discouraged. I’m not quite sure how this was regulated, but it was still an annoyance, especially given that 20% is not a lot of space, and one too many characters could have put you over that limit.

Now, this ban is lifted, which allows you some more creative freedom to incorporate text.

So why’s this so important?

1. Get your point across

Like a banner on the freeway, text is important. I wouldn’t recommend using too much text, as it’ll be distracting and from a design standpoint, could turn into a hot mess. However, now you have more freedom to play with text. Lastly, if your logo is text heavy, you could have been at your 20% right there, which would have disabled you from writing or communicating anything additional.

2. Promote Yourself

If you have a sale, contest or anything else you’d like to promote, you now have a permanent space for that. Before, you had to create an update to do so, now you can put your rules right there in your cover photo.

Want some inspiration? Here are some blogs that showcase some very good examples of creative cover photos and ways to get the most out of that hot property.

Now only if that ban was lifted for sponsored ads, I’d be a happy camper.

What do you like about being able to have unlimited text on your banner?