28 Ways to Use Your Facebook Cover Photo

Whaaatttt, Chloe wrote a blog?! I know, it’s crazy. I literally haven’t published anything here since March. I have been so incredibly busy with my (not so new anymore) job and creating a huge project for the company that this here blog has completely fallen to the back burner. But I’m back, and I have a lot of big things planned for the rest of the year.

First, I’m working on redoing my strategy ebook and will send out the updated version to all of my current email subscribers. My email list also hasn’t heard from me in months, so I’m working on a big comeback for that as well. Having been gone for months calls for a major return. Part of the reason it’s taken me so long is that I had to come back with a bang! As you can see, I created new blog graphics, I got a new logo, and I updated my blog design. Go big or go home, right? 💁

Well let’s get into today’s topic, because it’s a good one.

Your Facebook Page can almost be seen as your blog/business’s social media “hub.” It’s one of the most comprehensive social platforms and allows you to share a great deal of information about your business: hours, locations, products, and so much more. Your Page’s cover photo also has a lot of potential for giving visitors and followers information about your business.

I’ve discussed your cover photo in my social media branding guide, discussing a couple of the most basic types of cover photos to use. Today, we’re going to dive in to X different ways that you can use your Facebook cover photo to promote your business and your products.

And, especially now that the Facebook Page layout has changed, and your cover photo is front and center, you want to make sure you’re taking advantage of the extra promo opportunity.

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1. An Extension of Your Brand

In the above example, MeetEdgar uses their cover photo as an extension of their brand. They have their logo as their profile picture (pretty standard practice–your profile picture should typically be your logo unless you are the face of your business; then it should be your headshot), but the app name and an image of their website homepage on a computer screen as their cover photo.

They’re using one of their brand colors (dark blue) and are showing off their website (a large part of their brand). And instead of relying on Facebook’s standard font for their business name, they’ve used it as a part of their cover photo in their brand fonts.

In this example, See Jane Work has their logo in their profile picture, and their full business name and tagline in their cover photo. This is another simply and beautiful way to use your cover photo as an extension of your brand.

If you have your headshot as your Page’s profile photo, another great way to do this is to simply use your logo in your cover photo. This way, visitors will still be able to recognize your business immediately upon landing on your Facebook Page.

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2. Show Off Your Product/Service

Sprout Social uses their cover photo to show off screenshots of their app/service in both tablet and smartphone format. They’ve placed those screenshots into a visually appealing cover photo. This is a really smart way to showcase your SaaS in a more easy-on-the-eyes format.

The Day Designer is a planner (one that I use myself and highly recommend), so it only makes sense that their cover photo would highlight their awesome and beautiful product. They’ve taken a stylized photo of a few of their most colorful Day Designers, along with a few props, to use as their cover photo.

If your business sells pretty products, then utilizing your Facebook cover photo to show off your product is a really great way to get people wanting to buy.

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3. Holidays or Certain Times in the Year

I found Poppin when I did a Google search for “designer office supplies” in search for a new mousepad for my new office Mac. It’s aqua and it’s been featured in a couple of my recent Instagram photos and I love it. They’re utilizing Back to School, a time of year when people are very obviously shopping for new school and office supplies. Especially over tax free weekend a couple of weeks ago, this was an awesome way to use their cover photo.

Buffalo Wild Wings is a big sports bar, so since football season is here, they’re focusing on Fantasy Football in their cover photo.

Other ideas can be to simply spruce up your normal cover photo or logo with some holiday spirit. Maybe changing your color scheme to red and green during the month of December or adding a ghost or witch for Halloween.

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4. Upcoming Launches

Erika from Olyvia.co recently took a pretty long break from her business (same, girl), and she hasn’t posted on her Facebook Page since March, so this is an older announcement. However, it’s still a fantastic use of a cover photo. Have a big project coming up, a new product coming down the line, or a brand new service offering? Use your Facebook cover photo to help generate hype for your launch so that your people will know to expect something big from you soon!

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5. Build Your Email List

Chaitra from PinkPot’s opt-in offer for her email list is free monthly stock photo packs for creatives to use in their blog post graphics, ebooks, and more. (Also, her photos are awesome and I’ve used several of them in blog post graphics myself.) So she uses one of her stock photos, as well as a call-to-action, to entice users to sign up for her email list to get their own monthly stock photo packs.

Sarah from XO Sarah also uses her cover photo to share information about her opt-in, and what subscribers will see in her weekly newsletter. Even if you have an opt-in on your website, the fact that Facebook allows you to use a Sign Up CTA button on your Page is huge for generating new leads, so take advantage of it!

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6. Grow Your Community or Facebook Group

Screw the Nine to Five is an informational business all about becoming a business owner and leaving your basic 9-5 job working for someone else. As a big part of their business model, they have their own Facebook group, so they’re using their Facebook cover photo to inform Facebook users about the group and get them to join it. If you have a Facebook group as a part of your online business strategy, then using your cover photo to recruit members is a fantastic idea. Obviously, these are users that are already on Facebook!

This can also work for Slack groups, membership sites, and other online communities, so it doesn’t have to stop at Facebook!

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7. Promote a Contest

I searched for hours for these cover photo examples, but I have not been able to find a current example of a Page promoting an ongoing contest. Which means that either I’m just not searching for the right Pages, or that this is a type of cover photo that needs to be utilized more often.

Although with the old Facebook Page layout, the tab names used to be right underneath the cover photo, so you could use an arrow to point to your contest’s tab, it’s still a good way to promote ongoing contests. You can point to the left-hand sidebar, or you can simply name the contest and include a link to the entry page in your cover photo’s caption.

You want to get as many people as possible to know about and enter your contest, so putting an advertisement for it, front and center of your Facebook Page is a great idea.

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8. Show Benefits of Your Product/Service

There are a few different ways to do this. Buffer’s is pretty unique and in the form of a graphic, whereas most will simply show the product/service in action or use words to explain the benefits of using it. However, with Buffer’s clever graphic, they’re showing that you can send posts to every single one of these platforms. Buffer is one of the main catch-all scheduling platforms, meaning that it schedules to nearly every single social media platform, including both Instagram and Pinterest (the two that are hardest to find). Also, if you know anything about me, you know that I am a huge Buffer advocate and that it is my highest recommended scheduling platform.

Using your cover photo to show why people should choose you over a competitor is a great idea. What do you offer? What can your product or service do for your customers that others can’t?

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9. Highlight Upcoming Events

Are you hosting an event, speaking at an event, sponsoring an event, etc.? Then let everyone who visits your Facebook Page know about it! Even if you’ve created Facebook ads, you’re promoting on your website, and you’re sharing on all of your social media platforms, creating a Facebook cover photo for it is still a great idea.

Social Media Examiner is currently using their cover photo to gain awareness about their Social Media Success Summit, to get an even larger audience at this event.

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10. Tell What You Do

Marianne from Design Your Own (lovely) Blog uses her cover photo to tell her Page visitors exactly what her business is about. She has a photo of herself and a mockup poster sharing exactly what users can find from her blog. I love the way she’s done this.

The Modern Connection, AKA the awesome Charleston-based agency I call home, uses our cover photo to explain the parts of marketing that we do, and also includes a mobile view of our website.

Giving a brief overview of what visitors can expect from you is a good idea, so they’re met with a little more than only your logo and your business name.

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11. Share Testimonials

It’s a good idea to regularly send out an ask for testimonials from customers/clients that you know have been happy with your business. Whether you pull these from emails you’ve received, online reviews, or requests for testimonials, including a good review about your business in your cover photo is a great way to offer a bit of social proof.

You can do this by including a quote in with a graphic or stock image with your brand colors and fonts. If you have a testimonial/quote from someone well-known in your industry, then that’s even better.

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12. Promote New Products/Services

Slightly different from number four, which is designed to generate hype for an upcoming product or service launch, this is designed to generate awareness for a recently launched product or service. Kylie Cosmetics just launched three new lip kit colors last week, one of which is showcased in her current Facebook cover photo (dirty peach, which I will also be the proud owner of as soon as it’s delivered 😁).

Although this cover showcases four women wearing the color, they could also have taken a photo of the lip kits, the glosses, the actual product. It could list pieces of a new service. There are several different ways to use this, but it’s a great way to get more buyers for your new offering.

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13. Promote Your Hashtag

O2 Fitness is currently promoting their summer hashtag on their Facebook cover photo. Many businesses have hashtags for campaigns they’re running, products, or just for anything related to that business. You can learn more about using hashtags to promote your business in this blog post. If you do create a hashtag for your business, including it on your Facebook cover photo is a great way to strengthen your brand and encourage customers to use your hashtag, especially for a product-based business.

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14. Celebrate a Milestone

Is it your business’ birthday? Or do you have another big business milestone or announcement to celebrate? Make a big deal about it and share it on your cover photo!

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15. Sell a Product

Beautyblender uses their cover photo to showcase their main product, their…well…Beautyblender. And they don’t only have the product in their cover photo, they’re showing off what you use the product with. They’re taking their cover photo a step further with a stylized shoot of their product. If your business has a single product, and also if it has multiple products, use your cover photo to show off stylized photography of it/them.

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16. Promote a Sale/Discount

Do you have a big sale going on right now? Include it in big, shiny numbers and letters in your Facebook cover photo. The more people know about your awesome discounts, the more likely they are to become a customer right meow.

Include photos of products that are a part of the sale, and try to include percentages if it’s that kind of sale. Percentages can be very persuasive.

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17. Promote Your Website

What is the main goal of social media marketing? To get more customers, but also to get them to visit your website. And what better way to direct them straight to your website than to have it front and center on your Facebook cover photo? This is exactly the method that Caitlin Bacher uses.

Regina from byRegina also uses his method, as well as including a hashtag. See, people? You can even use more than one!

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18. Sensory Appeal

This works especially well for restaurants, like O-Ku, a local sushi restaurant, because they’re showing off their delicious food. Because if someone is checking out Facebook Pages of local restaurants to decide where they’re going to eat that night, it’s important to have an awesome photo of your food show up right at the top of your Page, so hopefully they’ll choose you!

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19. Show Brand Personality

Social media gives you the opportunity to put a little bit of personality into your brand. Whereas you tend to need to be more serious with traditional advertising, you get to have fun with your social media presence. Mariah from Femtrepreneur uses a photo of herself in her cover photo to show off a different perspective of her that you don’t get to see through her blog.

Everyone knows that cat memes and gifs are the best, and GIPHY is honing in on that by including a cat, along with the letters of their company name, in their cover photo.

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20. Cross-Promote Other Social Channels

More than likely, people can find you on multiple areas of the web. Use your cover photo to show your audience what other social media platforms you’re on so they can follow you over there as well. Digital Marketer has icons for Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn in the corner of their cover photo to show that you can find them on those social sites.

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21. Sell the Experience

This is an especially smart tactic for businesses like Airbnb, hotels, resorts, and the like. They’re using their cover photo to show what your life could be like if you use Airbnb, an especially powerful marketing strategy. Someone navigates to Airbnb’s Facebook Page, they see this beautiful scenery, and they start thinking about how badly they could use a vacation somewhere like this.

This tactic can work for other businesses as well. Show what your customer’s life would be like if they used your product or service.

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22. Direct Fans to Your Page’s CTA

CTA stands for call-to-action, and basically means a button, phrase, or word that you use to entice your audience to complete an action. Facebook allows you to include a call-to-action button on your Facebook Page. XO Sarah and Screw the Nine to Five also use this tactic, but you can see it clearly in the above example on Peg Fitzpatrick’s Facebook Page.

Examples of Facebooks CTAs are sign up, call now, learn more, shop now, and more. You can have them sign up for your email list or peruse your online store directly from your Facebook CTA.

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23. Sell Trends

This works well for clothing and accessories stores. People want to see how they can wear your clothes in a way that looks stylish and trendy. Use your cover photo to show off how your customers can style their outfits. House of Sage, a local boutique, does exactly this with six different styles!

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24. Use Your Cover Photo as a Call to Action

Career Contessa is currently using their cover photo to inform their audience of their Career Resource Library. Although this could be done to build their email list or use the Page CTA, they instead have the link to their library in the description of the cover photo.

Although that’s one way to do this, you can also use this to draw in leads to a free consultation, a percentage off for new customers, or another lead magnet for new and/or returning customers.

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25. Create a Sense of Urgency

Are you having a flash sale or a temporary sale or discount on select items? Tease it in your Facebook cover photo. If visitors see a deadline to buy something, it automatically makes them want it more. Let them know that they need to buy your course by this date in order to get this special price, or that your community closes at the end of the month and they need to act now to be a part of it.

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26. Show Why You’re Better Than the Competition

Enlight was voted Best of 2015 in the Apple App Store, which definitely gives them an edge over their competition. If you have big accomplishments, titles, or awards like this, flaunt them as much as you can. Other ways I’ve seen this done is by literally putting together a side-by-side comparison between your business and your competition (anonymously, of course), and how your business is just a million times better.

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27. Feature Your Fans

If user-generated content is a part of your strategy (i.e., your customers share photos of your product/business), then using these images in your cover photo is another great way to show social proof. Look at all of these people who love your product/service! Putting together a collage of customers using your product should definitely be on your cover photo wish list.

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28. Showcase Your Work

Whaaaatttt, we’ve finally made it to the last one, guys! This is for those of you who create digital products/images, like photographers or graphic designers. Use your cover photo as your portfolio! Laura Dee Photography has an image that she has taken as her cover photo (as should every single photographer on Facebook if we’re being honest).

DesignMantic, a graphic design firm, has a design they created themselves as their cover photo. AND it includes a hashtag in it as well!

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So, I’m certain that you’ve figured out by now that your cover photo does not have to be a one and done kind of deal. You can and should change it out for all kinds of different events, sales, launches, and pretty much anything you want. Heck, there may even be more ways to use your cover photo than this (however I did some extensive research and Facebook perusing to come up with all of these strategies, so I think I’ve covered all my bases).

Tell me in the comments–what are you currently doing with your cover photo, and do you now plan on switching to any of these methods?