Facebook recently announced that users will start seeing more posts from friends and family (first), rather than those of business pages—not the greatest news for businesses, as once again, organic reach will potentially decline.
However, with the ever-changing Facebook algorithm, businesses need to find new and creative ways to drive traffic back to their websites. One way to do this is to use your cover photo as a lead-generating tool, thereby creating an additional location where you can drive fans back to your landing page to help you capture their contact info.
The Cover Photo Design
Your cover photo, just like any other photo you post on Facebook, is clickable. This means users can click on the photo to expand it and view the complete image.
Once clicked, the photo’s description appears next to the image; this is where you can insert your current promotion or offer. The description should include a short call to action followed by a hyperlink back to a landing page where you can capture contact info.
For instance, if you have a new listing that you want to sell, designing a cover photo that showcases the listing gives users another opportunity to view the property (aside from your regular post/ad), and allows you to give your fans a short description of the property.
‘Click Here’ Sign
There are two different ways to get fans to click on your cover photo. The first is to simply ask them to click. After designing your cover photo, add a “click here” sign to the image.
Add your text slightly off-center on either side so that it will still be visible when Facebook crops the image to fit on your profile. On mobile devices the complete cover photo (no matter the image size) is shown without cropping; however, if the user is on desktop, Facebook crops the photo (unless it’s correctly sized) usually centering the image, which cuts out part of the top and bottom.
The second way to let fans know to click your image to read the image’s description is to add a short CTA to the bottom of the image. Once a fan clicks on the image (on their desktop), the complete photo is shown and fans can see the CTA on the bottom requesting they click on the link to your landing page in your image’s description.
Remember, every time you change your cover photo, Facebook automatically generates a post update, including the photo’s description as the comment. This automatic feature is a great way to inform fans that you’ve changed your cover photo. If you want to expand your exposure, try boosting the post.
While you’re busy creating the best cover photo image to drive traffic to your landing pages, let Homes.com’s Social Fuel experts handle all your Facebook advertising needs. Social Fuel creates ads and posts social content for you. Learn more or send an email to productinfo@homes.com to learn more about Social Fuel.
Patty McNease is director of Marketing for Homes.com. For more information, please visit connect.homes.com.
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