Facebook Modifies Cover Image Rules

It's become apparent that Facebook has modified their rules and regulations for what businesses can put on their Facebook cover images on their business page. Before, companies weren't allowed to have ANY form of call to action, contact, or pricing information. You weren't allowed to put things like "Buy One, Get One Free" or go to ABCCompany.com for a free download. You couldn't even use words like "tell/refer your friends" OR any contact information such as physical address, website, email or anything that Facebook thought you should have on your "about" page. Oh. And you can't have text be more than 20% of the image.

Essentially, they did not want companies creating a billboard where the cover image should be.

However, everywhere you looked you saw the exact thing that you "weren't" supposed to do.

And now, that has changed. Like a thief in the night, Facebook "rolled out" a change to their policies, and now the ONLY rule that I can find pertaining to the cover image is the 20% rule:

B. Cover

All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cover. Covers can't be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else's copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text.

My thought is that they couldn't possibly monitor ALL the pages out there, so they decided to pick their battles, and this one just wasn't worth the manpower or effort. I'm curious to see if they'll start easing up on the other rules they have in place such as the ones regulating contests and giveaways.

Another thought is that they are starting to realize that if they don't give brands a reason to stick around, they WILL leave eventually. Especially since the 25 and under crowd continues to prove that they really don't care about Facebook and the brands that are there.

So have fun designing your new cover image, and if you need inspiration or help, you know where to find me!