It’s been a while since Timeline was introduced on Facebook. You may not like being forced to move into it, but the Timeline is a great way to promote corporate brands in Facebook pages.

Facebook’s move is also a great equalizer, so that even smaller businesses who do not have the resources to invest in making a landing page would not run short. However, if everyone has the Timeline, how can a business make their Facebook page stand out from the rest?

Fortunately, there are still a few page elements page owners can edit and optimize to suit their needs. One of these elements is the page’s cover photos on Facebook’s new Timeline. As the first thing one sees at the top of a Timeline, it defines that page and gives it personality, so it’s important to pick a picture that describes one’s brand best.

What makes a good cover photo?

In truth, there are no rules. The picture does have to be sized at 850×315 px, and it has to follow Facebook’s Terms and Conditions, but aside from that, everyone is still figuring out how to best utilize these. Social media professionals have applied what they already learned in branding and promotional campaigns elsewhere in creating their pages, and especially in choosing cover photos. Let’s look at these local businesses, what they chose to feature for their cover photo, and why.

Sulit

Sulit is the Philippine’s biggest online selling website. It’s managed to get there even without major advertising by word of mouth, building a reputation, online promotion, and by being a straightforward effective and useful service. Sulit is now being more aggressive in their online advertising, their Google Ads prominently appearing in YouTube and other Google Ad supported sites for Filipinos.

Sulit’s cover page is simple and elegant. No frills, no brand sponsors. Just a purported screenshot of the Sulit search box with the words ” Ano hanap mo? (What are you looking for?)”. Sulit users know that these words appear by default in the actual search box when you go to the site. It’s straight to the point and promotes not just brand recall, but makes current users reminisce about using the site itself. That is what makes it so effective.

AyosDito

AyosDito is Sulit’s closest competitor in the Philippine online marketplace space. In contrast to Sulit, it’s pushing for mainstream advertising to increase brand recognition. In many ways, AyosDito has a completely different business philosophy than Sulit, and this reflects in their Timeline as well.

AyosDito’s cover page prominently features brand sponsor John Lloyd Cruz and enables recall of their recent TV commercial. Like many big brands that use mainstream advertising, their brand sponsor is a vital and ubiquitous part of their campaign. Although it uses brand recall differently from Sulit’s campaign, it has the potential to also be very effective.

Holy Kettle Corn

Holy Kettle Corn’s cover page is again the epitome of simplicity. Instead of a pure illustration of the Holy Kettle Corn logo, they opt to take a photo of the logo on an actual Holy Kettle Corn bag, with some popcorn flanking it. As a photograph, the picture is very well framed, and it helps make the page look more personable and less corporate.

TalkTV

TalkTV is a UHF channel that features morning and evening talk shows, as well as some news and TV magazine programs. Owned by Solar Corporation, it serves to complement their other existing channels and fills a particular niche. Their programs may have fans, but not necessarily the mass appeal of other programs on their other channels. Instead of fighting for the same space, they try to reach out to a particular niche.

TalkTV’s cover photo features hosts of their most popular shows, framed under large quotation marks. The hosts in question are Matt Lauer (Today), Brian Williams (NBC Nightly News), Julie Chen (The Talk) and David Letterman (The Late Show). They are prominent personalities abroad, but may not necessarily have name or face recall locally. The relevance of putting them in the forefront is that TalkTV is reaching out to fans of these celebrities and their shows. The quotation marks are a nice personal touch that helps give the photo, and their page, a bit more personality.

Power Plant Mall

The Power Plant Mall’s cover photo is a nighttime shot of the Power Plant Mall itself. The building is brightly illuminated and the Power Plant logo is visible at the left side. They chose an unusual shot of the mall, but perhaps one that makes it look at its best. Again, the brand benefits from using an actual photo instead of a corporate shot, giving it an air of authenticity.

As you may have seen, we can identify some key traits these cover photos share that we can assume are best practices. As I mentioned above, these cover photos attempt to define the brand on its own. You may also note that these cover pictures use real photos or screenshots were applicable, although we can guess that digital editing may have also been used. Using real photos make them appear more authentic. Finally, these cover photos are simple and uncluttered.

These are examples of only some great cover photos for Timeline pages. Cover photos that have corporate logos, glamor shots or used to advertise monthly promotions or events were not featured here, and may not appear to be suitable cover photos on the surface, but might be best for a particular brand’s needs.

Some of the best practices mentioned above cannot be applied to all brands, so be discriminating. For example, if you are a graphic arts studio, a scanned sample of your artwork would make a better cover photo than a photo of the employees or the building. In essence, you can look at cover photos already used by other brands in their Timeline pages, as well as landing pages used outside Facebook, as inspiration and points of comparison when choosing your own cover photos.