Your Facebook Timeline cover photo is the first thing people see when they land on you page…it is essentially a big billboard for your brand.

If you don’t have a compelling Facebook Timeline Cover or don’t have a Timeline cover at all then this post will help you make the most of this valuable real estate.

Before we get into my 7 design tips I want to emphasize the importance of optimizing your Timeline cover to help you net more clicks and conversions.

The most important optimization element is to include a link in your Timeline cover description with a call to action so that people who click your timeline cover are encouraged to click through to a landing page.

Ideally you should send traffic to a landing page where you offer something of value in exchange for contact information so you can build your list with your Facebook page.

Check out my Facebook page to see how I optimize my description for clicks and conversions.

On to the subject a  hand…tricking out your timeline cover.

The first free tool I want to share helps you do just that and appropriately enough they are called Tricked out Timeline.

Tricked out Timeline enables you to easily implement the four different effects.

1. Merge Your Profile Picture and Cover Photo

This effect is pretty cool since it shows you are savvy enough to coordinate your profile picture and timeline cover.

You can implement this effect by uploading two similar images or take the easier approach of using Tricked out Timeline to streamline the process.

Here are the three steps to implementing this effect with Tricked out Timeline.

2. Missing Jigsaw Piece Effect

Again our friends at Tricked out Timeline can help you easily create and apply this effect.

It takes just three steps.

3. Tear Off The Bottom Edge Effect

This effect is nothing too intense but it will still set you apart from the majority of pages if you use it so it’s worth the mention.

Tricked out Timeline makes implementing this easy and again it’s three simple steps.

If you have some design skills you could apply this effect to all edges of your timeline cover photo for a more unique style.

4. Profile Picture Zoom Effect

This effect keeps zooming in on your profile picture as your cover photo.

Since your profile picture is visible beside every post you make this effect makes sense since it will be amplifying an effect your audience is already familiar with.

This is the fourth of four effects from Tricked out Timeline.

5. Canva

Canva proudly displays their endorsement from the Webby’s saying that they are “the easiest to use design tool in the world.”

I used Canva for the first time when researching this post and in fact it is very easy to use!

Even their demo video is only twenty something seconds long.

First select Facebook Cover for your project in Canva.

Below shows the simple steps involved in getting a timeline cover template started with Canva.

It’s literally just a case of grabbing the template you want, doing a quick search for some relevant pics, then drag and dropping them in.

Here’s an example of what the editing screen looks like.

6. Use a Photoshop Template

In a not so distant post here on the blog I released 20 Awesome Free Facebook Timeline Cover Templates.

Here’s what they look like.

These templates will give you a foundation for a snazzy custom Facebook timeline cover design.

For your design you can use Photoshop (Adobe offers a free trial) or if you prefer a free alternative you can use the online photo editing tool Pixlr.

7. Hire Someone

Ultimately someone who does design for a living can usually create a considerably better finished product than someone who cannot.

The good news is there are many graphic designers in the world so if you do a bit of digging you can almost certainly find someone with skills for a reasonable price.

Check out an outsourcing site like freelancer or leverage a crowd sourcing design site like 99designs.

Bonus Tip: Create a Never-ending Timeline Cover

One cool timeline cover photo hack you might want to emulate is the Never-ending Timeline Cover style.

I’ve seen a few people use this style and it looks pretty cool.

Feedback

There you have it: 7 Ways to Trick Out Your Facebook Timeline Cover Photo.

Let me know what you do to make your Timeline cover photo

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Garin

Garin Kilpatrick is an Internet business developer, social media strategist, and the founder of this blog! He also created the Facebook Marketing success system: fbPower.

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