By now you’re probably aware that your Facebook profile has automatically been upgraded to the new timeline layout, which features a large cover at the very top.
Many organizations, like the Ocean Concervancy, are creating covers that supporters can use on their timeline (see the example Beth is using above).
Dave Connell, of the OC said they’re “offering up these covers is a way for our supporters to express their personal support for the ocean.”
Notice that there is no hard-sell pitch for donations (which could violate Facebook’s TOC). Rather, the OC covers are “lightly branded” beautiful photographs of various ocean life.
How to create a custom Facebook cover for your nonprofit
The easiest way to create a custom Facebook cover is to get a designer to create one using Photoshop.
Have your designer use the dimensions shown below, or download the Photoshop template here which includes three layers:
- Background color – Which can be deleted or edited.
- Profile picture box – This is intended to show you exactly where the user’s profile pic will appear on your cover. You want to know where the profile pic will be displayed so that you don’t block an important part of your Facebook cover. You can also use the profile pic to make your Facebook cover stand out.
- Dimension layer – This layer is informational only and should be hidden or deleted.
What if you don’t have Photoshop? If you don’t have access to a designer or Photoshop, you can use pixlr, which is an online photo editing website that allows you to upload and crop photos at any dimension.
How to upload your new cover into Facebook
After you or your designer have created the images, create a Facebook Page photo album and then promote these covers via email, news feed and any other means.
Let’s see your Facebook Covers!
Post a link to your Facebook covers on the Nonprofit Facebook Guy wall.
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Can you do this for pages? I’m confused.
You can’t do this for pages, yet. However, I believe the point of this was to say you can provide free covers for people’s profiles to support the cause.
[...] látunk egy jó ötletet John Hayden blogjában, aki még egy Photoshop sablont is ad az olvasóinak. De nézzük mit?l is [...]
happy holidays!!!!
Happy holidays!!
Great instructions! I’ll be working on lots of these for clients later.
Awesome!
Great work! Thank u!
I agree with you!
John,
These are great, super helpful to have the space for the profile picture included in the template. Thanks for putting it together!
Anytime!
This is terrific. Thank you for sharing.
Anytime David!
I’ve noticed that facebook seems to downsize a picture, then stretch it to fill the cover slot. This results in a partially grainy/pixelated version of the original. Any ways around this?
Yup. Make sure you use the recommended dimensions.
Use the recommended dimensions.
I always used 849x314px images, but they end up being grainy anyway.
You have the wrong resolution.
what is the right resolution i have tried 300 and 72 and saved as GIF as well as JPEG
I’d get a graphic designer to take a look.
John,
Thanks for letting people know about what Ocean Conservancy is up to and for spreading the word on the Facebook covers. I hope this is something other non-profits adopt to help build support. I’m interested to see if Facebook has any objections to this tactic, but so far we’ve heard none. I definitely think this has to be done as a show of support, without a hard ask for donations to be effective. We even debated adding the “show your ocean love” bit at the lower-righthand corner, but figured others might want to know where to pick up a sweet cover!
Thanks as always for the great non-profit social media coverage!
Dave Connell, Ocean Conservancy Director of Digital Marketing
[...] nisto este site aqui em idioma inglês, está oferecendo um modelo (template) em PSD (arquivo ZIP) customizável para [...]
[...] Haydon offers more detailed advice on how to do this, including a [...]
Thank you so much, but I created a non-profit group, is timeline also available for those?
John,
Do you know if Timeline will become available for organisations or businesses any time soon? Noah – Ontario Nature
Noah – Not sure yet. It will happen, but I think the strategy for Timelines is to increase user engagement, not necessarily to enhance brand pages.
Timeline Cover is getting very popular now a days.. .since time will come when people will show advertisement as Cover for few Bucks… lol
Nice tips to make my Facebook Timeline stand-alone. Thanks.
[...] With the new Facebook timeline feature available for personal pages now (and business pages possibly later), nonprofits have a great opportunity to have their “lightly branded” photos in front of a lot of people in the form of timeline covers. How to create Facebook Timeline covers for your nonprofit. [...]
Thanks so much for the free template. It is much appreciated.
Anytime!
Anytime!
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[...] How to create Facebook Timeline covers for your nonprofit (template included) [...]
[...] Haydon has a great “how-to” article and template for creating a Facebook [...]
[...] a link to the Facebook timeline cover template when you get to the page you’ll see a download [...]
Thanks alot for your free template and instructions. It was very helpful to me for creating a timeline cover for my online ministry page on Facebook. I think I was able to do a pretty good job on the first try even though I am a bit of a newbie with Photoshop. I will post a link on your FB Wall.