Facebook Quietly Relaxes Restrictions on Cover Images for Pages

In a very quiet move, Facebook has removed almost all of its restrictions on cover images for pages that were previously in place! The only basic rule that survived is that text can still only occupy 20% of the overall image area. Social media expert Mari Smith reported the changes about Facebook’s page guidelines in a status update on her page, which credits Hugh Briss of Social Identities and Andrea Vahl of Grandma Mary — Social Media Edutainer for bringing these changes to her attention.

Mari goes on to point out everything new we need to consider:

What we still need to adhere to:
*Covers may not include images with more than 20% text.

What is now NO longer in the guidelines:
Covers may not include:
* price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”;
* contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section;
* 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
* calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”

Mari speculated that Facebook could be making these changes because the old rules were way to hard for them to enforce, which makes a lot of sense given their 1 billion person user base. This also could be an attempt to become a little more friendlier with brands given all the other social networking options popping up for businesses like Pinterest and Google+.

So do you like the new changes to cover images? Do you think this will provide a boost for businesses on Facebook with more branding flexibility?