Are You Breaking Facebook’s 20% Text Rule On Your Page Cover?

Ah, Facebook. I have a love/hate relationship with the site. It is absolutely wonderful as a way to connect with my friends and other photographers, but it also feels like they are always changing the rules for us as business owners. The latest change? The 20% text rule for cover photos and any other images you use for advertising.

Here are the latest page guidelines from Facebook as of December, 2012:

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:
i. images with more than 20% text;
ii. price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”;
iii. contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section;
iv. references to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features; or
v. calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”

These are important rules to note, because when it comes to Facebook we are playing by their rules. You don’t want to risk having your page shut down for breaking them!

My friend Bon at Math Four writes about the math around us, and she did the math to help you understand exactly what 20% of the Facebook cover means. I’ll be honest, the math? Over my head. Prime factorization of 53,613 … what?!? Thankfully, she also created this wonderful graphic with a number of examples of what 20% looks like – and she gave me permission to share it with you here! Thank you, Bon!

Make sure your text fits within the box, and make sure it doesn’t include price or purchase information, contact information, references to features like “Like” or “Share” and no calls to action — and you’ll be good with Facebook and their rules!

Thank you again Bon of Math Four for your help! If you’re a parent, be sure to check out her site – it is amazing!