Facebook offers lots of ways for you to display photos: profile photo, cover photo, News Feed post, high quality photo albums, Facebook ads and promoted posts. Through long experience and numerous trial and errors, many marketers and business owners have proved one clear thing: that you can reach more people and keep their interest by posting more photos and videos than mere text.
However, there are several restrictions imposed on Facebook photos in terms of size. This has to be the case otherwise everyone would take up the screen space with HD photos and chaos would ensue with individuals and companies fighting for attention with bigger and bigger photos.
This guideline will help you make the most out of all the photo spaces and give you some useful suggestions which will help you gain online popularity and more followers.
1. Cover Photo
The cover photo is the first thing people notice on your Facebook page. The recommended size for the cover photo is 851 x 315 pixels. However, if people browse Facebook from a smartphone, the visible area of the cover photo is 563 x 315 pixels.
Another important consideration is that the profile photo and the page title overlap the bottom part of the cover photo. These considerations lead to the conclusion that the focus elements of your cover photos should be situated in the central upper part of the image.
So, what makes a great cover photo? It is a visual representation of the core values and unique selling point of your business. It should give people a clear idea of what your business is about and create a unique “feeling, for example a family-oriented company specialising in technology.
2. News Feed Photo Post
The basic way to share photos is to post them directly on your News Feed. Thanks to the new allowances made by Facebook with regard to posted photos, you can now upload high quality images of 1200 x 1200 pixels. You can use this opportunity to share images of your products or a great looking graphic banner for a promotion or even a “caption this” type of image (which can be either intriguing or funny).
3. Right-Hand Column Promoted Post
These posts appear as smaller News Feed posts and allow an image of 254 x 133 pixels. These type of posts are mostly used to drive more Likes to your page, therefore you must share an engaging image, which could be either an attractive and high quality image of your products, or a promotional image featuring happy, smiling people – the universal visual message for satisfied customers.
One word of warning: if you plan to use text on your photos for promotional purposes, make sure that the text only takes up 20% of the photo area, otherwise your promoted posts and ads will be rejected by Facebook.
4. Mobile App Add
This type of ad will only show for users who browse Facebook from their smartphone. The recommended upload size is 1200 x 629 pixels and it will display on the smartphone screens as 560 x 292 pixels.
5. Event Photo
Hosting events is a great way to gain more clients. A good promotional campaign on Facebook is a great way to spread the news and increase the number of attendees. A Facebook event page looks in many ways similar to a Facebook page, minus the profile photo. The recommended size for the Facebook event photo is 1200 x 444 pixels, with the same restriction of 20% text on the photo like in the case of promoted posts and ads.