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.
