Can You Upload a Gif on Facebook Cover

Facebook has a pretty cool feature that surprisingly few people actually use, and it's actually left me scratching my head. How have then few people made use of the ability to make your make page cover photograph a video? A few years ago, if I told people you could do that, they'd be lining up at my front door to larn how. Now, well, it seems like ane of the best kept secrets in Facebook marketing.

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Before nosotros begin, let's see what I'k actually talking about, correct? Check out this Facebook page for a covering visitor in Texas. Here's a second example from a hymeneals planner in Vietnam. Make sure y'all check on a desktop client; as far every bit I'g aware, these videos don't work on mobile Facebook.

Up at the top of the page, where a embrace photograph would normally be, a video volition start playing later on a few second. In this example, the video starts with drone footage of some workers on a residential roof before panning over the suburb as a whole. Then the scene shifts to a commercial roof, to showcase that the roofing company in question does both residential and commercial projects.

While set as a cover video, the video has a few restrictions. For one thing, the video will always starting time muted. You can take sound – this version from Search Creature uses a few furnishings – but the user has to manually unmute the video to hear it. This means you don't want a video that relies heavily on music or narration. Secondly, despite being a video, there are no actual playback controls beyond the ability to pause the video. You can't skip to a particular point in the video, and it volition loop indefinitely equally long as there'south someone watching it.

If you lot click the embrace video, it brings up the video histrion options only like any other media on Facebook. Here you tin see the engagement the video was posted, the engagement information technology'due south gotten, the playback controls, and the options available to you equally a viewer. Yous tin can save the video, embed it, like it, comment on information technology, share it, written report it if y'all feel the need to practise and then, and so forth.

How to Add a Cover Video

Information technology's really a very simple process to add a video as your cover video. To start off, you need to be the Admin of the page, with the power to make changes to the data of the page itself.

Kickoff, you demand to navigate to your page itself. You can do this simply by going to the page every bit if you were a regular user, or by clicking the triangle driblet-down in the upper correct corner of the pinnacle navigation, in the blueish. Click the proper noun of the folio you want to edit from there.

Once you're on your folio, hover over your existing embrace photograph. In the upper left corner is an icon that rotates between a camera and a video camera icon. When you hover over the photo, information technology expands into a "change encompass" button. Click that and a drop-down appears with five options. The options are Choose From Photos, Choose From Videos, Upload Photo/Video, Reposition, and Remove.

The 2 options you want to look at are the Cull From Videos and Upload Photo/Video. The offset option is for if you already have uploaded a video to Facebook and want to apply it for your cover video. The second selection is for uploading a video you desire to utilise directly.

If you choose to selection an existing video, and either accept no videos or have no videos that match the criteria, Facebook will tell yous those criteria.

"None of the videos in your library qualify as a cover video. Videos must exist between xx – 90 seconds and at least 820 x 312 pixels. The recommended size is 820 ten 462 pixels. Delight upload a different video and attempt again."

A note about resolution: Facebook may recommend some goofy resolution at that place, but it's really much easier to simply upload a video in 720p or 1080p resolution. I've read several reports of people attempting to upload videos in Facebook's suggested resolution, but to find that they don't display properly. Meanwhile, uploading in a total 1080p resolution allows Facebook to calibration information technology to the size that fits the screen. You can drag the video to reposition it vertically, much the same mode every bit you can reposition a photo to fit nicely.

If you have a suitable video, simply upload it and reposition it to make sure it's visible in the correct style on your Facebook page. You don't want to cutting off text on the superlative or bottom, then pay attention to positioning.

You tin can also add together a video to your video library and then choose it every bit your cover video later. To practise this, y'all need to click on the "publishing tools" tab beyond the acme of the folio, then the "video library" section in the left sidebar. This will bear witness you your existing videos and insights on how they've performed on your page, if they're live and visible. Click to upload a video, notice your video file, and upload it. Y'all'll want to do all the usual Facebook SEO things by adding a title, tags, captions if necessary, and a custom thumbnail.

What Makes a Practiced Cover Video

In my mind, there are three dissimilar categories for a cover video.

1. The Simple Blitheness
2. The Demonstration
3. The Explainer

The get-go category would be essentially the low-toll animated gif version of a embrace photo. Imagine something similar the cover photograph for this digital card game, but with the subtle animation from the animated version of the card. Basically simply a fleck of shine on the fire effects, maybe a subtle motion of the dust or the dragon in the background. A live example might exist something like Hullo Social, who have a brand-based cityscape with some minor blitheness but to accent the photograph.

That's the kind of subtle, minor blitheness yous can do with a video embrace photograph. Since the video loops similar an blithe gif, the effects can be small-scale and just serve to spice upwards the visuals on the embrace photo. Information technology makes the page stand out, without actually detracting from the contents of the page itself.

The second category is perfectly illustrated by the roofing company case upward above. Information technology's a uncomplicated video, with just ii words of text in the whole thing. It showcases the work the company does, both in their residential and their commercial business concern verticals, but it doesn't go out of its way to sell you anything. It's a passive demonstration of "look, this is what we do. If you're interested, let'south talk."

Another example of a sit-in video would exist specific to the type of product you're selling. For example, the movie Rex Arthur: Legend of the Sword has a cover video that is basically a teaser trailer for the movie. It showcases some of the shiny effects from the pic in a short loop, showing you what yous're in for if y'all decide to scout or buy the pic.

The third category is more similar the Search Brute example I linked above. It'south a more aggressive video, a lot more like the explainer yous might see on a landing page. It'southward more focused on a call to activity rather than a simple sit-in of a production or service.

So, the first thing yous demand to do is determine which of the three categories best fits your make and what you want to accomplish. I more often than not recommend something in the demonstration category. The first category is nice, and is a conservative option if you're not sure you lot want to assault your audition with a video, simply information technology doesn't really accept advantage of the video format. Conversely, the third option goes all-in with an aggressive call to action, and as we know, social media users tend to pout upon such direct sales and pressure tactics.

It's mostly better to showcase something about your product being used, being made, or beingness demonstrated than it is to try to sell it.

Technical Advice

Equally far as actually making the video goes, there are a lot of tips I can give you lot.

• Make sure to encounter the technical specification. Your video cannot be shorter than twenty seconds long, and cannot be longer than 90 seconds. Generally, you'll want to keep the video on the shorter finish of things, since even if it's a compelling video, the comprehend photo slot is not the right place to get people to sentinel a video.
• You can go around the minimum length specification with a shorter video by setting that video to loop and rendering it out longer. You can, for example, brand a 6-2d video and loop it 5 times to make a 30-2d video that looks similar a much shorter video.
• Ignore Facebook's recommended 820×462 resolution. Upload your video at 720p at minimum. The quality is much more worthwhile, plus virtually video renderers and editors support 720p as a default. Y'all don't need the hassle of messing around with bizarre resolutions just for Facebook.
• Upload the video in the right file format. Though Facebook doesn't seem to mention it direct anywhere, the generally-accepted ideal file format for web usage like this is a .MP4 file. I think Facebook can support a couple of other file formats, but it's better to not have to catechumen a video subsequently if it doesn't work.
• Don't include sound equally an essential element of your video. You lot can include sound – and if you do, make information technology sound throughout, different the audio effects in the Search Beast example – merely don't brand information technology required to empathize the video. For example, you don't desire your video to be a person narrating something to you, similar a traditional explainer. Remember, videos outset muted, so most of your viewers aren't going to realize they demand to interact to get sound.
• Arrive relevant. Buffer is a company with a great track record for marketing, but looking at this video, I don't run into what information technology has to exercise with Buffer at all. Information technology's simply a bunch of shots of crowds and people, which doesn't tell me anything about the company or the products they make.

Remember that the encompass video is an emphasis, not a focal signal. People coming to your Facebook page are going to see the video in movement, it's going to catch their optics, simply it's not going to be what they came for. Don't attempt to distract them from your feed, use information technology to accentuate your make presence in a visible mode.

It'southward also worth reiterating, though I mentioned it above: these embrace videos are not visible on mobile. If your brand caters primarily to a mobile audience or is providing a mobile app or service, you can still make use of a cover video, but primarily for your desktop-using audience.

That's not to say mobile users tin can't meet the video at all. You lot just need to post it and share it as you lot would whatever other video. If information technology shows upwards in the timeline or news feed of the user, information technology volition show up on mobile and be playable. The trick is that information technology'south not in context of a cover photograph anymore, and as a stand-alone video it's likely weaker than a video produced to be stand-lone. Because of that, I recommend creating different videos for different purposes.

Practice you lot have the Facebook cover video functionality? It's relatively new, which is why it'southward relatively unused, but information technology's going to pick upwardly in the coming months. Discussion is the rollout is consummate, though it might not exist available in some foreign countries. I'1000 interested to see what you all do with it.

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Source: https://boostlikes.com/blog/2017/09/use-video-page-cover

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