Since Facebook’s transition to Timeline in early 2012, the social networking giant has embraced a much more visual layout. Cover photos, one of the most prominent features of Timeline, allow individual users to add a bit of personality to their online personas. This same feature was also extended to brands and businesses, although these pages do have some restrictions that come along with them.
For starters, it’s important to realize that cover photos are public. Anyone who visits your Facebook fan page, whether that person is a fan or not, is going to be able to see your cover photo. Next, it’s important to understand the intended use of cover photos is not to promote your contact information. That is, cover photos are supposed to display an image that represents your brand. This image cannot (or isn’t supposed to) contain more than 20% text, and formerly could not display contact information of any kind (per Facebook’s current terms of use as of July 2013, there is no longer mention of cover photos not being able to feature contact information, but it’s probably good practice to avoid images that include contact information just in case the rules revert back). Furthermore, brands are not allowed to encourage fans to upload and use brand cover photos on their own individual timelines.
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