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Both my sons and I use author pages. We don't have a personal Facebook page, but we never did. We don't post any family pictures and have PO Boxes for mail. Our personal information is not listed anywhere, beyond the county where we live. We both have had stalking incidents and I strongly suggest you keep the two separate accounts.I hired a social marketer for Facebook. I had never used it before and didn't think it had value. I was so wrong. She targets groups and I watch the rank of the book change from the sales. I think it's a very successful tool if you know how to use it. However, boosts can be expensive to it's good to have the right demographics. She also holds Facebook parties, as well as contests and games to engage people. She asks them to share information and they do. We are four years in and my son has close to 20000 followers and I think I'm at about 10000.
What kind of posts do you post on your Facebook page? Right now I only have links to my blog posts... I don't know what other content I should post...
Great topic. I have both but I've been wondering about this myself.
I write books about customs and culture around the world, so she'll put up an article about a holiday- Like Christmas in Brazil, or Halloween in Germany- Or she's put up recipes. or funny pictures relating to pirates or the stars- whatever my book is about that she's promoting. For my older son she'll do scary pictures for ghosts, articles about zombies- whatever the subject of his books. She plays guessing games and then gives out free kindles of the book, signed paperbacks- they love those or sometimes we'll do a big gift if we are releasing a new book. We share posts from other writers and they do the same so it increases our reach. Any article or blog post with our names is shared. Never anything about where we live, our personal lives. Sadly, we've acknowledged some of the terrible events- you can't ignore the news, but never anything political or too controversial. (unless it pertains to the book.) She puts up a pretty image celebrating all different holidays. I review books, so she'll post it to my blog then share it on Facebook. She will make a post highlighting a really nice review. She finds great quotes from the book, finds an image and that usually spikes a lot of interest. She post everyday something on there. I would put a link, but I'm not sure if that is book whacking. My son is author Michael Phillip Cash. Younger son is Eric Jay Cash. He's done one book for children challenged with speech issues and she puts up articles on his page.
We have separate pages for our author pages and the Little Fart has his own page. You can post links to your books, blogs and it really comes into its own with groups and special interest groups. It is also a good way to interact with other companies social media, we share our blog reviews from blog groups and review groups etc. They then link or post to our page and share our content.
We use Buffer. You load in your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc and it manages posting times etc.
I'm writing a book about a witch living during the Dark Ages, and I post a lot of New Age stuff on my personal profile, I might start posting them on my page as well... I only have one short novella published right now, but it's not in the same genre as the book I'm currently writing... I'm not sure if I should keep promoting the book or just let it sit for now and maybe use it as a freebie offer when I get more books published in the genre I really want to write in...
Ben wrote: "We have separate pages for our author pages and the Little Fart has his own page. You can post links to your books, blogs and it really comes into its own with groups and special interest groups.
..."
I just discovered Buffer today, which is why I'm working on content right now... it's a lot harder than I thought. They recommend posting to Facebook 5-10 times a week, so I'm trying to find what I should be posting...
..."
I just discovered Buffer today, which is why I'm working on content right now... it's a lot harder than I thought. They recommend posting to Facebook 5-10 times a week, so I'm trying to find what I should be posting...
Yep- Julie made different pages for the series- one for the culture and one for the pirate and another for author. As the series grew it became too much to take care of, so I know she posts occasionally to the other two, but the author page gets the most attention. I have over 40 books out now. I can't imagine her taking care of all those pages. We decided to do just one page for my son. He doesn't like social media, so we kept it really streamlined for him. The same with my younger son.
Lol just do whatever you happy in. If you try and load it up with too much, it will come across that way. If you see interesting articles, links to your books, reviews, blog posts etc. they are all good.
My wife manages it for other clients, she gets picture quotes made, and posts them once a week or twice a week.
The quote pictures are either easy or inexpensive. You can source 100 free images, and find 100 quotes related to your books or just have a great day type quotes. Put the quote on the image, throw your www.info on the bottom and you have 100 posts. My wife gets them made, costs about $10-15 on freelancer site.
I am taking a course right now on 'Making Facebook Your Friend'. It's only been a few days so far, but I've already picked up some interesting tidbits. The most useful information so far is an estimated percentage of how much of each kind of post you should share:Entertainment 40%
Inspiration 40%
Information 15%
Call to action 5% (eg buy my book, or 'join my newsletter' etc)
Since I often just share blog posts, I think I weight too heavily towards Information.
I hope people find that as helpful as I did!
Aislinn wrote: "I am taking a course right now on 'Making Facebook Your Friend'. It's only been a few days so far, but I've already picked up some interesting tidbits. The most useful information so far is an esti..."That's super helpful!
I was actually wondering about this!
Aislinn wrote: "I am taking a course right now on 'Making Facebook Your Friend'. It's only been a few days so far, but I've already picked up some interesting tidbits. The most useful information so far is an esti..."Thank so much. I am way too heavy on call to action.
If you opt for a facebook page, you should probably be prepared to pay to boost your posts. Unfortunately, you can put time and effort into posting all the live long day, but your followers won't necessarily see what you write. If you have the time and desire to interact with other authors and readers, a facebook profile is a fun place to do that from imo.
Good suggestions, Aislinn.My problem is that I egotistically believe my calls to action are informative and entertaining and inspirational all at once. I have to remember that not everyone goes dreamy-eyed and breathless when I talk about percentage written/edited in my WIP.
Lol, Denae, I have the opposite problem. I'm embarrassed by anything resembling a call to action. I should do it more than I currently do!
interesting and entertaining post (*ironically). Hope to come back to it later, but will probably procrastinate, be unable to find it and think it was for the best.
I rarely do call to action. I usually post my blogs (inspiration and some information). Guess I could bump up on the entertainment and CTA. Thanks for sharing this.
I have a personal FB profile and I like to keep my personal life separate. I may talk about about my family, but I never share too much and I definitely do not want to share photos of them. I made another account for my author work and created a FB page. I think it's all up to your preference.
I would not want people associating my personal profile with my author face. I chose to use my maiden name for this same reason. My personal life is personal. I don't want strangers looking at photos of my kids or knowing exactly where I live.
I agree. I use one of those ups postal places. I have a box for mail. Even though I have an office, I don't want anyone knowing where we work or live. I use the postal place as a return address.We don't put up personal pictures or information. We all created our pen names as well.
I agree with most on here. I wouldn't use my personal profile, either. And, technically, you aren't supposed to use a personal profile to sell something (unless Facebook has changed that recently). I'm friends with a writer on Facebook who made a personal profile with her pen name. That's one option if you're looking to keep it seperate. I have an author page, and there's pros and cons. I was able to add a Buy Now button on the page that takes buyers straight to the place to buy my book. But, unfortunately, Facebook won't show my posts to more than 10 percent of the people who like my page. Its frustrating. I try to post most days, and most days only my husband and mom like the post, which is pathetic. If you're looking for content, you can check out my page and other writer's pages to see what works. https://www.facebook.com/ckelleylusk
I just liked your page, Carissa, and left a message, but it didn't show up. A quick message came on at the top then disappeared before I could read it.
I use a Facebook author page. I'm a decently paranoid person when it comes to the internet, it's' just too easy to trace people if you know what you're doing. Hence my pen name. I don't even post photos of myself with my children on my own Facebook page because people are scary.Now that you know my tin foil hat is on appropriately (With small kids, in this day and age, it's a scary place,) I think it's also recommended for an author page instead of a personal page for this reason: there's a friend cap. To 'like' a page, there is no limit. Celebrities and brands have upwards of 11M likes with no hindrance. Should you hit the big time, only having 5,000 people puts a limit on how many fans you can have. Also, people want to like a page instantly, and not wait for a friend request. You are your own brand, it's got a business element to it.
Also, while the subject is open, I've heard of a decent amount of authors on Twitter that say Facebook boosting their posts tends to actually work out for sales. Facebook has an enormous audience of over 900 million, last time I checked, which is wonderful. It's definitely a useful tool.
I'm struggling with the whole facebook thing and don't really know where to go with it.I'm not a social person for various reasons, so I don't want a personal Facebook profile, but neither do I really want the hassle of trying to keep an author page fresh and interesting enough to keep people coming back to it - I have enough difficulty with my blog.
However, I've read that posting to Facebook pages and groups that allow people to promote on or in them can make a huge difference to sales, so I don't quite know what to do. I don't want to miss a means of making sales, but I don't want to put myself into panic mode by trying to do something I don't feel comfortable with.
Problems, problems.
https://m.facebook.com/authorkrreese/I will be having some giveaways in the next few weeks leading up to the release of Fall for Me (Wilson Creek, #2) on November 30th.
Alex wrote: "I'm struggling with the whole facebook thing and don't really know where to go with it.I'm not a social person for various reasons, so I don't want a personal Facebook profile, but neither do I re..."
I felt the same way. It took me a long time to respond to people on social media. I hired a person to run my social media pages until I learned how they work. She demystified it for me and taught me how to promote my books on FaceTime, PinInsterst, Instagram, and Twitter. It really helped. I have heard others write about courses that teach you the basics. I know my media manager has assorted programs to tach you how to navigate your way through the sea of social media.
If you're interested here's the link to the page I was looking at: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/...