Photography is meant to be a beautiful endeavor, capturing the essence of anything that passes through a camera’s lens. Photos are meant to be pleasing and mesmerizing. But a lot of times this isn’t the case—such as a spur of the moment picture taken with a low price point-and-shoot camera, that no pride was put into when taken. It’s alright, we have all been there before, but don’t let that happen with your nonprofit. Having poorly taken photos on your Facebook Page can deter people away from it. And photos couldn’t be any more important than they are now with the introduction of Facebook Timeline for Pages.

The March 30th deadline for Facebook Timeline is approaching quickly, and your nonprofit needs to bring its Facebook Page up to snuff. Facebook Timeline now allows your nonprofit to better tell its story all the way from the start of it. But the first introduction people will have with your nonprofit will be its cover photo. Since Facebook Timeline is new for brands, there aren’t that many brands who have perfected the cover photo, but luckily there are a few who have done it fairly well. So take out your pen and paper and prepare to take a few notes.

A cover photo should reflect the awesomeness that is your nonprofit’s mission, or what your nonprofit is all about. This is the same for every brand using Facebook Timeline. So for “1-800-Flowers” it would only make sense for them to utilize flowers in their cover photo. Their cover photo is beautiful and colorful which represents their brand and what their business is about. It’s able to sell their brand before a person even gets into the meat of their Facebook Page. For a cover photo that demands attention from the get-go, “1-800-Flowers” does the trick.

Everybody knows the “Livestrong” brand. Started by Lance Armstrong, “Livestrong” empowers people to take a stand against cancer. With a brand that is well established, it isn’t really necessary to have a cover photo that sells the brand, but rather the Page should keep people informed and involved with the nonprofit. But what is nice about this cover photo is how simple it is. It is clean, direct and gets the point across. A cover photo doesn’t need to be overbearing on the eyes to attract attention, rather the simplest of designs can be intriguing and can cause curiosity.

Social media is starting to move towards being a more visual social media platform along with Tumblr and Pinterest. When posting a picture on Facebook Timeline, the picture now appears bigger than it would have on the old Facebook layout. This is a great incentive for brands to document their day to day activities and their events, such as your nonprofit’s fundraisers, and post the pictures to your Facebook Page (only the best of the best though).

Burberry takes great advantage of the new visual aspect by constantly posting colorful pictures of their clothing and lookbooks. Their cover photo is always changing, due to the ever changing nature of the fashion industry. Burberry is a great example of a brand who understands the idea of photography and using it to build your brand’s image.

Facebook Timeline allows your nonprofit to expand on its already rich history, and the way to really set it off is through a solid cover photo. From the examples above, your nonprofit can get a good idea on the direction it should take and the effect it will have on its brand image.

What other brands are doing a great job of utilizing the new Facebook Timeline?