How To Use Social Media to Promote Your Book : Facebook

This week we continue our five part blog series on How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Book On-Line! Each week we will discuss a new and original way for you to use social media tools to publicize a new book, draw in a broader and more diverse audience and create a personal brand on-line. These tips will allow you to not only connect with your audience but they will help you bring in a new batch of fans that you may not have known existed!

I really hope you are enjoying this blog series as much as I am enjoying writing it each week! This week we will be discussing how creating a Facebook Fan page can help create interest and excitement for your new book! This is a great time to start up a fan page because they are just starting to gain momentum on Facebook. Previously the pages were just that, a page of information that Facebook folks could become a fan of but not much more. Now, Facebook pages are designed more like a profile which gives you almost unlimited options on how to customize your page!

Let discuss the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Pages:

A Facebook Profile is your personal identity on Facebook. The profile can be either public or private and allows users to learn more about you.

A Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share information about your professional career or your publications with Facebook users.

You can have only one Facebook Profile but you can make several Facebook Pages for your personal brand and your books! We will be focusing more on Facebook pages rather than Facebook profiles but please be aware that you MUST have a Facebook profile in order to create pages so be sure to work on your profile as well. Your profile is a critical component for your personal brand so be sure to create a complete profile and give as much info as you are comfortable sharing. The more you share the more your readers will appreciate you and what you bring to the world of writing!

Now let’s talk about creating your Facebook Fan page! As we discussed previously with Twitter, be sure to go into the fan page with a plan for how you will use it. You can help draw in new readers, help current readers stay up to date on your new projects and even promote a new book all with a facebook fan pages, but only if you have a plan. Let’s say that we want to create a fan page for a new book that will be published later on this year. The book will be  a novel so we will have characters to work with which will add another layer to our promotion. We could use the fan page as a mini launching page with a countdown clock to show when the book release will be and create updates about when and where we will be speaking about the book. We could also create fan pages for the main characters in our book and invite readers to submit questions and engage with the characters.  We could also use the status updates to create interest in the book by releasing interesting quotes from the book each week!

Facebook pages can also be a great way to promote non-fiction books as well! Let’s say that our book is now a non-fiction book and we want to promote it on Facebook. Again we could use the site as a launching page with a ticker showing when the book will be released. We could also release quotes or statistics, depending on the subject, from the book as status updates as well linking news stories and articles related to the book to the page to get Facebook folks ready for the information that we are getting ready to release.

There are a multitude of Facebook applications and add ons that can personalize your Facebook Page and make it stand out in a crowd. There is a discussion board where you can post topics and have two way conversations with your readers and apps that allow HTML content. You can even upload video and pictures like you can with a Facebook profile! I would encourage you to explore adding applications to your page but be sure to decide which ones will work best with your content. As with any social media site, you will want to add your Facebook page link to your website, Twitter profile, blog site ect. in order to draw readers to the site! Be sure to friend other authors and people in your genre in order to build up your following as well!

So there it is, a very simple introduction to how you can make your Facebook page work for you and promote your brand as an author as well as your books!

Here is your summary for this week’s tip:

1. If you don’t have a Facebook Profile create one!
2. Create a Facebook Fan page for either yourself or one of your books. (Choose just one to start with but you can always make more than one page.)
3. Decide on a marketing plan and explore the Facebook applications to see what will work best for your subject matter.
4. Link your page to your other social media sites and start drawing in your readers!
5. Search facebook for other authors in your genre and friend them with a personal request in order to grow your reach in Facebook!

Remember, if you have any questions, comments or observations about this tip be sure to leave a comment or e-mail me! I would love to hear from you!!

Here are my Facebook links, but sure to come friend and fan me!

Sara’s Profile

Right Click Office Services Fan Page

Have a Great Week!