Let Social Media Work for you
Spending time of FaceBook? Shame! Tweeting everything to
strangers? A waste! Isn’t LinkedIn just for corporate types? Wrong! Social
Media is a useful tool for freelance writers, authors, bloggers and a myriad of
businesses, but let’s stick to the writing world.
If you are not careful yes you could spend too much time on
FaceBook, especially in an election year there are so many topics to debate but
unless you are a political writer, you don’t really need to get involved. What
you do need is a PRIVATE timeline and a PROFESSIONAL page. Why both? First of
all FaceBook demands that you have a regular timeline in order to host a page
or a group; second, you probably will want some outlet to communicate with old
classmates and distant family and since those topics are not relevant to the
way you want your author personae seen, it can be kept separate… and private.
Use the settings (find the little carat [^] to the right of
the FB bar), click and find the drop-down menu and make things PRIVATE so that only the
people you have personally accepted as friends can see your posts on your
personal timeline; there should also be a setting that limits what people can
share from your timeline. In that drop-down menu you will also see “create page”,
click on it and fill in the blanks. Pages are always public. The items you post
on your public page should be relevant to your role as a writer. BTW, I like
allowing folks to comment on my public page and message me there — it’s
important to keep an open line with potential readers and fans.
I believe there are a minimum amount of people who have to
like your page before you can make use of the “Insights” tab, this will help
you see which of your posts get the most response. You also have the opportunity
to “boost” posts, or run ads, for as little as a few dollars. Once more back to
the drop down menu, click on “Create Ads” and read everything before following
the prompts. As always, never post something on FaceBook (private timeline or
page) that you would be ashamed of down the road! It’s true what they say, once
it is out there on the internet, it’s always there, so use good sense ALWAYS.
For more on pages, go to https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-page-basics
We’ll get to Twitter and LinkedIn in
a future post.
Writing Exercise: Write an introduction for yourself, something
a talk show host would use to introduce you to the audience. Think about the
kinds of things (true stuff) that you would want said about you.
Writing Prompt:
If you can, sit in front of a mirror for this exercise – List in order
the first ten (10) things you notice about yourself that make you unique. (Be
complimentary to yourself!)
Challenge Assignment: Set up your FaceBook Author Page and begin
making posts. Hint, instead of just posting the buy links for your book(s), try
posting a short excerpt and one of the buy links. Look through FB and find
writing-relevant memes and graphics you could share on your page.
