Your Page’s or Profile’s cover photo is some of the most valuable marketing real estate you have on Facebook – how are you using that space to promote your writing or brand?
A cover photo is the large photo at the top of Pages and Profiles. This is a big piece of FREE prime real estate that many authors ignore or fail to take advantage of.
Why It’s Important
When you change your cover photo, Facebook posts that in the News Feed of your fans, and when they engage (Like, Comment), that post appears to their friends and gives them a chance to Like your Page. (Appearing in the News Feed of friends of fans is how you grow an audience organically.) Works the same way with a Profile cover photo.
It’s a really great way to let people know visually what you write, what you’re about — your brand.
** You are your brand. A brand is a promise to your readers and that promise is what keeps them coming back. Readers get emotionally attached to our stories, to our voice—especially to those writing fiction.**
A good cover photo will visually convey what you’re about, what you write, and your brand. Many authors use this space to promote their latest or upcoming release. Book covers are a great idea. What I see way too often are authors and writers posting pics of a bird they saw in their backyard, a sunset, or some such thing that might be fun for fans to see but won’t help new people get to know you or what you write. Those sorts of pictures belong in the News Feed, not your cover photo space.
There have been a lot of rules surrounding cover photos, but they’ve come and gone. *Insert Admin happy dance* What you can’t do is buy/sell cover photo space. Asking people to upload a cover photo promoting your next book is a bad idea even if no money is exchanged.
You don’t need to be the all-author-all-the-time channel, but this is such a great space why not let it do double duty! You should be changing up your cover photo every month or two simply because it gets such great exposure in News Feeds.
Tips For Using Cover Photos To Help Convey Brand and Promote Writing:
- Eye-tracking studies have found people notice faces before text. Avoid the temptation to use a lot of text (just to make sure people get it). Stick to ONE-1-uno call-to-action if you use one.
- The space on the far right is seen before the space in the middle or above the profile pic space.
- Where the eyes of the model in the photo are looking, users will follow that sight line — take advantage of this.
- Properly sized cover photos look more professional. Take the time to resize your cover photo to 851x315pixels in Paint, Picmonkey — whatever application you like. Some websites like Picmonkey, Quotescover.com and Canva provide properly sized templates for you to use.
- You can’t turn the cover photo into a link, but you can edit the photo after you post it and add a link or other text in the description. Where the cover photo goes, the description (and links) will go with it.
- Think beyond your book – what about your or your brand can you convey visually? I like to make people think with my writing so I’m trying to capture that in the cover photos above. If you write humor incorporate humor into the cover photo. If you’re a mommy blogger incorporate family life into the cover photo in some way (you don’t have to show your kids’ faces to do this).
- Instead of trying to promote ALL your books at once, pick one at a time — or the most recent release.
- Visit the Pages and Profiles of other authors writing in your genre. How are they using their cover photo space? Do they convey brand, genre, newest book visually? Don’t copy, but take the best of what you see from several sources and use that as a launching point in creating something unique to you.
- You don’t have a book out yet? Begin as you mean to continue – this means you can practice portraying you and your brand visually with fewer consequences. Experiment – see what people react to (go for positive reactions). Visit the profiles of prominent journalists and see what they’re doing – many of them don’t have a book but they are promoting their writing (especially columnists).
- Book covers are not the only way to convey visually what kind of writing you do — think outside the box. Stop whining – writers are creative people. You can do this!
Been told you should learn Deep Point Of View? Had an editor or critique partner tell you to “go deeper” with the emotions in your fiction? Looking for a community of writers seeking to create emotional connections with readers? Check out the Free Resource Hub and then join the Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction Facebook group.
Great advice, Lisa. Thanks for the reminders.
Thanks for stopping by!
I just use my personal page for communicating with people. Does your advice differe for personal profiles?
Lora Young recently posted…Christian Fiction Friday!
Hi Lora! Yeah – absolutely. I shared the cover photos from both my Page and my personal Profile (which is mostly public).
I am disappointed that you would post this on Google+ and not mention anything about Plus in your article. This seems very shortsighted considering that we too, have cover opportunities.
There are quite a few writers using G+ who are in Facebook too. With the exception of the photo size (cover photos on G+ are bigger) and the eye tracking study, the rest really apply to either. The eye tracking may be the same on G+ in terms of where people look first, but I’ve not read anything to either confirm or deny that. Sorry if you felt mislead.
Lisa, you always have such excellent advice. Thanks for sharing!
Kimberley Payne recently posted…What to Do When God Asks Us to Wait
Glad you find it helpful! Just sharing my happy 🙂
I love your writing voice. I hear you talking to me.
I’m struggling with branding right now because I have several different projects in different genres – and none of them are where I’m hoping to end up one day. An identity crisis of sorts?
I wrote down the cover photo size info (thank you). Hopefully, I’ll be able to find it next time I upload a new cover.
Sharon recently posted…One Good thing about Moving
Hmmm – yes. That’s tricky. Traditional publishers are known for making their authors stick to one genre in order to gain a following there. Writing for several audiences gets tricky. Maybe look for the common thread in them all. No matter what I write, I aim to make people think so that’s the thread I’ve chosen.
Thanks for stopping by!
I have a similar problem to Sharon’s. I have a split personality between my nerdy background and what I want to write in fiction and narrative non-fiction.
Great tips here, and I’ve saved notes. 🙂
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell recently posted…Dogs breaking up cat fights
Glad you found them helpful!
Thanks, Lisa. Lots of good advice. I’m definitely in the use-it-because-I-like-the-photo camp, and need to move on!
Cheers 🙂
Nigel Blackwell recently posted…Getting Comfortable With A Dog
Nigel – you could try a compromise. You mentioned in the Facebook group that you post scenes from the cities you write about — why not make that more clear? I don’t know how. There are going to be many facets to your brand.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing your expertise. I will use this info. 🙂
And I’d love a chance to win a critique of my FB page.
Thanks Tracy! I’ll be posting the winner at the bottom of the thread.
Thanks, Lisa! Great insight.
Julie Glover recently posted…How to Write a Tantalizing Book Blurb
Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for this–I’ve been resistant to changing the cover photo but didn’t realize it got shared in the feed. DOH! *head-desk* Will re-think this now and come up with some that maybe I can rotate.
Amy Shojai, CABC recently posted…10 Kitten Adoption Do’s & Don’ts
Yeah – and when people hover over your name in their news feed, your cover photo pops up as a visual cue to people what you’re about. Thanks for stopping by!
Great post, Lisa! I haven’t been changing my cover photo because I wanted to keep my “brand” photo in there, but now that I’m published, I’ll be changing it more frequently. Yay!
Do you have advice for how often we should change our cover photo? How often is too often? Thanks!
Jami Gold recently posted…Want to Start a Writing-Related Company? — Guest: Kathryn Goldman
Hi Jami – every month or two is probably sufficient unless you’re running a promotion of some kind. I think it’s important to remember that there’s no one-way to capture your brand visually. It’s gets easier with practise.
Julie Glover – my son picked your name out of a hat for the free critique. I’ll be in touch!
Thanks for this post, Lisa. Very timely for me, as I am getting ready to set up a separate Facebook page for my blog/writing. I’ve put together several cover photos and was agonizing over which would be the best to use. Now I can use them all by changing them up every so often. Good advice!
Kristin Nador recently posted…Participate In My 2015 Reader Survey
Hi, Lisa.
Tonight is the night I first “met” you. I was reading through The Word Guild Facebook page and they had a link to your blog post about stopping mutual like-fests on Facebook. Have just enjoyed and appreciated your “10 photo cover tips for writers”. Excellent suggestions! ‘Til now I have been inclined toward posting pretty pictures. I now see the value in being more intentional in using that space.
Keep up the good work!