If you’ve ever tried to change your Facebook profile picture before, whether for your personal profile or fan page, you know how frustrating it can be. On top of Facebook’s technical glitches, which leave you wonder if you’re permanently stuck with that question mark of doom, the thumbnail never seems to look right.
On your personal profile thumbnail, you’re either a tiny speck in the distance or you’re showing off your left eyebrow. On your fan page, your brand’s logo is cut off. Here are some fan pages that still haven’t gotten it quite right:
Facebook recommends that profile pictures should be 200px wide. They height can vary up to three times the width. However, they don’t make it clear how the thumbnail that Facebook uses is generated from this picture.
You’ll find that Facebook crops images when generating a thumbnail, losing information around the edge. You can edit the thumbnail to drag it to a different part of your picture, but you cannot expand the thumbnail selection. So when you create your profile image that’s 200px wide, allow a 12 pixel border around crucial information such as a brand name or logo to allow for automatic cropping.
Also remember that Facebook thumbnails are always square, regardless of the shape of your profile image. So when designing rectangular profile pictures, make sure to keep your desired thumbnail imagery within a square boundary. Then you can edit the thumbnail selection accordingly.
Update 03/05/2012: Have the profile image specifications changed with the new Facebook Timeline Pages?
No. The rules above still apply. Your profile image will appear as a 125 x 125 pixel box, but if you attempt uploading a picture that small, you will see an error message! So intuitive, right? The dimensions above still apply to Timeline pages.
How to update your fan page profile image
Once you have the image created, go to Manage > Edit Page in your Admin Panel.
Select Profile Picture in the sidebar.
Click Choose File and find the image on your hard drive.
How to edit your fan page thumbnail
After the photo uploads, click Edit Thumbnail below the picture.
Next, drag the little image until the main part of the profile image is within the thumbnail box. When you’re happy with the way it looks, click Save. That’s it!
To learn how to fully optimize your Facebook fan page to build your fan page and get more likes, download the eBook Stand Out on Facebook. With this eBook, you’ll learn how to:
Update your page for the new Timeline Fan Page design- Get more likes with the like-gated content offer strategy
- Learn how to create a Facebook fan engagement strategy
- Build a content schedule to keep fans coming back for more
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Actually it appears that you don’t have the leave the border in your profile picture now – they SEEM to use the whole 200 x 200. But thanks for your help – shame Facebook don;t have something similar!
Hi there!!! I love the excerpt of your book I just came across when attempting to improve the appearance of my FB foto. So much so that I just bought your book. I’m looking forward to reading it and improving my appearance. Thanks in advance, Tony.
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