Four Creative Uses of Facebook Profile Pics by Nonprofits on Facebook Pages
[tweetmeme] First impressions are very important online, and the four nonprofits listed below have gone out of their way to make a strong one upon potential new Facebook Fans. Beyond the obvious graphic design work, what’s exceptionally smart is that they have also cropped the graphic to create a solid, square avatar that’s seen by their Fans in their News Feeds via Status Updates. The consistent use of a square avatar is necessary for successful online branding on social networking sites. The question is, will these profile pics function similarly when the new Facebook Pages go live? We’ll just have to wait and see.
AIDS Health Care Foundation :: facebook.com/AIDShealth
The Trevor Project :: facebook.com/TheTrevorProject
The Enough Project :: facebook.com/enoughproj
SOS Children’s Villages :: facebook.com/soschildrensvillages
Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog :: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits 
This is an awesome idea and I plan to do it for our page, Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana, but how do I ensure that what shows up in the little square is what I want? Check out what I’ve done if you can and help 🙂
The admin of your Facebook page can edit your thumbnail by placing the mouse/arrow in the top right corner of the profile picture… it will then show you a change picture option and in the drop down menu is an “edit thumbnail” where you can crop to just your logo.
Thank you Dee. You are my hero!
Check out the center for african affairs & global peace (caaglop) profile pic http://www.facebook.com/caaglop its in the same vertical style and looks like this is here to stay!
We have gone to a very similar look on our page http://www.facebook.com/sertomainc and the page of our subsidiary company http://www.facebook.com/HearingCharities . I think this is definetly the way to make your page more distinctive and increase branding. I really like the way SOS Childrens Village incorporated the “Like” and “Suggest to Friends” request into their banner. I may have to consider redoing ours to use some of these elements.
Can anyone tell us what the exact width of their pictures is? That’ll make it easier to mimic the great idea. =)
Right-click and download to the images. Avatars should be approximately 250 pixels by 250 pixels.
I saved a copy of the SOS Children’s Village pic, then opened it up to check size. For anyone else wishing to mimic, it is 200 pixels wide by 550 pixels high (0.667 inches wide x 1.833 inches high).
Let me take this question as step back …. how do you get the large vertical image on the left side of your Facebook page? I am well up to speed on cropping the image for the avatar – but have no idea what so ever on how to get a large image on the left side of the page to begin with.
You have to custom-design one. 🙂
I’m not skilled in PhotoShop, so I use a shortcut: I create images (adding photos, text boxes, graphics, etc.) in MS Publisher using a special size blank page, then “Save As” a JPG or PNG file. I believe the same can be done in PowerPoint and Word, if you have the newer versions.
These are all very eye-catching! I especially like the Sos avatar, but all really stand out. Here is the one we designed for the Department for Persons with Disabilities: http://www.facebook.com/DPDCC. I also use publisher for photo editing and do the same as Jennifer.
Jennifer Tislerics,thanks so much for the tip! I just created something in MS Publisher and have now used it on my company’s FB page! It looks so much better than it did!
My pleasure! Always glad to help my colleagues. =)
Love this idea! I notice that these all use the “old” version of the Facebook page (or what will soon be the “old” version). Are there any special considerations for the new layout? I believe the profile picture changed in size a little, didn’t it?
Thanks so much! Check out the banner we worked up, and let me know what you think!
http://www.facebook.com/LGBTHumanistCouncil
Perfect. 🙂
I was inspired by this post and decked out the Urban Ecology Center Facebook Page to help promote an upcoming event (The Local Farmer Open House). You can see it here: http://www.facebook.com/urbanecologycenter (until 3-13) (Here’s a screenshot too: http://ow.ly/i/8Zlw/original) What do you think?
Nice. Bookmarked. 🙂