Setting up an Author Facebook Page

Two weeks ago, I wrote about social media for authors. Let’s delve a little more into some of your choices.

The biggest social media platform is Facebook with more than 2 billion users every month (with 95% of those accessing the app on their phones). There are more than 65 million businesses with a Facebook page.

Facebook can be a great way to connect with your readers. The best way to do this is by setting up a Facebook page – a public page that anyone can see even if they don’t have a Facebook account. Those with a Facebook account can “like” the page, and then they will receive updates from your page in their News Feed.

Creating a page really allows you maintain a professional presence and still allows you have a personal account where you can connect with friends and family. This means you won’t be spamming your friends with an overload of your books and you aren’t sharing too much personal information with your readers.

When you set up your page, do it under your author name. Do not set up a separate page for each book. You are building a brand so you will want to focus on everything you do verses just one of your works. Plus it will be easier to maintain and update one account rather than one for each of your books.

Fans and readers really need one place to go. Basically, if you have people who like your author page and others who like your book page, you are splitting your audience. If you post updates to the people following your author page, you might miss those following your book page. If you post on both, you could annoy anyone who follows both with duplicate or too many posts.

To set up a Facebook page, you must have a personal profile first. After you have a personal profile, go here to set up your page. Click on “Artist, Band, Public Figure,” choose author and follow the instructions.

Once you have your page up, you will need to let everyone else know about it. Go ahead and mention it on your blog, website and other social media platforms. Encourage readers to “like” the page. Then start sharing your author and book news. You can announce book releases, link to reviews of your books, let readers know about sales or updates on your current work in progress.

The key here is post on your page regularly. Keep your posts interesting and preferably one that can provoke responses. And remember that every post should not be about trying to sell your books. Feel free to check out my Facebook page and “like” it.