how to choose your facebook cover photo.

Happy Monday! Since I'm a serious nerd, I conducted a little experiment over the weekend on Facebook and learned a thing or two about cover photos in the process. To save you the time {and advertising dollars!}, I wanted to share my takeaways from my two-day ad campaign. I was super curious to see what photos engaged the most people and drew enough intrigue for someone to click over to my blog's Facebook page.

I chose four rather different images: a sailboat, macarons, hydrangeas, and a scene from Cape Cod. Each of these four things are close to my heart, thus I would hope to find readers who enjoyed the same things. {Note: I'm not a sailor, but I do love boats.} It may just be super dreamy, but the photo from the sailboat outperformed all three of the other images by nearly 400%. After that overwhelming vote of confidence, I changed the cover photo of my Facebook page to the sailboat scene this morning.

Facebook cover photos have always intrigued me, mostly because it is just another thing to "get right" in the game of attracting new readers or fans. The image you feature needs to grab their attention without going over the top. Here are four things I considered as I chose the images for the ad run, which ultimately translated into my new cover photo:

1) If at all possible, use your own photo or graphic. By using someone else's photo, you're not showing off your work. Sure, someone else's image may be pretty, but giving proper credit on Facebook isn't the easiest thing to do. It also allows for someone to snipe the image and use it for their page, thus causing the same problem that happens frequently on Pinterest: lost, stolen or missing image attribution. Avoid all of that--and use one of your favorite Instagrams or snaps from a recent vacation.

2) This may seem obvious, but choose something that appeals to the type of people you'd like to reach. I would love to attract readers who have a thing for New England, hence several photos in this experiment having a northeastern pull. Ask yourself if this particular photo would make you want to click over or stay for awhile to scroll through your page.

3) Don't overdo it. A busy image with lots of text may seem appealing, but the attention span of most people is under ten seconds. You only have so long to "hook" someone. In a very literal sense, think of your cover photo as your magazine cover: would you want to pick up a magazine with a super cluttered cover? No...

4) Adhere to Facebook's sizing suggestions. I created my images in the 851 pixels wide x 315 pixels tall format. You should too! Whenever Facebook gives clear suggestions on sizing, I follow them! No one likes distorted images or text. 

What other suggestions would you have for bloggers and businesses as they create their own cover photos? What appeals to you? What turns you away? I think the best way to help one another is by sharing our own observations. Even if you're not a blogger, I still think these suggestions can apply to your own cover page. Last but not least: if you're here as a result of my "experiment" this weekend, I'm glad to have you! Thank you for the insight into making my little corner of the internet better. I hope this helps beautify and boost your own Facebook page in the process! xoxo {av}