Do you have a Facebook fan page for yourself/your book? How long ago did you start it? Did you do it yourself or have someone help you? Are you seeing lots of new people liking it? What kinds of things do you post? What have you found to be the most effective way to get fans/have people interact? IF YOU DON’T HAVE a Facebook fan page, tell us about the fan page for an author you know or like. Why do you like them and why did you “like” their page? What do you think they are doing well that you would like to model with your own page? Do you have a goal date for creating your own fan page? Be sure to give us the link.
I have a Facebook fan page. Sure, who doesn't, right? As everything associated with me, the author, it's writejomichaels. I started it over a year ago and I'm up to 452 'likes' as of today. In keeping with my personal branding, I created a custom cover image I update when I release a new book, and have my logo as my avatar. There's no doubt whose page you're on when you land there. I created it myself but used tips from a participant of last year's Author Blog Challenge, Liberty Montano, to tweak it. I still have to take time to customize my buttons, but I'll get there!
I post things related to my books and my blog on my Jo Michaels Facebook page. I occasionally post a funny photo or saying I come across, but I make sure it's always writerly. I have another page as well, but we'll get to that one in a moment.
Something I cannot stress enough: DON'T make a fan page for your books! Unless you have ONE book that sells 50M copies, how the hell are you gonna keep up with all of them when you have twenty (or fifty) books out there? Make an author fan page. One. That way, all your fans are in one place. Think about it. If you have even three pages, with two hundred fans each, that's potentially three hundred you could've had for just one. And fans are busy people. They have a billion posts scrolling over their page to sift through. If you post the same thing more than once, they'll unlike something. I know I do.
My favorite author pages are those that are attractive, well written, and the author is well spoken when they post there. I can't tell you what a turnoff it is when I go to a page and the cover image is grainy, blurry, or badly put together. I click away quickly and vow never to return!
My other page is related to my editing services and site. It's indiebooksgonewild. We're a team of editors on a mission to make indie books what they were meant to be. Click on over to our site and see what people are saying! Our Facebook page is branded the same as our site, to provide continuity and recognition.
My xXx series of posts goes into how to clean up your Facebook page and keep the content relevant to your readers. If you didn't snatch that PDF yet, what are you waiting for? Go get it! It's free to download and keep forever! Feel free to redistribute it.
Getting folks to interact with these pages is pretty easy. I ask questions, do little giveaways, and comment on other peoples' stuff as my page. That's really important to gain a following. If all the interaction is one-sided, people tend to be turned off.
I've found having a Facebook page to be a delightful experience, and I enjoy getting to meet new people via this branch of social media.
What do you think? Are you branded across all your social media?
Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!
Jo
Great advice about the Author Fan Page, Jo!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Judith
Thanks, Judith! I like to keep it real :) hehe
DeleteSo glad you brought this up. Trying to maintain individual fan pages for your books would be exhausting! Better to have one page for them all.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I have nine books out there. I couldn't even imagine trying to keep up with ten pages. I already have three (one for me, the author, one for me, the editor, and one for a group I'm part of that's producing books for dyslexics). Yikes! Thanks for the comment. I try to provide useful stuff :)
DeleteI should have come straight here for the answers to my FB questions. My rookie mistake was making a FB page for my book, but today (thanks to your post), I created one for Tia Bach, Author. I need to come up with a picture that's more of a brand. Will be thinking on that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for always be so willing to share what you know. Hugs.
Shoot, Tia, you should come straight here for your questions on everything concerning branding or design ;) hehe You're welcome!! Now go invite me to like your page :)
DeleteLooks like you have a really active Facebook page. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your advice about not having a separate Facebook page for each book you write. It looks like a few other people in the contest have questions/difficulties with that.
Thanks, Rundy! I do because I've used various marketing methods to gain new followers there. I'll go into that sometime over the fifteen days. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment! :)
DeleteIt's hard mamaging mutliple pages - I do our work page too and my author page, still worth doing for both! Great advice as always
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ashley. I don't know how we manage to keep up with so much. SUPERWOMEN!! :)
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