Dottourism.com

Making the most of your Facebook page profile picture

15 March 2011 | Kate Waite

One of the recent changes to Facebook pages was the reduction of the maximum Facebook profile picture from 200 x 600px to 180 x 540px. However a lot of pages are still using a relatively small profile picture and not making the most of the opportunity that a large profile image can offer.

This is especially important for travel and tourism brands where the strong use of imagery is particularly important for destination based marketing.

Incorporate copy that used to be in the information box

One of the changes implemented last week was the removal of the information box on the left hand side of the page, underneath the Facebook profile picture. If you were using this for important information you might want to consider incorporating it into your profile picture.

On client Mahindra Homestays page the information box was used to let Facebook fans know about a special discount they could receive for being a member of the page. This has now been incorporated into the main profile image.

Create a strong impact for visitors and tie into other branding

Comparing the profile image area for The Countryside page you can see for the 2010 campaign we were using a logo with the old information box below it. For the 2011 campaign we are using the large style profile image, again incorporating the information lost from the box below. We’ve also used a collage of countryside related images to tie in with the Twitter branding we developed and to create a strong impact for visitors to the page.



Using a mosaic section of images can be applied for many brands, such as a hotel showing images of rooms and facilities. Larger images can also be very effective for destination marketing. The Colorado Facebook page makes good use of their profile picture space.

Setting the thumbnail version

You do have the option to set the page thumbnail image version, choosing from part of the larger profile. This is the small logo you see used around the site, such as alongside your name when making a post.

It is a good idea to ensure that your large profile picture has an element that can easily be selected to work well as a thumbnail version. For example we used the Countryside logo with a white border on the main image allowing us to isolate this easily to use as the thumbnail version.

This is especially important if you wish to comment as your page on other pages where visitors will only see the thumbnail version of your picture.



If you want help with the design of your Facebook page please get in touch with us, we would love to help!