Your Facebook Cover Still Says Summer
Someone looks up your church on Facebook before they ever visit. If the cover still shows the summer series, swap it for this Sunday.
Someone hears about your church from a coworker on Thursday. Before they ever visit, they look you up on Facebook.
The first thing they see is the big picture across the top of your page. And on a lot of church pages in October, that picture is still the summer series. Sometimes it's Easter. Sometimes it's a photo of a building that got repainted two years ago.
Nobody did anything wrong. The cover just isn't on anyone's list. But it's the biggest thing on the page, and it's telling a visitor what's happening at your church right now.
The fix is small: change the cover every time the series changes, and make it from the series art you already have.
Why the cover matters more than it seems
Your posts scroll away. The cover stays put. It's the one image every person sees when they land on your page, whether they came from a search, a shared post, or a friend's tag.
If the cover matches what's on the screen this Sunday, it says the page is alive and someone is paying attention. If it's two series old, a visitor has to wonder whether the service times in the "About" section are old too.
Put it on the list with the series
The easiest way to keep it current is to stop treating it as its own job. When a new series starts, the Facebook cover is one of the sizes you make, right next to the screen slide, the feed post, and the story.
If it's made at the same time as everything else, it goes up at the same time as everything else. If it's a separate task, it waits until spring.
The size, without the confusion
Facebook's own help pages say a cover loads fastest as a file 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. They also say it must be at least 400 by 150.
Here's the part that trips people up: the cover doesn't show up the same everywhere. Meta's business help pages list it as showing about 820 by 312 on a computer and 640 by 360 on a phone. Facebook's main help page describes the shape a little differently. Either way, the phone shows a different slice of the picture than the computer does.
So don't design to the edges. Keep it simple:
- Put the words in the middle. The left and right sides can get trimmed on phones.
- Watch the left side. Facebook says your page's profile picture partly covers the left side of the cover.
- Use fewer words than you think. The series title, and maybe "Sundays at 9 & 11." That's plenty.
- Save it as a PNG if it has text or your logo on it. Facebook's help page says that may give you a sharper result.
Don't just shrink the screen slide
The stage slide is shaped like a TV. The Facebook cover is long and skinny. If you drop the slide in, Facebook crops the top and bottom, and the title usually loses its first or last word.
The cover needs the same look laid out for its own shape: title centered, art behind it, nothing important near the edges.
In Church Graphics, the Facebook cover is one of the sizes you can pick in the same project as your screen slide, feed post, and story. Your logo and colors carry through, and the title is laid out for the cover's shape instead of cropped out of the slide.
Check it on your phone
Before you call it done, open your church page on your phone. Most people who find you will see it there first.
Look for three things:
- Can you read the title without zooming?
- Is any word cut off or hiding under the profile picture?
- Does it match what's on the screen this Sunday?
If all three are yes, you're done until the next series.
Do this today
- Open your church's Facebook page and look at the cover.
- If it isn't this series, swap it today.
- Next time a series starts, make the cover with everything else.
- Check it on your phone before you post.
It takes a few minutes. And it's the first thing a lot of visitors will see this week.
Keep reading: One Title. Every Size. · Church Social Media Image Sizes · Your Livestream Thumbnail Is the Invite