In this blog post, I want to talk about making the most of your Facebook cover photo and whether you could be wasting valuable space without really thinking about it. This is exactly what I realised I had been doing on my own Roy Bretton Online Facebook Page. There was nothing particularly wrong with my old cover photo, as it was clean, simple and displayed the Roy Bretton Online logo quite clearly. However, when I looked at it more carefully, I realised that it didn’t actually tell a visitor very much about what I do or what my Facebook Page is about.
This came about because I have recently been taking part in a 30-day challenge inside a Facebook group. I find these types of challenges useful because they can push us to take action on things that we may otherwise keep putting off. One of the challenges was to improve our Facebook cover photo, and although it sounds like a relatively small task, it made me look at my own Page in a completely different way. I suddenly realised that I had a large piece of valuable space at the top of my Facebook Page that was doing little more than displaying my name.
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So, I decided to make some changes. In this post, I want to explain the process I went through, why I changed the cover, how I used AI to help with the design and, perhaps most importantly, why I deliberately decided not to put too much information on it.
What Was Wrong With My Original Facebook Cover Photo?
As I mentioned above, I wouldn’t say there was anything actually wrong with my original cover photo. It showed the Roy Bretton Online logo on a fairly plain background and certainly wasn’t offensive to look at! The problem was that if somebody arrived on my Facebook Page for the first time, they would see the name Roy Bretton Online but they wouldn’t necessarily know what that meant. Was it about affiliate marketing, social media, YouTube, building websites or something completely different?
That got me thinking about how quickly people make decisions when they visit a website or social media page. We don’t normally study every detail when we arrive somewhere new; we tend to glance at a page and make a fairly quick judgement about whether it is relevant to us. With that in mind, it seemed sensible to use my Facebook cover photo to give people a much clearer idea of what Roy Bretton Online is about.
If you are using Facebook for business, I think this is worth considering. Your cover photo takes up a considerable amount of space at the top of your Page, so it makes sense to use that space effectively. It doesn’t need to become a huge advertisement, and personally I wouldn’t want that, but it can certainly help visitors understand what you do and what they can expect from your Page.
Looking At Other Facebook Cover Photos For Ideas
The first thing I did wasn’t to start designing anything. Instead, I went to Facebook and looked at the cover photos of several people I follow. I wasn’t looking to copy anybody else’s design, as I think it’s important to have your own identity, but I wanted to see how other people were using the space available to them. Some were promoting a particular challenge or offer, while others included information about what they did, who they helped or what their business was about.
Looking at several different examples helped me realise that my own cover photo was probably too basic. I liked the simplicity of it, but there is a difference between keeping something clean and simply not providing enough information. I wanted to keep the clean appearance while making the cover work a bit harder for me.
Incidentally, if you’re working on your Facebook business presence, I have several other Facebook articles and tutorials on the website. I have been making a much more deliberate effort with my Facebook Page recently, so I am documenting quite a few of the things I learn along the way.
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Using ChatGPT To Help Create The New Cover
I will be the first to admit that I’m not a graphic designer. I know roughly what I like and what I don’t like, but actually turning those ideas into a finished design is a different matter. This is where I decided to use ChatGPT and AI to help me. Rather than simply asking AI to create a random Facebook cover photo, I had a conversation about what I wanted, showed my existing branding and gradually narrowed down the ideas until we arrived at something that I liked.
Initially, I was given several different suggestions for the wording and layout. One thing I mentioned was that I don’t particularly like excessive capitalisation. I appreciate that capital letters can be useful in certain places, particularly for a short heading, but when everything is written in capitals it can almost feel as though someone is shouting at you. That may just be my personal preference, but the advantage of working through the design gradually was that I could change things until they felt right for me.
I also wanted to keep my existing Roy Bretton Online logo and colours. I already like the green, yellow and charcoal combination, and the logo is something that I use elsewhere, so there didn’t seem much point in throwing away existing branding just for the sake of creating something new. Instead, the idea was to make the logo smaller and allow the rest of the cover to explain more about what I actually do.
What Did I Put On The New Facebook Cover?
After going backwards and forwards with a few ideas, I settled on several key pieces of information. The new cover includes the words Learn • Build • Grow, followed by Build A Genuine Online Business. It also highlights three of the main areas I cover, which are Affiliate Marketing • YouTube • Social Media. I then included 20+ Years Of Online Experience, along with Proven Strategies • Practical Advice • Real Results at the bottom of the cover.
I particularly like the phrase “Build A Genuine Online Business” because I think it sums up what I am trying to do with Roy Bretton Online. There is a tremendous amount of hype surrounding making money online, and unfortunately there are plenty of people who make the whole process sound much easier than it really is. I would much rather encourage people to build something genuine, learn the necessary skills and understand that creating an online business takes time and consistent effort.
If you’re new to this subject and wondering how the process actually works, you may find my article How Making Money Online Really Works useful. In that post, I explain the basic process behind creating content, attracting visitors and generating income online without trying to make the whole thing sound more complicated than it needs to be.
Why I Didn’t Add WordPress And Everything Else
While we were creating the cover, I did wonder whether it would be worth adding WordPress. I have been using WordPress for many years and have built and managed several WordPress websites, so it is certainly something that forms an important part of my online business. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised that there was a danger of trying to include absolutely everything I do.
If I added WordPress, I could then argue that Facebook should be mentioned separately. Then I could add Instagram, website building, content creation, SEO and various other things. Before long, the nice clean cover photo would become a cluttered list of platforms and services. I therefore decided that “Social Media” was broad enough to cover Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other platforms without having to mention each one individually.
I think this is an important point when designing any type of banner or cover photo. Just because there is some empty space doesn’t mean that we have to fill it. Sometimes leaving a little breathing room makes the important information much easier to see. The objective isn’t to tell somebody everything about your business in one image; it is to give them enough information to understand what you do and hopefully encourage them to find out more.
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Your Facebook Cover Photo Is Part Of Your Branding
Another thing that became apparent while doing this exercise was the importance of keeping your branding reasonably consistent. I already had the Roy Bretton Online logo, so it made sense to retain that rather than inventing something completely different. The same applies to colours, fonts and the general feel of your online presence. If somebody sees you on Facebook and then visits your website, YouTube channel or Instagram account, ideally there should be some connection between them so that they know they have found the right person.
I have recently been working on bringing my Facebook and Instagram presence together, including connecting my Facebook business Page to my Instagram Business account. If you are doing something similar, I have written a separate step-by-step guide explaining how to link your Facebook Page to your Instagram Business account. I think there is a lot to be said for making our different online platforms work together rather than treating each one as a completely separate business.
Think About What A New Visitor Sees
One useful exercise is to try to look at your Facebook Page as though you have never seen it before. Forget that you know exactly what your business does and imagine that you have arrived there after seeing a post, comment or video for the first time. Would you immediately understand what the Page is about? Would the cover photo give you any reason to look further, or is it simply a nice-looking image that doesn’t really tell you anything?
With my old cover, people could certainly see the Roy Bretton Online name, but they had to look elsewhere to understand what was behind it. With the new version, they can immediately see references to building a genuine online business, affiliate marketing, YouTube and social media. They can also see that I have more than 20 years of online experience. That doesn’t tell them absolutely everything about me, nor should it, but it gives them enough information to understand the general direction of the Page.
Affiliate marketing has been a major part of my online journey, so if that is something you are interested in, I have also written a straightforward guide called Affiliate Marketing Explained. It explains what affiliate marketing is, how commissions work and how websites, YouTube and other forms of content can be used to promote products and services.
Don’t Turn Your Facebook Cover Into A Sales Pitch
Although I think we should make use of the available space, I don’t think that means turning a Facebook cover photo into a hard-selling advertisement. Personally, I prefer something that looks reasonably professional and tells people what I do without making wild claims or trying too hard to sell something. There are plenty of banners online promising huge amounts of money, instant success and all sorts of other things, but that isn’t the message I want Roy Bretton Online to give.
For me, the cover should act more like an introduction. It tells somebody that the Page is about building an online business and gives them a few clues about the subjects I cover. They can then look at the videos, posts and other information on the Page if they want to know more. I think that creates a much better first impression than either having virtually no information at all or going to the other extreme and filling every available space with text.
AI Can Help, But You Still Need To Make The Decisions
Another interesting part of this process was using AI for something that I’m not particularly skilled at myself. I often use AI for various online tasks, but I don’t think the idea should be to press a button and automatically accept whatever comes out. In this case, the most useful part was actually the conversation and the ability to gradually refine the design. I could explain what I liked, what I didn’t like, whether something looked too cluttered and whether particular wording sounded right.
For example, AI didn’t make the final decision about whether WordPress should appear on the cover; I did. It could give me suggestions and explain the advantages and disadvantages, but ultimately I know my own business and what I want to communicate. I think this is one of the best ways to use AI. Let it help with ideas and do some of the work, but don’t hand over every decision without thinking about the result.
Small Improvements Can Make A Difference
I’ve been working online for around 22 years now, and one thing I have learned is that building an online business is often about making lots of small improvements rather than finding one magical solution. Changing a Facebook cover photo isn’t suddenly going to transform a business or bring hundreds of new customers overnight, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. If it makes your Page clearer, gives visitors a better first impression and helps them understand what you do, then it has served a useful purpose.
The same principle applies to websites, YouTube videos, social media posts and most other parts of an online business. We learn something, make an improvement, see what happens and then move on to the next thing. I certainly didn’t know what I was doing when I first started online, and unfortunately I learned many things the hard way. Thankfully, there are much better ways to learn today, and there is far more information and training available than there was when I started.
If you’re thinking about starting an online business, my article on how to start an affiliate marketing business may also be useful. It goes into more detail about choosing a niche, understanding how affiliate marketing works and starting to build an online presence.
Take Another Look At Your Facebook Cover Photo
If you have a Facebook business Page, I would encourage you to take a fresh look at your own cover photo. You don’t necessarily need to change it, and you certainly don’t need to copy what I have done, but ask yourself whether the space is actually helping you. Does a new visitor know what you do? Is the important information easy to understand? Does the cover fit with the rest of your branding, and have you avoided putting so much information on it that the whole thing becomes difficult to read?
In my case, the exercise made me realise that although my old cover looked perfectly acceptable, it was wasting an opportunity. The new version still keeps the Roy Bretton Online branding that I already had, but it now tells people much more about what the Page represents. I think it looks better, but more importantly, I think it does a better job.
Final Thoughts
Your Facebook cover photo may seem like a relatively small part of your overall online presence, but it occupies some of the most prominent space on your Page. If you’re running a business Page, it seems sensible to use that space to help people understand who you are and what you do. The key, in my opinion, is to find the balance between providing useful information and keeping the design clean enough that people can take it in at a glance.
I certainly don’t claim to be a graphic designer, but going through this process has made me think much more carefully about how I use the space available on my Facebook Page. By looking at what other people were doing, thinking about the message I wanted to convey and then using AI to help create the design, I ended up with something that I believe is considerably more useful than what I had before.
If you are trying to build an online business and you’re not sure which direction to go in, please feel free to reach out or leave a comment. Having been online for around 22 years, I’ve built up a reasonable amount of knowledge through experience, including plenty of things I learned the hard way. If I can help someone avoid some of those mistakes and get started in a better direction, I’m always happy to help.
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