1. Be creative!
First up and most importantly, is be creative! You know your brand better than anyone else, and this is your time to show off how great you know your business to be! Engage and excite your fans and followers at first glance with eye catching graphics and original content.

2. Get into the holiday spirit!
Show off your festive side and stay current with current events. This tip is extra useful for brands with a product or service. Christmas and Passover are great reasons to update your cover art, and give you another opportunity to steal your followers attention and bring them back to your page. Are you a specialty candy company? Valentines Day is the perfect time for you to show off your product and invite fans to send a gift to their loved ones, all with a brand new cover photo.

3. Change with the seasons.
Much like staying in the holiday spirit, changing with the seasons is just as important and useful for a brand. Spring, summer, fall, and winter all offer great opportunities to re-engage your community, and show off new products and services your brand is offering. Clothing companies can largely benefit from this type of change, by showing off their newest and most exciting seasonal fashions.

4. Make it a CTA (Call to action).
Facebook is one of the strongest platforms to use CTAs on (Call to Action). With very little text and a small amount of space, you can get people involved in your newest campaign very easily. Go the extra mile, and add your website link or a direct link to the campaign in the cover photo details that are easily found once a follower clicks on your cover photo.

5. Let your cover photo speak to your brand personality and lifestyle.
While it is important and encouraged to remain creative, it is just as important to stay on brand. Wouldn’t it be weird if Mercedes-Benz, known for their high performing cars with top designs, made their banner a photo of boats on the ocean? Sure, it might be beautiful picture of the sea, but if you’re not sure of who you are as a brand, then how are your fans supposed to?

6. Color inside the lines.
When advertising on Facebook, it’s important to keep in mind photo size guidelines in order to optimize the photo and the space you’re given. When designing your seasonal graphic, don’t forget about the maximum size for your cover photo, or else you run the risk of losing the effects of the art you took so long to put together. Going over the banner size could end in losing words from your text, or cutting out integral parts of the picture.

7. Display your #Hashtag.
Your cover photo is the first thing visitors to your page will see, so this is the space to truly take advantage of. This is the time to educate and announce what your business is up to right now and let them know about any campaigns you have going on. Have fun with your hashtag just like you want your fans to, and let them be a traveling billboard on their own social pages. Every time you remind a fan of your current hashtag and encourage them to use it, is another opportunity to gain new fans and followers.

8. Put your fans first!
To make a brand successful and long lasting, you need to constantly keep your fans engaged and your relationships strong. Why not use fan generated content to create your cover photo? Your fans who are taking photos of your product are usually tried and true, and committed to you. Show them how committed you are by thanking them on a national scale. Pick one fan every month or during the holiday seasons, or create a collage of the best photos your fans submit to your page! Take it one step further and start a photo contest to ensure the greatest and most creative photos are reaching your page.

9. Make your cover photo and your profile picture work together.
This might not be a completely necessary tactic to making your brand successful, but it is a chance to show off your product in a larger scale. Facebook has provided us with limited space, and we should make sure to use every inch as interestingly and intriguingly as possible. Take this Kinder Sorpresa cover photo for example. Not only does it make you take a second look at a brand you thought you knew enough about already, but it even makes you want to pass it along to others who might not know the brand well at all. This is your first chance at advertising your product. Make people want to keep scrolling down!

10. And Obviously … Show off your product!
Your cover photo is your first chance to show customers and fans exactly what it is that you do. Show off what your business is all about in the clearest and cleanest way possible. If your company is all about biking and sporting goods, take this time to show off your newest models, or even arrange some of the best selling items in a creative and exciting way.