Today Facebook will force Timeline on everyone, people and pages alike. There are those who have already taken the leap, published and polished their Timeline’s and aren’t going to be fazed at all. There are (many, many) others, however, that are unprepared or even unaware.
Those companies will get a shock when they log into their Facebook Page today and are confronted by a large white space at the top of what was once their Wall…or worse, their now defunct landing tab.
The first thing those companies are going to want to do is sort that white space out and that means creating a cover photo to fill it. A cover photo that expresses the personality of the company but does not contain any marketing. That’s against the rules, don’tcha know. The temptation would be to just put a logo up there, which is fine, I suppose, but there’s so much more can be done with a cover photo.
This is our top 5 of companies making best use of the cover photo in Facebook Timeline.
Fanta
Personally, I love brand pages that combine their cover photo with their profile pic and Fanta have done a great job here to create a bright, vibrant page you’ll want to revisit. The key to doing this properly? Your profile pic remains perfectly usable without the cover photo. Just like this.
Captain Morgan USA
The same thing has been done here, with regard to cover photo / profile pic combination, but this time with a moodier effect utilising a dark photo of, presumably, Captain Morgan. Still, you fancy a spiced rum now don’t you…
Manchester United FC
It doesn’t always have to be clever graphic design. A picture says a thousand words, remember. Or, in the case of Manchester United, one beautifully shot photograph says one word. “Champions”.
Fluid Creativity
If you’re a digital design agency you really need to make an effort with your Facebook presence if you’re going to stand out from the crowd. Manchester-based digital agency Fluid Creativity have gone all nostalgic, recreating the board game Operation for their cover photo and displaying the services they offer at the same time. Oh, and there’s even use of the profile pic to finish it off.
Disclosure: This is the agency I work for in my day job. Facebook page here.
Hershey’s
Hershey’s have gone down the ‘less is more’ route with a simple but effective and well shot photograph of a piece of their famous chocolate. While I love the cover photo for that simplicity I can’t help but be disappointed by the profile pic. That’s really the best they could do?
That’s our top five. Please share with us some other amazing cover photo work you have spotted recently.
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