I was curious to see what libraries who had already turned on timeline was doing, so I decided a totally unscientific search for libraries on Facebook. I ended up with 183 so far (no doubt there are more) and I posted them on my Pinterest board.
Basically I saw the following types of Facebook cover photos
- External building shots
- Interior shots without people prominent
- Interior shots with people front and center
- Book shots
- Photo collage
- Others (events. memes etc)
1. External building shots
These were pretty popular, I suppose because they are easy to find? Some examples
Standard building shot
Another one
Another one
Night shots
Another one
Another one
Historical photos?
External photo with people
Artistic impressions?
2. Interior shots without people
This is fairly popular but many of these photos are purely interior shots with nobody in the shot or perhaps in the distance.
View from counter
More
More
More
Limited angles
Yet another
View of Counter
3. Interior shots with people front and center
Standard students studying shot
Standard teens reading shot
Students identified
People having fun/studying/working shots
Yet another one
Yet another one
Standard kid discovering magic in book shot
Cute kids shot
Yet another
Yet another kids shot
Cartoon constumes shot
Yet another
Staff photo
While there are cover photos of library staff at the desk (see below for one example) far fewer group photos of staff
I found only 2 group photos, here is one
Yet another group shot, not sure if is of library staff
4. Book shots
Librarians loves books, so quite a few shots of books, books-shelves and computers
5. Photo collages
These tend to be very rare and in my opinion generally don't work out as well as having one sprawling picture. Here's are some that are not too bad in my view
For library systems with many locations photo collages can be used for different libraries
6. Others
There are other creative ways one can use the cover photo. Some examples
Using memes?
Hey it's the Ryan Gosling meme!
Marketing for events?
Facebook has strict rules governing the rules for cover photos. You are not supposed to add
"Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page's About section" and "calls to actions". Unfortunately I have noticed two libraries that may have broken this rule, one has email , phone number and opening hours, while another has opening hours. I decided not to link to those pages for obvious reasons.
I *think* it's okay to advertise events? No sure if it counts as calls to action, probably not.
Celebrity endorsement?
Quite a few have pictures of flowers and plants not quite sure significance (state flower?)
Some item in the library archives?
Library stuff
Others I can't even classify
Conclusion
Quite a collection of images and this is but part of those I saw. Which ones are your favourites? Personally I find the ones with the kids are so adorable.
Anyway, I hope this survey of Facebook cover photos will give you some inspiration or ideas on what photo to use for your Facebook page.
