How to Customize the Photo Ribbon on Your Facebook Business Page

Posted on March 14, 2011

For years, I’ve followed Joan Stewart (aka, The Publicity Hound) and her trusty assistant, Christine Buffaloe. When Joan announced in her e-newsletter that she had figured out a way to beautify the photo ribbon that displays at the top of their PublicityTips Facebook Business/Fan Page, I investigated.

And I conquered.

In my previous post, I explained how to jazz up the photo ribbon that appears above your Personal Facebook Profile. That’s different than the photo ribbon that appears above your Business PAGE.

Today we’re talking Pages.

The photo ribbon that runs across the top of your Page displays the five images you’ve most recently posted to your Page Wall, as well as photos you tag as being associated with your Page, in random order.

Find Photos

To put custom photos into the photo ribbon, you first need to find five photos you want to use. I experimented by cropping and resizing images from my Blogging Bistro website and from my custom Facebook Welcome Page. (The words on these teeny photos are a bit hard to see, so I’m going to continue experimenting until I’m satisfied.)

Joan and Christine grabbed stock photos that showcase the types of services they provide:

An Aside About Icon Sets

If you like their Twitter bird, you can get it free from http://www.productivedreams.com/free-twitter-bird-icon-set/.

You can find icon sets that meet your heart’s desire online. My friends at WinePress Publishing regularly give away icon sets on their blog, WinePress of Words. Below are links to some great icon sets you can download for free from their blog:

Resize Photos

…Now, back to the tutorial:

Resize each image to 98 x 68px (you can use free web-based photo editing software such as http://www.picnik.com/ to quickly resize and crop images).

Save each image to your hard drive and then log in to your Facebook Page.

Beneath your profile picture (left sidebar) you’ll see a Tab that says “Photos.” (If it’s not showing, click “Edit Page” in the upper righthand corner of your screen, and then click “Apps” from the lefthand sidebar. Add the “Photos” app.)

Upload Photos

Once you’re in the “Photos” tab, click “Upload Photos” (upper righthand corner).

I uploaded all five of my photos for the photo ribbon into the same album (for experimental purposes), but Joan and Christine advise uploading each photo into its own album. That’s because, whenever you upload/post a new photo to your Wall, Facebook automatically puts it in your Page’s photo ribbon. Uploading each photo to its own album makes it easier to hide a photo you don’t want to display in the ribbon.

Save, but Don’t Publish Photos

There’s no need to publish these albums (publishing the album generates a post to your Wall). Just save the album. As soon as you save each album, the image will appear in the photo ribbon.

Hide Photos You Don’t Want to Display

To hide a photo in the ribbon, simply hover your cursor over it and click the “x” that appears in the upper righthand corner of the photo. Clicking the “x” does not delete the photo; it just hides it. People can still view the photo on your “Photos” tab.

Include a Call to Action and Important Links

Your final step is to add a description and links to each picture in your photo ribbon. To easily do this, click once on each photo in the ribbon. That will open a screen where you can edit the photo.  In the middle of the screen you’ll see a link that says, “Add a description.”

Click that link and write a brief call to action and insert a hyperlink to the page you want people to visit.

If you click the “Website & blog design” image from my Page’s ribbon, you’ll see the following prompt:

We’ll create a custom package that fits your budget and meets your needs. Ask for a free, no-obligation estimate. http://www.bloggingbistro.com/services/website-blog-design/

Your Turn!

Print a nicely formatted PDF of this tutorial by clicking the “Printable PDF” button below the post. Experiment with creating your own custom photo ribbon. In the Comments area, share a link to your Facebook Page so we can take a peek and learn from each other.

But Wait… There’s More!

You’ll want to read and print my other Facebook tutorials:

  1. How to use Facebook’s new Page design
  2. How to get to your Facebook Page from your Profile
  3. How to delete a Facebook Page
  4. How to deactivate and permanently delete your Facebook account
  5. Your Facebook profile picture: What NOT to do (Video)
  6. How to jazz up the row of pictures above your Personal Facebook Profile
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  • Tricia

    Is there a way to hide the photo album used for the custom ribbon on the “photos” tab, but still have the photos show in the ribbon?

    On that same note, do you know if it is possible to set custom privacy settings for photos on a business page?

    Thanks!

  • http://bloggingbistro.com/ Laura Christianson

    That is an excellent question, Tricia. I did some digging and could not find anything about making photo albums on Pages private. There also used to be a drop-down menu that allowed you to customize privacy settings for an album, but I’m not seeing that feature anymore on my Page.

    You CAN make albums on your personal profile private. Here’s how:

    You can also access privacy settings for photo albums by doing the following:

    1. Click on the “Account” menu and select “Privacy Settings” from the drop down menu.
    2. Click “Customize settings.”
    3. Choose “Edit album privacy for existing photos.” Alternatively, you can click the “Album Privacy” link on the “Photos” tab of your profile next to your albums.

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  • Euromarket1

    I followed all your steps and none of the photos went to my photo ribbon. 

  • http://bloggingbistro.com/ Laura Christianson

     Are you certain you are doing this for a Facebook business/fan page and not for a personal profile? They way you set up the photo ribbon for pages and profiles is different.

  • http://www.ecoearthmanor.com Paula

    Great Tutorial!!! Check out my Photo Ribbon at http://www.facebook.com/EcoEarthManor!

  • http://www.ecoearthmanor.com Paula

    Great Tutorial!!! Check out my Photo Ribbon at http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/EcoEarthManor

  • http://bloggingbistro.com/ Laura Christianson

    That’s cool, Paula! How did you manage to get so many small pictures to display, and make them all link directly to your website?

  • Page

    Does anyone know of a way to “un-hide” a photo from the ribbon without having to re-upload it?

    I’d like to be able to “rotate” which photos show up in the ribbon.  Hiding is easy… just not sure if it’s possible to un-hide it.    Re-uploading isn’t an option b/c you lose all the comments would be lost. 

    p.s. great post & beautiful blog!
    -Page

  • http://bloggingbistro.com/ Laura Christianson

    Try this, Page:

    Click “Edit Page” in the upper righthand corner of your screen.
    Then click “Profile Picture” (4th one on the list on the left).
    At the bottom of that screen, you’ll see a prompt, “Row of photos at top of profile.”
    Click “Unhide All.”
    I believe this will do just what it says — it will unhide all the photos. But I think you can then go through them and re-hide the ones you don’t want to display in the photo ribbon.
    To hide a photo in the ribbon, simply hover your cursor over it and
    click the “x” that appears in the upper righthand corner of the photo.
    Clicking the “x” does not delete the photo; it just hides it. People can
    still view the photo on your “Photos” tab.

    Let me know if this works for you!

    P.S. Thanks for you kind comments about my blog. You made my day.

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  • Joe Manausa

    I have tried this on my fan page but cannot find the photo description and link after doing it. Do I need to enable something first? http://www.facebook.com/HomeBuyingForSmartPeople

  • http://bloggingbistro.com/ Laura Christianson

    Joe, I just checked out your photo strip — it looks as if you found the area to add the descriptions, since I’m seeing a brief descriptor and a link for each photo. Good job!

    Instructions: click once on each photo in the ribbon. That will open a screen where you can edit the photo. In the middle of the screen you’ll see a link that says, “Add a description.”

  • alfie

    She is aware of that Laura.  At the beginning of the BLOG, she wrote:  In my previous post, I explained how to jazz up the photo ribbon that appears above your Personal Facebook Profile.

  • alfie

    God BLESS you for this! 

  • http://www.alekstanojevic.com Alek

    Hi Laura,

    thank you so much for sharing this with us, especially the part about “uploading each photo into its own album”. This is a valuable tip for those who wants their fb pages stand out from the crowd that I didn’t know before I read your post.All the best,Alek

  • http://bloggingbistro.com/ Laura Christianson

    You’re welcome, Alek. I’ve tried it both ways (separate albums and same album) and separate does seem to work slightly better, because whenever you upload a new photo to your FB page, it will show in the photo ribbon. If you don’t want it to display there, you can just hover over it and turn it off, and your former photo will reappear in its place.

  • http://www.alekstanojevic.com Alek

    HI Laura,
    I just implemented the “separate album” version and it’s really much better than to put all the images in one album. Thanks!

  • http://bloggingbistro.com/ Laura Christianson

    Thanks for you feedback. I’m learning right along with you. Feel free to share your discoveries and work-arounds any time.

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