One of the biggest identifying factors to your brand on social media, are your profile pictures and your cover photos. What once was empty space that needed filling, is now branding availability to set your company apart from others.

No matter how many times you’ve changed your profile picture and cover photo in the past, it doesn’t mean that you can’t set up a schedule and create strategic changes that reflect your brand, and enhance each visitor’s experience.

Your Profile Picture

Those who find themselves searching for your company, or come across your profile, will be looking at your profile picture to create a connection, and connect their search to a business.

Your profile picture should be your brand logo, formatted to the circular 170×170 px. Now, this size is specifically for desktop, but the key here is to keep the picture square, no matter the size. Facebook will format, so feel free to create a 1000×1000 px image even.

In recent updates, Facebook has a square and circular profile picture. It may take some practice, but be sure that your logo fits within the circular image, without too much white space, and not exceeding the boundaries of the profile picture.

How often should you update? Outside of branding changes, your profile picture should only change 2-3 times a year, and only in variations of your company’s logo. Be sure to allow users to find your business and connect with your brand at any time. If you change your profile picture too much away from your brand’s identity, you may lose valuable customers.

Cover Photo Strategy

Cover photos are much more flexible when it comes to making changes more frequently. Feel free to change your cover photo 4-6 times a year. If you are changing your profile picture, be sure to change your cover photo to fit in with the theme.

Outside of profile picture changes, seasons, holidays, and other events can impact how often you change your cover photo.

For companies that sell apparel, for example, can change when seasonal trends change, or a new line of products come out.

Many businesses won’t have a need to change their profile picture more than once a year, but it’s important to stay updated with new themes and other happenings within your business.

Conclusion

Pretty straight forward, right? Profile pictures and cover photos pair well together, and it is important to make organized changes that allow users to engage with new imagery, but not lose sight on branding.