10 tips for a good Facebook profile picture

A couple of weeks ago I looked at what makes a good Facebook page welcome tab, so I thought I would follow that up by looking at the profile picture.

Your page profile picture is the image on the left side of your page and always stays there no matter which tab your visitors click on.

Facts on the profile picture:

• The space you have available is 540 pixels long by 180 pixels wide (of you aren’t sure what this is Facebook will automatically resize what you load up).
• You can change it as often as you like.
• The thumbnail for your page (that’s the little picture that appears next to your page posts in peoples’ newsfeeds and on the wall) is made from your profile picture.
• Every profile picture you upload automatically goes into a photo album called “profile pictures”.

Tips for a good picture:

• Make it eye-catching.
• Simple and clear is better than packing lots in – people shouldn’t need to squint to read things or see what it is in the image.
• Make it relevant, that means if your page is about a product include the product, if your page is about a service-based business show relevant happy customers or the service in action.
• Include your logo so that people know when they first visit that they have the right page – particularly relevant if you don’t have a welcome tab.
• If you include a phone number also include the area code, visitors might not realise you are in a different state to them.
• Make sure it matches the rest of your business’ branding, eg. if your business colours are red and pink, don’t use blue and green, etc.
• If you have a product-based business use it as a place to showcase your products and change it regularly so that people see the range you have. This worked really well on my Mocks page, and when we changed the picture people would ask, “Where do I buy that design?”
• If you have the photos tab showing on your page after you load up a new profile picture go and add a description – this is particularly relevant if you are promoting a product because you can add a link to where it can be bought.
• Get topical, eg. Christmas is around the corner, get a festive picture for the season.

I see some profile pictures that are really wasting what is prime real estate in the Facebook world, because your profile picture becomes your thumbnail and that’s what people see when they search – it’s all about first impressions and making it easy for people to find you. Have a really good look at yours; does it tell someone at a glance what you are all about or are they screwing their eyes up trying to read it?

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks www.MyMocks.com, founder of Social Rabbit – your guide in the world of social media www.Facebook.com/SocialRabbit and author of ‘Brand New Day – the Highs Lows of Starting a Small Business’. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.

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Stealth marketing: Ford makes a noise about EVs

One of the less talked about downsides of the electric vehicle – coming in a distant third to range limitations and the high cost of the batteries – is the stealth quiet of its engine. While we have heard at least one proponent of the EV claim that this could translate into a win, by making real estate on main roads more desirable, the more commonly held belief is that the near noiselessness of EVs makes them a safety hazard for pedestrians – particularly those with impaired vision or hearing. And it’s a bit hard to teach the kids to stop, look and listen when there’s nothing to hear.

For this reason, Japan requires its automakers to install sound alerts in hybrids and EVs – the Nissan Leaf emits an ‘engine noise’ at low speeds and a chirp when the car is in reverse. And in the US, national road safety authorities are currently weighing up whether they should do the same. “Even as we make giant leaps forward with hybrid and electric vehicles, we must remain laser focused on safety,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s David Strickland said in a statement earlier this month, when the agency announced a proposed regulation that would force EVs and hybrids to automatically sound alerts at low speeds. “With more and more quiet vehicles on the road, we have to consider their effect on pedestrians.”

Which brings us to the interesting approach of Ford Motor Co. Rather than wait for a law to be introduced, the US automaker has decided to take affirmative action and install sound alerts in its soon-to-be-released Focus EV. And in the spirit of hair-brained marketing schemes, it has decided to tap that font of collective wisdom, Facebook, to help it decide which artificial noise it should choose.

“We’re trying to find a distinct sound that’s pleasing to customers and alerts them of an on-coming vehicle,” says Dave McCreadie, noise/vibration supervisor for hybrid and electric vehicles at Ford. “This sound needs to be something that can be integrated into a person’s sound spectrum so they can immediately recognise the noise and associate it with an EV approaching… just like we do with emergency vehicle sirens.”

They started by polling their 300-odd EV Facebook fans, and their 3,400 employees, on what kind of sounds they would like to hear coming from the Focus Electric. “The poll tells us two things: Without a question, people are interested in the future of electric vehicles, and they want to be heard,” says Scott Monty, Ford digital and multimedia communications manager, on egmCarTech. “Consistent with our overall approach to social media, we’ve given customers a chance to have a voice and we’ve gone the extra step of acknowledging their input and building it into our business process.”

That extra step is Ford posting four test sounds on its Ford Electric Vehicles Facebook comments page, and asking fans (and employees) to rank them 1 (favourite) to 4 (least favourite). They are: Sound A, Sound B, Sound C, and Sound D. If you don’t have the time or inclination to listen to each of these, here is a quick rundown. A: Sounds menacing and a bit space-aged. B: Sounds a little bit like a car, sort of miscellaneous machine noise. C: Sounds a bit like a jet engine starting up (but a bit quieter, of course). And D: Another spacey, jet-y sound.

And the reactions? Varied. They range from people simply ranking the sounds from 1-4, as requested, to some interesting feedback about the sounds – and about whether EVs should have sounds at all.

One respondent, who ranks B as his number one choice, says: “But I think the high noises are very annoying compared to the deep noise of B, which sounds like a ‘real’ motor.”

“NONE OF THE ABOVE!,” says another participant. “At least make it sound like a car, and offer several choices like a Mustang GT, a regular focus or, an RS focus rally car.“

“I like none of the above,” says another. “How about horses trotting or maybe sleigh Bells? Seriously, something there but not obnoxious and invasive.”

And another: “‘B’ sounds like an internal combustion engine, which EV customers by definition loathe…that’s why they bought an EV. The other three clips all sound like the mothership revving up right before it blasts off and leaves ET behind.”

But as another Facebooker points out: “SIGH. The GOVERNMENT is mandating all electric cars have a sound. ‘SILENT’ is NOT an option.“

So perhaps it’s back to the sound lab for Ford.

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