Unleashing the Power of Facebook-5 minutes at a time
Good morning, Romance University! I’m excited to introduce you to a fellow RWA chapter-mate and Golden Heart finalist Debbie Pfeiffer. As a newbie writer, I had plenty of questions about the publishing industry stored up and Debbie has always generously
answered any I put to her. And today’s post is just another example of her unfailing kindness to those who wish to learn more about this ever-changing business.
Debbie, the floor is yours!
I’m a Facebook addict. I freely admit it. I’ve been hooked ever since I set up a personal profile in December 2007. I’m also a writer. To me, the two go hand in hand.
Why? Because Facebook helps you connect with people important to you on a deeper level. It allows you quick, casual contact with your peeps–that is, the people you select. As a result, you generally build a deeper relationship with your friends than you would’ve had before, and are able to bond with them in a more meaningful way when you next see them in person.
Let me put this another way: Say you have 100 friends in your email address book. Some live close by, others live many miles away. Some you see regularly, others you see once a year. Do you have time to email or call each of these 100 friends weekly and connect with them personally? Of course not.
But let’s say those 100 friends are your Facebook friends. Now, suddenly, you can catch up with all 100 of them, weekly, even daily, just by scanning their status updates, checking birthday notices, and browsing posted photos. You can do this in 5 minutes, whenever it’s convenient. How cool is that?
So what does that have to do with you as a writer? Everything. Because those core friends are your tribe, your viral marketers, your best braggers. Then factor in that, the way Facebook is set up, if your friends are talking about you, their friends hear about it in their news feeds too. Then you start to see how Facebook epitomizes viral marketing and networking.
Also, once you set up a personal Facebook account, you can create what I call a “fan page.” (Facebook refers to it simply as a Page but this gets confusing.) It works and looks much like your personal Facebook profile, but is set up as a public persona–for example, Betsy Bestseller, the world-famous author. Find more info on setting up a fan page at: http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages
For those of you who already have fan pages set up, here’s a Page you can “fan” that will keep you updated on the latest tips and features available to add to your own fan page.
The best way for you to understand how Facebook works is to experience it firsthand. Then you start to see the possibilities and can use its many functions and applications to fit your needs–both personal and writing. For space reasons, I’ll skip the details, but if you go to www.facebook.com, and follow the prompts to create an account, you should get through fairly easily.
Now to the fun stuff! Here are my top 5 fun things I suggest you do right away to connect you into your growing Facebook community faster:
- Post a profile picture. Please don’t be shy. Your profile pic allows people to see you and thus connect with you. It’s a mental thing, and believe me, it makes a difference. If you don’t post a pic, Facebook slots in a placeholder that looks like a silhouetted Kewpie-doll head. When I look at a FB friend’s status update or profile page and see that icon instead of a friendly, identifiable face, I don’t immediately recognize who it is and tend to not emotionally connect. It also tells me that person is not active on Facebook, so probably won’t see my comments to them, which makes me less likely to post. The fun of FB is the interacting.
- Post a status update. You can post your status update a few different places, but for starters, go to your Profile page. You’ll see a blank box at the top of the page with the prompt in it, “What’s on your mind?” (This box is also called your Wall–fodder for another blog.) Fill in this space with something about yourself, something “right now.” Be creative. Your friends on Facebook will see this status update when they log in and go to their Home page. Seeing your status is a nice way for your friends to keep tabs on what’s going on with you, and may even prompt them to comment. And update your status update occasionally. Try every time or every other time you sign in.
- Check out your News Feed from your friends. On your Home page, you will see the status updates your friends most recently posted. This is a nice, concise way to catch up on what your friends are doing at any given point in time. If you have more time, you can easily comment on your friends’ status updates. (Be aware that your comment will be viewable by all your friend’s friends.) These mini chats can be a lot of fun and are also ways your friends can get to know each other, another great networking aspect.
- Fill in your birth day in your profile info. (Note you don’t have to fill in your birth year.) Facebook generates an automatic reminder to your FB friends. Trust me, this is fun–and it gets conversations going on your profile page/Wall.
- Find friends. For your first week on Facebook, try adding a friend a day. After that, try to add a friend a week. You can search for new friends several ways. Facebook will suggest friends to you on your Home page. These are just recommendations. I would advise only accepting friendships for people you definitely know. (Generally speaking, if you add someone you’re not sure you know, they are able to view your Facebook profile and other posts.) Another good way to find friends is to look through your current friends’ friends list. You can also use the Search box in the upper right-hand corner of any Facebook page.
There’s so much more I can tell you about Facebook, but again, it’s best left until you start exploring it for yourself. I’d love to answer your specific Facebook questions this week, or feel free to “fan” my Facebook Page, Deborah Pfeiffer, where I have a Discussion Board set up for Facebook questions. Hope to see you on Facebook!
Thank you, Debbie! How about it folks – do you have any burning Facebook questions for Debbie? Ask them in the comments section below and Debbie will help you become a fan of Facebook, too.
BIO:
Deborah Pfeiffer was dragged kicking and screaming onto Facebook in December 2007 and has been a self-admitted Facebook geek and avid proselytizer ever since. When she’s not commenting on her friends’ statuses, she’s writing fiction–young adult, women’s fiction, and romantic comedy. Her single title contemporary romance, Dreams Come True, finaled in RWA’s 2004 Golden Heart awards, and she’s had young adult and women’s fiction entries win and final in other writing contests. With 20+ years in the publishing business, she also runs SWYM Editorial (“Say What You Mean”). You can find her at Deborah Pfeiffer’s Facebook Page.
Be sure to stop back on Wednesday to find out what author Marie Donovan has to say about Harlequin Blaze heroes.
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Hi Debbie!
Welcome to RU. This is some great Facebook information. I’m a relative newbie, having only joined Facebook this spring after my sister bullied me into it.
Lately, I’ve been giving some thought to having a “theme” for my Tweets and Facebook status updates. Something that would be interesting and helpful to others. What do you think of this idea? Does it make sense to try to incorporate those with the author’s brand?
Thanks so much!
Kelsey
Hi Kelsey! Good to “see” you again! And thanks for having me here. And I know–it does seem like many of us have to be bullied into Facebook, but once you’re on, you’re glad you got talked into it, right?
I like your theme idea. I have seen degrees of this on both Twitter and Facebook. I think it makes total sense to do a degree of this on your public profile page (what I call a fan page above). I’m experimenting with it myself, hoping to help people with their Facebook questions on my own author fan page. Any way you can differentiate yourself a bit, and let people know what they’ll get and provide something they want or are interested in–whether it’s when you tweet, update your FB status, or post on your blog–I do believe that will help you cement your brand.
The beauty of having that fan page also is that you can have the best of both worlds. You can keep up that theme (or branding) on your public fan page–through your updates there–which will appear almost like a personal status update on your fans’ news feeds. At the same time, you can reserve your personal FB profile all to yourself–and your friends and family–so you have that place to just be yourself and chat, without having to worry quite as much about that public persona.
Btw, this is what FB intends you do. (Thanks, Kelsey, for allowing me to add this alert.) Your agreement with Facebook when you signed up does not allow for promoting a business, and you as an author (since we’re talking about branding, etc.) are basically promoting a business. So for those of you using your persona profile mainly as a way to promote yourself as a writer, not as a personal account, you may fly under the radar for awhile, but Facebook does police this and has been known to email authors (and other business owners) to create a fan page or it will shut down your account.
The idea is that FB is created first and foremost for networking–of people. The fan pages option was created so businesses could take part and have a place on FB (and the fan pages provide some aspects that aren’t available to personal profiles, like unlimited fans and viewable page to non-Facebookers). But FB continues to keep its roots, being based on the personal. This started as an online yearbook, and that’s still what it is. Frankly, that’s what appeals to me. You can strictly promote yourself as an author other places. The beauty of Facebook is that you can build deeper connections where they already exist, and create new ones that can actually last. The idea to keep in mind is that this is a great networking tool at your disposal, which can have great promotional value. It’s not meant to be a promo tool first and foremost. It’s meant to connect people.
So finally, Kelsey, back to your question! Your theme idea is great for your fan page/public persona because it gives something to your fans and thus gives you that personal side. I’ve also seen a lot of authors have success, however, in also just having their updates be about themselves. Not too personal, mind you, but little facts about their daily life. If you’re a fan of a writer, isn’t it fun to feel that you are somehow part of that person’s daily life, as opposed to just a nameless fan? The ability to interact with you is the exciting thing. For those of us not published yet, however, your idea of a theme is a great way to draw in those fans initially, no doubt about it. Thanks for your discussion topic, Kelsey. Clearly I could go on and on, but hopefully somewhere in here I’ve helped out a bit!
Hi Debbie,
Thank you for joining us today! We have RU’s posts automatically feed into our fan page. Do you think we should send other status updates throughout the week? If so, what do you think fans would like to read?
I ask you ’cause you’re one of our fans (thanks!). Thought you might have a different perspective on the issue.
Thanks again, Tracey
Hi Debbie..thanks for the informative post! I facebook as well, and seem to have a fairly good following of people that follow me for my pithy comments about the restaurant biz. =) a friend of mine has a huge network of FB people – he has a photography business.
As a wanna-be author, I get the viral marketing scheme, that’s great….should i have a different FB account for my “wanna be an author” pages instead of my “just about me” pages? I’m not sure my followers can tag along with the story of the guy who blew his nose in the linen napkin versus my sexy romance novel….=)
carrie
Hi Carrie! Thanks for reading it–and commenting! Sounds like you’re a tried-and-true Facebooker.
Sounds like for your author persona, you need to set up a public profile page (what I was referring to as a fan page). See my response too to Kelsey’s question, but you do not have to create a whole new account on Facebook to do this (nor should you per FB’s agreement with you). Per FB, only one person per account.
The good news is that that one account is allowed to have more than one fan pages attached to it that you create–as long as you certify that you are the person responsible for that business. And that’s what you as an author are–a business–whether or not you’re actually making money at this time. (Presumably the idea is to have someone pay you for your writing at some point! I think we authors all want that!)
To create the fan page, just sign in for your regular personal account. At the bottom of any FB page, is a light blue (or grey?) bar with icons. The one with the Facebook “F” on it is for Ads and Pages. Click that, then the tiny Pages link at the top left (blue type), then select the Create Page button at top right on the My Pages page. I think the first link I provided in my blog above provides a Step-by-Step guide that gives you the highlights if you want to start there first, and then has links to get to the same spot I just directed you to, but this gives you a couple of starting points.
Once you create–and publish–the fan page, a couple of hints to let people know. One, become a fan of the page yourself. Once you do this, it will show up that you did so in your friends’ news feeds. Also, once you’re a fan of the page you created, you have an option on that fan page (just below your page’s pic) to Suggest to Friends. You then have an option to select which friends to send the notice to.
Also, the beauty of the fan age is that you can have unlimited fans. A personal profile–because it’s supposed to be personal and not promoting a business–is capped at 5000 friends. Note the difference. I know–you’re thinking, how would I possibly amass 5000 friends? Then again, think positively. I didn’t think I’d hit the 200 mark with friends. It can happen. Especially with you–because you seem to have some great story fodder! Good luck, and I hope I’ve provided some help here.
you’ve provided a ton of help! thanks for your responses to everyone’s posts…I’m going to have to save all of this brilliant info for when I start a fan page!
Great job!
carrie
Carrie–glad it was of help! Check in with me on my own FB fan page if you’ve got questions when you get to your own fan page setup. We can learn together.
Hi Debbie,
Since the night that you explained FB to Windy City I have kept that up and am enjoying FB. I would like to know about the Hide button. I want to hide the game stuff that everybody but me has time to play. I don’t have time to hear about their farms and their Bejewelled scores and Castles and Mafia Wars. It just seems to take up big space on the page. Is there a way that I can still see their real posts to FB and not see their gaming posts like these?
Hey Nina! I’m so psyched you’ve gotten into FB. And I know what you mean. Sometimes what our friends are into are not necessarily what we’re always into. That’s the cool thing about FB–that you can tailor it to some extent to get what you want. I noticed that Laurie, another commenter, made a suggestion in her post about how she deals with issues like this too.
And I had to smile at your comment about your FB friends having time to play those games or use those apps. If they’re anything like me, they don’t necessarily have time time, it’s just procrastinating or taking a mental break! But thanks for pointing out this tip of a way to manage your time better on FB and tailor the experience for you. Some people like the games, some don’t. The beauty of the “hide” feature or the other customizing options is that you can choose not to participate but it doesn’t slight anyone else that does.
For your situation, you have a couple options. First, and easiest, is go to your Home page and look in the upper right-hand column. There’s a list there, mainly of standard applications that you get with Facebook, like Notes, Photos, Links, Videos, etc. Among the top few should be News Feed and Status Updates. I’ve messed with these a bit over time, so I’m not sure what the default is anymore, but I believe the default used to be to have News Feed at the top. Regardless, these list items are actually filters of sorts; that is, they’re options of what you see on your home page. The top item is what the Home page defaults to any time you go there. The nice thing is you can switch what your default is. I have mine set to Status Update. That way, I’m just seeing my friends’ (and some of my fan pages’) posts. If Status Update isn’t at the top of your list, I would suggest for your case to drag it there. To do so, click the word “More” in blue at the bottom of the list. This will expand the list to show more lists/filters, some of which you may have created yourself. (Lists are a whole other topic I could blog on! They’re very cool and helpful!)
Once you’ve got the expanded list, each list item should have a little icon to the right–three stacked horizontal bars in grey-blue. You can grab this icon for a list item and then drag it to where you want in the list. The top 8 items in your list always show up, whether you expand this list or make it “Less”. For your situation, Nina, drag your Status Update list item to the top of the list. Once you’re done rearranging your list, click that “Less” link (where the “More” one was before), and the list will condense again. Now, when you go to your Home page, it will automatically just show you your friends’ status updates, nothing else, like Mafia Wars actions. You can still view those things if you want–just by clicking on the list item Try, for example, just clicking on Photos, and your “news feed” will be filtered to just show all the photos your friends have posted or tagged in the last so many hours or days. You can click back onto Status Updates to get it back where you had it, and as long as you leave that at the top of the list, it’s the default. With that solution, you don’t have to hide anything semi-permanently, you can just not have to look at it, if that makes sense?
If you want to hide stuff from ever having to see it in your news feed, you do have that option. If you’re in the News Feed View, and an application notice is there–like FarmFeed–and you know you don’t want to see anything from that application again, if you hover your mouse over to the top right of that particular news feed item, a “Hide” button should appear. Click it. I think it does prompt you whether you never want to see anything from that application–or the person who posted it–so be careful what you choose. I believe there’s a way to undo that, but I’m going to have to do some digging to refresh my memory.
Another, possibly better way to deal with it is next time you get an “other request” from a friend to join them in that game, you have an option in small print below that request to Block This Application. I suggest doing that. Your friend isn’t going to get a notice that you blocked it or that you turned their request done, so no harm, no foul. And then that app won’t be bugging you any more, request-wise.
Hope these suggestions help. Let me know if something’s unclear, or if you have a better way!
Hi Debbie. Thank you for being here. It’s wonderful to have you blogging with us. I’ve noticed many of my Facebook friends are part of Facebook groups like Mafia Wars and Farmville. How do writers find appropriate groups (maybe writers groups or book clubs) on Facebook to join and possibly use as a marketing tool?
Hey Adrienne! Thanks for the warm welcome!
Love your question, because it also allows me to make a distinction that might be of help to others, so pardon my sidetrack here. Mafia Wars and Farmville and other games and quizzes and such are actually Applications. They’re add-ons that you approve (or ignore or block–see my note to Nina), and then can interact with other FB friends on–and I believe in some situations with other FB’ers outside your group of friends. Facebook actually shares some of your info there. I won’t go into this now, but in your Settings, you can decide what info you want shared. But be aware, there are some basics you have to share to use any application, and you don’t have any choice, except to not use the app, if you don’t agree to share that info.
Groups on Facebook are a different animal, sorta part of the Facebook feature list that’s available to you. You can create your own group, or join those created by others, if they’re open to general membership or you pass their approval criteria. (Groups can be created to be closed, as well, so if you have a private book club, say, you can set up a private group on FB for that.)
The easiest way to find groups to join is to type in some key words in the Search box at the top right of any FB page. When the Search results page comes up, you’ll get a mish-mash of personal profiles, groups, (fan) pages, etc., that might fit that. To the left, you can select to just see Groups that fit that criteria, and then browse through those. You can also click through on one of those group names to see what that group’s page looks like and what they’re about. You’ll see members of the group, etc., and then can decide whether you want to join–and if you are allowed to.
I think of Groups like public message boards. Places to just hang and chat with other like-minded people. For instance, I’m into dance. I take ballet at a local community college and have a group of friends there who are also on Facebook. I might create an informal group for that community college’s dance students, where we can all post info about upcoming performances, master classes, chat about carpooling to one of those events, rave about our last recital…you get the idea. There’s other ways to share that info on FB, but that’s a place someone can remember to go versus checking in with your various dance FB friends.
If you find groups like this to join on FB, just by virtue of being a member, your profile pic shows up in the group member list. That in itself I suppose is a bit of a promotion. But then again, figure that this is for your personal self, not your public persona. (OK, I know lots of you writers are using your personal account more or less as your public persona. Just be aware, as noted in my post to Kelsey, that you’re walking a fine line.)
I guess bottom line, your connecting with others via Groups can be a marketing tool, but maybe not the best if that’s the main reason you’re doing it. It’s a good way to do networking–to meet people. Maybe that distinction needs to be made too–networking isn’t the same as marketing. Networking can facilitate marketing, and vice versa. Marketing aside, networking is good for you, not just as a writer, but as a person. And it can never hurt for you to have more friends! They can become fans.
OTOH, I could totally see setting up your own book club or discussion group, where you get like-minded people gathering and chatting over a topic you’re interested in. And as admin of that group, you can include a link in the info section on the group page to your FB public persona page.
To bring it full circle, there are existing applications that are more or less book reviews or book clubs to an extent. I’ve added a couple of those to my profile. One on my profile page is Visual Bookshelf. It shows books I’ve already read (that I enter in), some of my highly rated books, and recent reviews. I believe your reviews for Visual Bookshelf show up to anyone on Facebook. So you could I supposed gain a name for yourself that way, if someone looks for a review on a specific book and finds yours. Theoretically if someone liked your reviews, they could go read all of yours. Again, this is a way to get your name out there. I wouldn’t call it direct marketing or anything, but it is networking to an extent, and possibly very indirect marketing. Still, it can’t hurt. Adrienne, hope some of these ideas work for you. Maybe you and others here have some ideas of their own?
Thanks, Debbie, for some great information.
Nina, I know! That drives me nuts too. I ended up hiding all games from showing up and even hid status reports from a few friends who posted constantly 7-8 times a day. I got tired of wading through all the excessive promo stuff and the mundane reports just to find out what everyone else was doing. It’s when I missed a few important friend updates that I decided to do that. I did feel a little mean, however.
That’s a great rule of thumb to update your status every OTHER time you log in and to make it creative, because it’s showing up in everyone’s news feeds.
I hadn’t even thought about making a Page for myself since I’m unpublished. I’m going to look into that to see if it makes sense for me.
Do you have any recommendations for a friend who says she rarely gets comments back from anyone? She’ll make comments to them, but people rarely do with her. I don’t seem to have the same problem, but I don’t know why, other than many of my friends are FB-aholics who are on all the time. Could it be that I update my status fairly regularly and, because of that, I’m on people’s news feeds? Kinda like out-of-sight, out-of-mind?
Thanks!
Great to hear the info was of help, Laurie. Sounds like you know your way around FB really well. And you don’t have to feel mean about hiding stuff in your news feed/status updates. No notice ever goes out to your friends that you blocked an application they asked you to add, or that you’ve hidden them from your news feed. The most they might notice is you’re not commenting on their status updates very much any more, but chances are you weren’t anyway since they were posting so much! (I have to smile, because I wonder sometimes if I’m hidden on many of my FB friends’ news feeds!)
I’d really suggest setting up the Page for yourself as a writer now. That way you’ve got it started. If you don’t use it in the end, that’s fine, but this way you have it set up when you start to build a name for yourself.
Interesting question about the friend who’s not getting that much commenting. I think you may be onto something. It does help to have friends who are on fairly often. Maybe she should send a link to my blog to her FB friends! (Not just doing blatant self-promotion, but that she could find a way to encourage her friends to get often a bit more.) But I would agree too that updating her status a bit more regularly might do it, if she’s not doing it that often. Facebook will take down a status update if it’s there for a week with no change. Then your profile page is blank. Which to me always looks kinda sad and abandoned. Also, if she is updating somewhat regularly, there’s more chance that her friends will see it. It could be they aren’t on that often, and when they are, hers isn’t there anymore? The other thing that seems to generate talk and comment is posting photos. I would be cautious about what you post–I set most of my albums to Friends only (since I know I approved those). Then tag the photos. This is pretty easy, but I can explain if someone wants me to. Tagging other FB friends in the photos let those friends know they’re in some photos–prompting to look at themselves (we’re all vain that way, I think!) and then ask about other photos sometimes or just make comments.
Another practice I engage in is to connect up my friends. If I find a new friend on FB (usually someone I know that just got on FB versus someone I just met on FB), I will take advantage of the prompt about suggesting friends for that person. What actually happens is that all the people you suggest actually get notices that Friend A just got on FB and would they like to friend that person. Then your Friend A gets a notice, would you like to friend this person? It works quite well. That way your circles of friends start connecting. You’d be surprised how when people get on FB, they just find one friend, but don’t think right away to see if other related friends are there.
Those are just a few ideas. Tell your friend to stick with it! And maybe you can comment back to her? (big grin)
Below is something I copied right from my FB page and that is going around now to FB users. Not sure I understand what it is or the implications. Maybe you could comment on it. I received it and I don’t know if I should sign the petition or not.
What is your take on this paragraph below?
Keep My Inbox Private
On August 11th, Facebook started giving whitelisted apps access to inbox messages. User permission is required, but the potential for abuse is enormous – a malicious or hacked app could post private messages on the web for anyone to read. Help stop this by signing our petition.
Hey again, Nina! Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I’m not a Facebook techno expert, but I’ll take a stab. Don’t take my opinion as final word, though, please. As a side comment, as I posted in another reply, FB can be wonderful, but also aggravating. It’s great they continue to try and “improve the FB experience” but sometimes that translates into not improving the experience–or more likely, making us learn something new we don’t want to! (big grin)
From what I’ve read so far on the subject, FB is allowing some software developers to have access to inbox messages to enhance the Facebook experience. But you as a Facebook user would have to opt in. The opting-in process would likely be agreeing to one of those lengthy legal boxes and saying “yes, I accept.” All you need to do is not accept.
(See third paragraph in this blog from Facebook: http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=291 )
I wouldn’t accept an agreement like this–use an app–until you’re more experienced with Facebook and comfortable knowing what decision you’re making. It’s one of those things that is a calculated risk. You can decide how comfortable you are with accepting and trusting the third-party software developer. I have to admit–I may have already agreed to let a third-party developer’s software have access to my inbox–or something approximately close to that, which is what is being protested. I have a gadget on my laptop main screen that gives me a running ticker on my Facebook status updates from my friends. It also allows me to click a link and pull up Facebook to log in, so I can check my inbox and appears to keep tabs on how many messages I have. It’s not set up to alert me if I have new messages right now, but it’s similar technology.
As for the petition, I’d say the same approach should apply–I wouldn’t “sign” anything until I had a good idea if it was a valid Facebook application. I did check out that particular petition. It puzzles me a bit because it doesn’t act like a lot of the other Petitions for Facebook. Those actually have actual petitions that you link to and can sign your name to. This one automatically adds an application to your profile, and doesn’t show any actual petition or give you a choice to read more about it. I added it then removed it from my applications list. (Again, another reason to not add applications until you’re feeling more comfortable with Facebook and feel you know what you’re doing.) I’m not dismissing this cause, just saying, until or unless you feel comfortable navigating this stuff, I’d counsel not messing with it. That application itself (the petition about inbox privacy) seems to also take info from your profile, etc., and isn’t clear what it’s doing with it.
Just to make a general statement too about the inbox privacy issue. I do go forward believing what is in my inbox is private. OTOH, I try not to send any messages out that would come back to bite me if they were ever by mistake release publicly. But think about this–I do the same with my own emails. Most of us have some sort of email we can check online as well, and some of the functionality may be through software developers we’re not totally certain of whether they’re actually providing a secure, safe server. I’m not saying to be paranoid, I’m just saying put this in a bigger perspective. Do what feels safe to you. Anything on the Internet can basically be hacked, at least that’s what we’re told. So practice caution to the extent you feel comfortable. Definitely be on the lookout for notices like this, but also don’t freak out at the first sign of controversy. Just like those emails you get sometimes that turn out to be urban myths–sometimes the stuff you hear about online scares can be that too. Then OTOH, there can be real viruses or scams or such…you just need to keep a level head about it and check the facts out as best you can.
If you really want to keep your inbox privacy safe, you can always make sure you don’t save anything there. And you may not want to message me anything. I’m not going to go parade it, but I can’t guarantee you I’m not going to keep using that cool gadget I’ve got!
hi Deb! You are the best…so concise and clear on all of the elements. I’m going to make sure to remember it!
Thanks, Chris! Glad it was of help! You’re the best too!
Hi Tracey! You guys at RU have some great, thought-provoking questions!
And you’re right, I am a fan of Romance University Blog! It’s great that you guys have an auto feed set up that goes into Romance University’s fan page. And see–you probably know more about this than I do.
Just talking generally on how I react to a page I’m a fan of, I think less is more. For RU specifically, you all already do a great job of creating new RU content almost every day. And with that info already going out to your fans, that’s a lot of info to absorb. My initial hit is I wouldn’t put more out there; otherwise it starts to dilute what you’re putting out there.
For others out there with a fan page/public persona/business page, maybe think of it in like terms to your personal profile, when you’re interacting with friends on your news feed. I will admit, I can be on FB quite a lot (as in multiple times a day), but in that case I try to restrain myself from changing my status update every time I’m on there. Otherwise, what I’ve noticed is my friends don’t tend to get a chance to comment back on a particular one. OK, some status updates don’t warrant comments, they’re just general statements, but commenting is fun!
If you’re constantly changing your personal status update, think about the results in your friends’ news feeds too. One, a computer screen can only hold so much, so if you’re changing your status every few minutes, your friends’ news feed/home page will be loaded with your status updates, possibly inching out status updates from other friends who don’t post so much. (You become a bit like the chatty friend who doesn’t let the shyer, quieter friend ever get a word in edgewise.) Also consider that your friends may not be on as often as you are, so they will only possibly see your last update, not all the other ones before that.
My personal response sometimes with pages I’m a fan of is that if they update a lot, I tend to start tuning the updates out. I do use Facebook for a shortcut (per my blog)–a way to quickly see info about a lot of people–and thing–I care about in a short period of time and space. And I like to see stuff that I really care about. The fact that I “fanned” a page means a lot; it means I want to know about that entity. But then again, I tend to not like to be bombarded all the time.
This doesn’t translate to me saying I think RU particularly posts too much! I’m just talking relatively. There’s no hard and fast rules. That said, as a general rule of thumb, for a fan page, my instinct is to say to put up an update once a week. That said, I’m not sure that rule would apply to RU. In your shoes, I don’t see how you can just pick one of your excellent guest bloggers a week to promote–and I would presume your fans would like to see the line-up.
As a discussion point, if you wanted to have less updates, could you? I’ve noticed you also have your blog posts showing up in your fan page’s Notes section/tab, which is great. So do you know if you have the option to have the blogs just go to the Notes, and reserve the updates for a summary teaser, say, once or twice a week? Or when you set up the auto feed, does it go to both the Notes and Status Update? I’d be curious.
Regardless, I think how RU has its fan page currently set up works well. And updates from a fan page really depend on what the fan page is for or doing. In your case, you’re using your FB fan page to spread word of mouth about your blog, and drive visitors there, not necessarily your fan page. Your fan page is basically to make it convenient for FB’ers to get to your blog material. Maybe that will give you a different way to view it as well?
Bottom line, I think RU is doing things just right. And in general, less is more. Too bad I didn’t follow my own advice in my reply!
Debbie, thanks for the great feedback. Honestly, I don’t know if we have the option of updates vs. notes. I followed FB’s directions on how to setup an automatic feed and don’t recall having an option.
One thing we’re doing that is redundant is our Tweets are also feeding into FB. I’ve removed (at least I think I have) the FB connection in Twitter but it’s stubbornly still posting to FB. I have to find time to place with this.
I’ll look into the updates vs. notes thing, too.
Thanks again, Tracey
Sounds like it just goes automatically both places with the blog feed.
And yes, I have to be careful on the Twitter/FB link-up too. (Though it’s more trying to keep straight in my head what I’m doing.) I have my fan page set up to feed into Twitter, which is in turn set up to feed into my personal profile FB status update. But my personal status does not go the other way.
I’m a bit new to Twitter myself–only been tweeting for a few months–so I’m not the best person to ask. I’ve basically set it up so I can post to my FB status with my mobile phone (my mobile provider doesn’t allow for the mobile Facebook app, which bums me out)!
I only asked about the updates into Notes because I know that’s how it can work on your personal profile–you can have a personal blog dump into Notes, so it’s like a blog on FB. I’m guessing the default on public persona Page is that the auto transfer puts it into the Notes and the update. Thanks for educating me on that!
Very interesting and useful info here–thank you! I tend to find FB a little overwhelming at times…
Thanks especially for the info on making a Fan page–need to go see abuot that…
One comment–I somewhat disagree with posting one’s birthday. There are so many crazies out there, including on FB, that I hesitate to post any personal information like that, even if it’s incomplete.
Hey Marissa! Funny thing, on a previous post I was just commenting about the Facebook app Visual Bookshelf (part of Living Social), and your book The Bewitching Season is one I read and reviewed and of course loved. Thanks for stopping in!
You definitely need a fan page. Let me know if I can help. And just a note–I would never put my birthday on my fan page, but that’s just me.
Your comment about birthdays brings up a few good points. To me, that’s the beauty of FB. You can decide whether to use certain apps (or not, like in Nina’s case above) or you can decide not to fill in certain info about yourself on your personal profile. To me, the sharing level also has a lot to do with who all you’re going to let see your personal profile in the first place.
It might help for me to explain how I approach my personal profile and settings. One, pretty much all my settings are set up to be viewed by “Friends Only.” (If you go to the top left blue bar on any Facebook page, hover over Settings and choose Privacy Settings from the drop-down menu, then go to Profile.) Two, I only friend people I have met face to face or have had extensive email contact with. (Some exceptions, of course, have been long-lost relatives or favorite local celebrities wanting to friend me!) So between those two self-imposed rules, I feel comfortable having my birth day visible on my profile, since it’s available only to friends I’ve selected.
If I were opening up my profile to a wider circle, say, friends of friends (you can even choose everybody on Facebook), I would probably be more cautious about what I shared, including birth day. For me personally, however, having to restrict myself like that would defeat the purpose. If I don’t feel comfortable sharing info with my friends, then I’m less likely to engage on FB and less likely then to connect.
That said, my husband has his FB profile open to friends and friends of friends. I attribute that to his being a guy and not feeling as much as a target as a woman might be online. That might not be accurate, but again it just depends on the individual.
Also, have I said this already? But you do not ever have to accept a friendship request. It’s not like they get a notice that you turned them down as a friend. The only thing they know is that you have never accepted that request. As far as they know, you may just never log on to Facebook.
That all said, I’d be curious to hear what particularly you’re worried about in sharing your birth day? Perhaps I’m being dense. Is it that someone might be able to use that info? Birth year is certainly something I wouldn’t want to share–not necessarily because I don’t want people knowing my age, but in general, it alerts people to a vulnerable side, like ID’ing that a person is extremely young or extremely old and thus might be easier to take advantage of than others. By the same token, I try not to post on Twitter where I am at a given moment. I don’t need someone able to track me down. However, I’m more likely to post where I am at a given moment or where I will be on FB because I’m putting that out to Friends Only. (Which just brings me back to the settings issue.) I suppose my FB friends could share that info with other people, but then I don’t have control over what my friends say whether I’m on FB or not.
This also brings up how comfortable individuals are with believing that Facebook (or any other app out there) really protects your info. From the reading I’ve done online about FB, the entity is actually pretty good about shutting down mass spam/phishing efforts and such, given its size. I’m not going to sit here and defend FB up and down–I’ve had my gripes–but overall I feel pretty secure that the info they say they keep protected/private is. I know other people who don’t feel that way; they may feel that way about other places online too. Again, each person has their own opinion and comfort level. And if you don’t feel comfortable with sharing that info, you should not.
I am going to address a related issue to one of Nina’s posts about how you do need to keep some tabs on what FB is doing with some of its new developer apps. The nice thing about FB is that it’s always innovating to improve the experience. The bad thing about FB is–you got it–it’s always innovating to improve the experience–and it gets annoying trying to keep up. Still, I still find it’s worth that hassle, because the benefits of the networking are wonderful.
Oh–and for the overwhelming bit–I have a tip for anyone who feels that way. Just dedicate 5 minutes a week to exploring FB. When I first signed on, I made a point of trying something new out every day. I know not everyone is going to do that, but just once a week, take an extra 5 minutes to explore what it’s like to tag a photo or that quiz all your friends are taking. You might be surprised at what you find, and you will start to feel more comfortable with FB and what you can and can’t do–and what you want to do and not do!
Thanks again for stopping in, Marissa. It’s always nice to meet a thoughtful, wise FB user.
Deb,
I very much enjoyed your talk on Facebook a few months ago, and am happy to see today’s ‘teaching’ on setting up and using Facebook.
I’ve not yet taken the time to set up my own Facebook account, too busy to start another project at the moment, but I am saving your suggestions for when I bite the bullet and do this.
I just got an e-mail from my 91 year old uncle who wants me to be friends with him on Facebook!! So I guess I’d better pretty soon.
Thanks for taking away some of my fears about Facebook.
Sherry
Sherry, how cool is that? A 91-year-old on Facebook. I think the die is cut, you need to get on there! I have connected up with so many cousins and other relatives I wouldn’t have before without FB, and that’s been a real blessing. That in itself is a good reason to be on FB, writer or not. And actually, especially as a writer. We tend to spend a bunch of time within ourselves, sitting in front of a computer and creating our own worlds. Sometimes we need to get away from that and interact with real peopl again, not just our characters (no matter how real they seem). I find FB a good way to ease out of that creating world and get back into the living. Besides that, not that I’m doing this (wink, wink) but Facebook is basically authorized eavesdropping. You can pop in and out of friends’ conversations just like you would at a diner, but on FB you’ve been approved to do so and don’t have to pretend like you’re reading a newspaper. Admit it–we writers do things like that. Seriously, though, writing can be very solitary. FB helps us get over that by bringing our buds to our desktops–and making us remember there are more things to life.
Debbie, what a cogent discussion of this wonderful site. I came to Facebook relatively recently, after an initial try that didn’t quite take. I wish I’d had your primer the first time around!
I’ve learned to love it–and my reasons are both sensible and definitively UNsensible! Facebook is both the most practical networking tool and the most delightful time-wasting tool, depending on what you need at the moment.
You’re so right about it enriching friendships. I’ve learned so much on FB, even about the people in my own house!
Thanks for sharing your insights.
Kathleen
Kathleen, thanks for your kind words! And you describe what I love about Facebook perfectly. I personally have gotten into the “quizzes about me”–where people can create a quiz about themselves, then ask their friends to take it. I must have a weird sense of humor because I was having fun with stumping people, putting in multiple choice answers I figured they’d think were right, when actually something else was true! I also enjoyed taking my friends’ quizzes because I learned totally new things about them. (Personally, I think this would be a fun thing to do with a favorite book…)
And you’re right. I learn things about my husband I didn’t know–like he liked a sandwich I made for him enough to post an update about it! How cool is that? Not sure that’ll help me sell a book one day, but it sure makes for a nicer life at home, which does help me write!
I’ve also become friends with writers I’ve met at conference, like finding out they have excellent taste in mystery writers and dogs (wink, wink).
Thanks for sharing your insights.
Debbie,
Thank you for a fabulous day of Facebook talk! I’m sure FB will be getting a lot of traffic after this.
We really appreciate the time you took to answer everyone’s questions. You’re the best!
Take care, Tracey
Thank you for letting me drone on about a favorite subject–one I feel very passionately about. I hope I didn’t bore anyone. I should mention that I did post my basic tips about signing on to FB for the first time on my FB public page. I’m hoping to post some more advanced tips there in future, and would be happy to answer questions there after this week. But I’ll be checking in the next few days here if anyone’s got more questions or has a follow-up. Thanks for having me here, RU! You guys rock!
Debbie,
WOW! I woke up this morning and found you guys had torn up the comments while I was asleep. If only my writing would magically appear that way!
You can be sure that I’m about to print all these little gems out today.
Thanks so much for being with RU. Fantastic post!
Kelsey
I know–I’m not one of those writers who writes short, as I’m sure you can tell. Glad to hear there are some gems in there. Thank you again for having me here.
Debbie,
What a fabulous post! I’m fairly new to Facebook so all of your detailed information is “gold” to me. Thanks for sharing your insights.
You’re welcome! Thank for stopping in and reading. Glad to hear you’re on Facebook now too! Let me know if you have any questions. Even if I don’t know the answers, I love snooping around to find out more.
Great post, Debbie! Lots of good information. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks, Nancy! And thanks for stopping in. I know you’ve found some fun stuff to do on Facebook, for you personally and also with your writing career. And that you’ve learned to balance your time there as well with your writing deadlines. That takes willpower!