*UPDATED JUNE 2014*
Facebook events are seeing more upgrades than ever before. With the added ability to upload a Facebook Event cover image, you can now make your events more appealing and eye catching. But before you start creating your banner image, you may want to optimize the graphic first so its thumbnail displays correctly across the platform.
In this social media tutorial, I’ll go over how to add a Facebook Event photo and provide a template with the dimensions and size information you need to make the very best Event cover image awesome!
Adding a Facebook Cover image is relatively easy, however, when it comes to optimizing your event image to display in ads or as a page post you can run into a few problems.
SEE ALSO: How to Add a Facebook Group Cover Photo
Creating an optimized photo does takes extra time that you may not want to spend, however as you’ll see in the examples below the results will look polished, more professional, and show your fans you care about their experience with your Page.
WARNING! Supposedly, if Facebook recognizes a persons face in your Event Cover image, Facebook will automatically created a thumbnail with the face as the image.
Now, if your Facebook Event Cover photo doesn’t include faces, you’ll be ok. However, you should always take this into consideration when designing your Facebook event artwork.
Walkthrough:
1) Log into your Facebook page/business page.
2) Create a new Facebook event by filling in dates, times, and description. *Note: You can navigate to www.facebook.com/PAGENAME/events to easily access and create events.*
3) Once your event is created locate the “Add Event Photo” at the top right corner of your new event page.
4) Follow the examples below to create an optimized Facebook Event cover photo to display correctly across the platform.
Bad Example:
Take this image for example, here’s what the cover photo looks like when uploaded:
Example Facebook Event Cover Image
The following photos show the thumbnail for the event…not too pretty, right?
As page post:
Event shown as a Page Post
Displayed on Timeline:
How the event looks on the Timeline
Displayed as Facebook Ad:
Event thumbnail as a Facebook Ad
Displayed in Facebook Events Tab
How your event appears listed
Good Example:
I found this very helpful template from yoconta.com. So props to them for doing the testing to find out which dimensions and size works best as a Facebook Event Cover photo.
Click on this image for the full-size Template
By including the text within the 288 x 192 center block, I can be sure the thumbnail for the event will not cut off any words. Here’s what the event looks like with a new optimized Facebook Event cover image.
Optimized Facebook Event Thumbnail
Takeaway
Facebook has focused more attention on events which is great news! But they failed to include the best practices regarding the right dimensions to have your event cover image thumbnail display properly across the platform.
When you take the time to optimize your Facebook Event cover photo, you not only make the event more visually appealing but it puts a much more professional polish to your page.
