500 Social Media Marketing Tips, the #1 Amazon Bestseller: Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6 Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6 Paperback: Paperback: http://amzn.com/1482014092 Buy How to Measure Social Media ROI: Amazon US: http://amzn.com/B00A7XJADS Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A7XJADS Follow Me / Hire Me: http://www.facebook.com/500socialmedi... https://pinterest.com/500socialmedia/ http://www.twitter.com/500socialmedia/ http://uk.linkedin.com/in/andrewmacarthy http://www.andrewmacarthy.com Google Plus Profile Photo Template for Square Logos | FREE Download PSD Photoshop

1. andrewmacart hy.com
http://andrewmacarthy.com/andrew-macarthy-social-media/google-plus-profile-photo-template-for-square-logos-free-
download-psd-photoshop
Google Plus Doesn't Like Square Logos
In the first major design change to Google Plus earlier on this year, the social
network's profile photos were changed from a square to a circle. While a circular
shape works well for head and shoulder photos of individuals and plenty of
company logos, if your logo is a square shape - like mine for 500 Social Media
Marketing Tips is - then, by default, it doesn't fit... some proper squarelogoism
going on from Google! As you can see from the examples in the image above,
uploading a square logo sees it being cropped on all four corners, and it just looks
messy. Even if you play around with the site's cropping or scaling tools, you really
fix it.
The Solution: A Google Plus Profile Photo Template
Visit your Google+ page and click on your existing profile profile photo to upload
your new one in its place. When you select the file and it uploads, make sure
to drag the cropping lines all the way out to the corners , as above. If you
don't, your logo will not look right. When you're done, click the "Set as profile
photo" button.
The Finished Result
Here's that finished result once again. Hopefully yours will look very similar!
Download the template
This Google+ template (and several others for all the biggest social networks -
expertly measured, simple to use, and up-to-date) is available instantly as a
downloadable zip file via the purchase link above. For more information on all
my social media templates, click here.
Note: Payment is fast and secure via PayPal, but you do not need a PayPal
account to buy and download.
Get the template (and others) FREE
Alternatively, buy a copy of my #1 Web Marketing Bestselling book, 500 Social
Media Marketing Tips, on Kindle or in paperback, and receive a link to
download all of my social media templates for free - you'll find it located in
the Social Media Templates chapter.
Simply work around the template layers to add your design, save it as a .png file
and upload it!

2. As a work around to this problem, I have built a simple template for Photoshop or
GIMP that will allow you to create and upload a square logo that fits inside the
default circular parameters, as in the image above. Of course, you stand to lose
a smidgen profile photo "real estate," but what you gain is logo that will display
without cropping on your cover photo, and next to every post and comment you
make around the site.
The template is 1000 x 1000 pixels big - four times the minimum size that
Google+ recommends - meaning your logo will enlarge into a nice, large image
when clicked on from your page.
How to Use the Template
When you first open the template, this is what you will see. The green circle
represents the Google+ profile photo circle, while the red square shows the
"safe" area in which you can add your square logo design. You've got some
leeway in all four directions outside of the red square, but anything that passes
into the white area will not be visible. So, first of all, hide my "Place your logo
within this red square" layer and insert your logo on top of the red square
layer instead.
Note: I have chosen a white background for this template to match and blend
seamlessly the white of the Google+ layout, though you may choose to
experiment with different colours if you wish. If you delete the background and
make it transparent, Google+ will not recognise it, and replace your image with a
black background by default.

3. black background by default.
Once you have inserted your logo, hide the red square layer and you'll have
something like this.
To finish, hide the green circle layer to remove all traces of the template, as
above, and save your image as a PNG or JPEG file.

4. Uploading the Profile Photo