31 Days to Master Facebook Marketing: Day 11 Making Images into Videos

There really are some fun ways to use images on your Facebook Page. Even if you’re not a video expert, Facebook has made it super easy to make some fantastic content by using your images!

Today we are going to start with where we left off yesterday, with Creating a Slideshow!

Go to your Facebook Page and click on Photo/Video in your timeline box. You will then click on this option…

Once you click on the Slideshow option, you will then be given the option to choose the aspect ratio for your video. Let the first image of your slideshow determine the ratio, or set it to square (1:1) or rectangle (16:9)

Then set the total number of seconds you show each image in your slideshow with the Image Duration option. Then you may choose either no Transition or the Fade option to determine how your images go from one to the next. Finally, you can choose music to accompany your slideshow. You will be given the following options to go with your slideshow only after you have chosen your images…..

Creating a slideshow is a fun and creative way to make a video with just your images so go for it and do some sampling with some of your images. The better you get at it the more you can use this feature to promote a product or service in a creative way!

Now, when it comes to Creating a Canvas, things get a bit more complicated but when you do get it figured out it is truly Storytelling Come to Life! You can easily build your Canvas using a combination of videos, still images and call-to-action buttons. In Canvas, you can swipe through a carousel of images, tilt to view panoramic images and zoom in to view images in detail. Canvas technology is also used to display photos and videos quickly in the Facebook app, Canvas loads quickly, as much as 10 times faster than the standard mobile web.

Canvas is a great way to give you complete creative control to achieve any objective like telling your brand story, promoting a new movie and showcasing your products.

So click on “Create a Canvas”.

You will be taken to this page:

If you click on the “plus” sign you will be taken to the Canvas Builder page where you can pick a theme.

If you click on the blue plus sign that says “Component” you will be given these choices:

If you click on each option you will see what you can do to build your Canvas. Here are some examples from Facebook:

Typically, Canvas is used for Facebook Ads but they can be used for posts too, and here’s how:

#1 Go to your Facebook page and looking under Publishing Tools. You should see it at the bottom of your left sidebar menu.

#2 Click on the Canvas option under Publishing Tools. Then click on the blue Create button to create your first Canvas.

#3 Enter a name for your Canvas at the top, and then select a theme like I showed you above.

#4 Choose the components you want to use. You can add and delete components as you go along.

#5 Make sure you are continually saving your Draft as you create your canvas.

#6 Add a Header: The header that stays pinned to the top of your screen to display your logo. The suggested logo size inside Canvas Builder is 120 pixels wide by 44 pixels high, but Facebook Canvas design requirements note that you can use an image up to a maximum of 882 pixels wide by 66 pixels high. No matter what your logo size is, Facebook will adjust it accordingly.

#7 Add a Photo: The suggested photo size inside Canvas Builder is at least 640 pixels wide by 72 dpi. You can have a total of 20 images in your Canvas.

#8 Add a Button: You can have one button that stays pinned to the bottom of your Canvas as the main call-to-action button that is always visible, or have all of your buttons move as your viewer scrolls through your post. You can have up to 30 characters of text and a sans serif or serif font on each button.

#9 Add text: You can add up to 500 characters per text component with various font sizes, stylings, and alignments.

#10 Add an image Carousel: You can add 2 to 10 images to a carousel. Each image should be the same size, in .png or .jpg format, and with a maximum width of 1080 pixels and a maximum height of 1920 pixels.

#11 Add video: Your video should be a minimum resolution of 720p, in .mp4 or .mov format, and preferably in portrait orientation. Videos in landscape orientation will resize and have black bars on the sides. The total runtime of all of your videos must be under 2 minutes.

#12 Preview and Finish: Your canvas will be sent to your Facebook app and Facebook will notify you when it is ready.

#13 You can create a post to share your Canvas, get the URL to your Canvas to use in a Facebook advertisement, or you can Duplicate your Canvas if you realize you need to make changes to it but don’t want to start from scratch.

This feature is really more of an advanced feature for Pages that are interested in using Facebook advertising but play around with it and just know that it is part of Facebook Marketing. As you build your brand you may decide that this is option is perfect for your business.