Facebook: Why we need it, even if it drives us crazy.
Facebook. It’s awesome for our personal lives, letting us
share pictures with others, keep up with our schools and communities, find
people with common interests, stalk our ex-boyfriends…oh, wait.
But as an author, it can sometimes be a little daunting and
confusing. For starters, what type of page should we choose? And then, once we
have it, how do we go about liking other pages – some pages wants us to switch
back to our “personal” page before we can like them, and I am not entirely sure
I want everyone to know when I’ve liked something like “Sex With Romance.” And once we’ve figured that out, how do we get
those cool little tabbies for our blogs and other stuff on there?
And yet, it’s worth it to figure it out. Most of our readers
are on Facebook, and Facebook also brings in new readers; a lot of inbound
traffic to Amazon and other ebook sites
comes
directly from Facebook. So we need to be on there, and we need to be on
there in a professional manner.
As some of you already know, I’m a big fan of “do as I say,
not as I do” on this blog. So some of the advice below will be recommendations
from knowledgeable sources that I may or may not have already implemented
myself (just in case anyone is checking my Facebook page –which, if you do,
make sure to like it).
Ahem. Now, first things first: What type of page should you have? Well, really, as an author, there is really
only one for your author self. I will
put gold stars there in case you are in doubt. And you will need to start from your personal
profile in order to do this – don’t create a whole new page (with a separate
email address) from the initial FB log-in page. Main reason: you can’t usually like another
page as your author page, otherwise.
Types of pages:
Local Business or Place
Company, Organization, or Institution
Brand or Product
Artist, Band, or Public Figure
Entertainment
Cause or Community
Adding a page for
individual books:
If you are already sort of big time, you may want to
consider adding pages for each of your books. The downside to this is that you may
split your audience – people may miss updates if you post to the book, or miss
them if you post only to your author page. However, if the book does blow up
(in a good way), someone may make that page for you, and you don’t necessarily
want to cede that control. Food for
thought.
Now, onto the fun
(read: complicated) stuff.
Yes, you can like other authors’ pages. You may have to go
to their page and then click on the down-arrow near the like button. Then there
should be a line that says “like as my page.” That’s it! But it seems that most
authors have gotten with the program – if it’s set up as an author page, then
you should be able to like it with the “like” button.
Help with Facebook
Tabbies (aka apps, aka sort of a pain);
So, most of us would like our blogs to be linked to
Facebook. The best way is to use an app – you know, those cute little buttons.
There are a few different apps to use for blogs:
RSS Graffiti,
Networked Blogs (though this
will now direct you to their spin-off, Symphony), and
Social RSS.
They all work essentially the same way. They are going to
ask you for a lot of permissions from Facebook (you can’t escape The Man), and
then import your blog (or blogs) to the pages you direct. I used Symphony and
found it pretty self-explanatory. And then I got this awesome new tab called
“blog” on my page. It will also post
updates to my FB newsfeed any time I post on my blog.
What else do you need as an app? You can also load in
Goodreads,
Pinterest, or Youtube videos – entirely up to you. Goodreads is an easy one – you can do it from
Goodreads, and then it magically loads the app onto FB.
For Pinterest, it’s a a little bit trickier. If you use the
link
here,
then only follow steps through #7 – looks like Facebook has had a few changes
since 2012 (ya’ think?) and it loads up a little “Pinterest” link fairly nicely
with only the first seven.
YouTube: There is either
Woobox
(which I used for my Pinterest tab, very helpful) or YoutubeApp. Again, make
sure to accept all permissions and then edit later.
All in all, Facebook for businesses is not necessarily a
walk in the park, but with a little bit of help, it can (and should) be done.
Happy Facebooking! Let me know what you think – what do you see on others’
pages and wish you had on yours? What has worked well for you?
-Erin
Just in case you want more to read:
