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Featuring marketing tips, tech news, digital wonders, some personal things and everything in between . . .

Month: April 2012

Focus On Your Facebook Profile Picture


Sunday April 29, 2012

Reading Time: 5 minutes
facebook logo

We know it seems like of late we have focused a lot on business Facebook pages. A couple of weeks ago we talked about putting some finishing touches on your business page. Then we shared the evolution of Webconsuls’ Facebook cover photo. But here’s the catch: Like we said before, it seems Facebook is never finished and always evolving.  So today let’s talk about your business profile picture.

On April 18, 2012, Facebook page managers received the following message in their weekly Facebook page update.

“On April 26, we will be updating the size of the profile picture on all Pages. We are letting you know about this small change in advance so that you can update your profile picture on April 26. The new profile picture will be 160 x 160 pixels and will sit at 23 pixels from the left and 210 pixels from the top of the Page.”

A number of articles have been written about this update. The best and most clearly written with great visualizations is Facebook to Increase Profile Picture Size for Pages. Take the time to read this article. Want to see a variety of Facebook pages? Visit Facebook’s Discover Pages page.

Here are a few hints to consider when you are updating your profile picture:

  1. It does not need to be a picture of just your logo. Many logos are horizontal and do not fit neatly into a square.  For example, Coca-Cola has a horizontal logo, but their profile picture is of a Coke bottle which sends a complete message.
  2. If your profile picture is not sized correctly it will be blurry. You know you have seen many business pages with blurry profile pictures. Just last week we helped our client Clear View Business Solutions update their profile picture.
  3. You can opt to incorporate your “logo” in your cover photo and have your profile picture feature a product, people or a tagline/written message.
  4. If you are struggling with your logo, reach out to your web design company or a friend. Try to have different sizes and shapes for your logo. Remember your Facebook page could be your first and last impression!

Here you can see the latest version of our Facebook page. Notice the Profile Picture got slightly larger in the past couple of days.  Remember you can click on the image to make it larger.

webconsuls facebook

Hope you will leave a comment and let us know what is your favorite business Facebook page.

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Two weeks ago I talked about adding some finishing touches to your Facebook business page. In particular, I urged you to create your business Facebook “cover photo” and to think through what message you wanted to send with that photo. Of late, I used our Webconsuls Facebook page to feature our clients’ Facebook cover photos. All the while, I was working with our Webconsuls’ team members to determine what our cover photo should say about us.

Here is a little of how this process went: We are not a traditional brick and mortar business, so we knew we wouldn’t present a photo of our storefront. We also knew that our team members live in five different states and three time zones, so getting together for a group shot was not going to happen. Additionally, we felt that taking the approach that we use on our Twitter page, that is listing our services, would not really make us unique or tell our story.

So how do we tell Webconsuls’ story? What makes us unique?  I remember when Dick and Dennis first decided to form Webconsuls. They went back and forth about what to name their business, how would they convey their vision.  The good news is they committed this history to a press release and here is what they wrote November 16, 1999.

‘The name Webconsuls was chosen very deliberately. A consul is an official appointed by a government to advance the commercial interest of its citizens in a foreign country. Webconsuls is conceived as describing “a firm which advances the commercial interest of its clients on the World Wide Web.” As Dick Fay recently remarked, “Web sites do not automatically produce dollars. Success is realized when web sites are carefully marketed and targeted, those activities being integrated into a tailored, well–orchestrated business campaign.”‘

And so, between a few emails and phone calls the Webconsuls’ team decided our cover photo should be a collage of the team members. It is not about being techies or understanding all the latest software and tools, but more about being people who work with other people to promote the success of our clients’ businesses. It is a collaborative process and we think that is what our current cover photo says.

webconsuls facebook cover
Webconsuls’ FACEBOOK Cover Photo April 2012 – click on it to enlarge!

What do you think? Notice I said current, because we can refresh it and keep it vital. Like any collage it tells a story…Dennis, Judy and Dick meeting 31 years ago at an ARCO training seminar, Malik’s college graduation and enjoying a California sunset, Heidi receiving her master’s from NYU and “horsing around”, Alycia and Bill celebrating their wedding in Hawaii, Dick supporting his beloved DUKE and the Phillies, Dennis meeting with clients, Daniel working with animals and ‘dressing to the nines’, Keith enjoying life and supporting the Toronto Blue jays…the story goes on.

We look forward to your comments or stop by our FACEBOOK page and “like” us.