This is Day 4 of the 30 Days to 3,000 Fans program. You can learn more about the program here.
Most people just quickly upload their photo to their Facebook page and never think about it again. This is probably one of the worst mistakes you can make. Facebook doesn’t provide many customization options for the main public profile page meaning that your photo is what sets your public profile apart from others. Back in February, Rob Banagale wrote a guest post on our blog about various ways of customizing your Facebook profile photo. Since then, thousands of people have customized their profile photo in creative ways and a few of those individuals have posted screenshots of their photo.
While the individuals were modifying their personal profile photo, the same rules go for public profile photos. Below I’ve included a couple creative profile photo screenshots and outline the steps necessary to customizing your public profile in creative ways.
Facebook Page Photo Restrictions
Before designing your custom photo you should understand what restrictions there are. The first thing to understand is the size of the photo you can have. Facebook by default resizes all photos down to a maximum width of 200 pixels and a maximum height of 600 pixels. There are plenty of creative uses of this space. Some of the best examples take advantage of the maximum space available. Four interesting designs I’ve see are included below:
The Awkward Photo Background
Facebook is known for having an awkward background for photos. There is a line and a darker background at the top portion of every public profile photo. The top color is the hex color #edeff4. The line is #d8dfea. The most challenging part of the background is that depending on how long your status update is, the height of the line can be adjusted. The line is exactly 52 pixels above the top. You’ll need to avoid posting longer updates though if you want your photo background to stay lined up properly.
If done properly, there are infinite possibilities for extremely creative public profile photos that take advantage of the photo background line. Below I’ve included a few creative examples that use the awkwardly place line effectively:
One prerequisite of making the necessary changes is that you have a basic understanding of a photo manipulation software package like Adobe Photoshop. Most people have at least a basic photo editing software on their computer. It’s well worth the effort of customizing your public profile photo because it can drive users to become a fan.
Daily Task
Spend some time developing a creative Facebook profile photo for your newly launched Facebook Page. You will benefit greatly from investing a little extra time in developing a creative image.
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How do some of the fan pages have transparent images as profile pics? (ie. iTunes)
I know those pages have been around for a long time, but I've seen some new pages allowed to have transparent images as well.
You should also note that the thumbnail cuts off about 30px from the original image so while its true that 200px is standard for a profile pic, 170px is the key "safe zone" for a thumbnail to render correctly.
Comment by Cory — August 14, 2009 @ 7:08 am
Very interesting article. I posted a related entry on images on LinkedIn yesterday here: http://www.tomhcanderson.com/2009/08/13/why-my-li...
Comment by Tom H. C. Anderson — August 14, 2009 @ 7:25 am
Glad to see that so many people have enjoyed this guide. The best part of writing it has been seeing all the creative stuff people have done as a result.
Comment by Rob — August 14, 2009 @ 7:29 am
I just worry about what the thumbnail would look like. I feel like people see the thumbnail more frequently than the profile picture itself.
Comment by R. — August 14, 2009 @ 8:20 am
great ideas
Comment by Facebook User — August 14, 2009 @ 8:44 am
Hi.. I just used the idea of the paper clip.. the is working great with my profile picture. Thanks for the post
Comment by Kareem — August 14, 2009 @ 10:05 am
I have been working custom images for my profile for a while now. It is a lot of fun! The challenge is coming up with new concepts.
Comment by Mike — August 14, 2009 @ 11:20 am
Obviously, I've never had need of this article. It's just common sense – first impressions being the most important on the internet. I had 5,000 friends (the max limit) the day before yesterday. I got sick of Facebook loading slowly, apps not working and a host of other problems and deleted many of my "fans" (i.e., perverts) who never contacted me.
I got down to 3,000…..
…still having app and loading issues.
The magic number happened at 1,480.
Now I have 2,322 requests waiting in the wings. I'm still deciding whether or not I want to accept even half of them.
Comment by Tara O'Sullivan — August 14, 2009 @ 6:59 pm
great post, always focus on visuals!
Comment by Sam Goldfarb — August 15, 2009 @ 9:00 am
Nice post, I just created my version for the Greenpeace Turkey page:
http://www.facebook.com/Greenpeace.Akdeniz.Turkiy...
Comment by Salvatore Barbera — August 16, 2009 @ 10:46 am
Nice info…..
Comment by Leo — August 25, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
I think the idea is good but you need to modify it a little.
Comment by Viagra — August 26, 2009 @ 12:55 am
Hi – wondering if you can help me. I have been struggling with getting creative with my profile pic. No matter what size I make it, I am getting an error that the picture is too tall / wide. I sized it down to 140 by 460 and still get the error. Has there been some change in the max size that I haven't heard about? Thanks so much for your help.
Martha
Comment by martha — March 31, 2010 @ 3:41 pm
I have the same question to Martha … how to you overcome the sizing restrictions as it keeps cropping the image?
Comment by Eddy — January 5, 2011 @ 12:16 am