Good morning and welcome to Crafting Your Career. Today, chapter-mate Haley Hughes is going to enlighten us on how Facebook can work best for writers. Haley’s been helping members of our RWA chapter setup their profiles and pages for months, so she knows her FB business. Feel free to ask questions. Haley will pop in a few times to offer assistance.
Haley, the class is yours!
Social media is ever evolving. Once you think you figure it out, things change. The change might be as simple as a tweak in how a feature works, or it could be a shift in what platform is hot. A few years ago it was all about blogging and MySpace. Now it’s Twitter and Facebook.
The nice thing, though, is once you “get” it, once you understand one social media platform, the basic terminology and concepts translate pretty easily.
I’m an old Generation X’er. Social media didn’t exist for me in high school or college. Most of what I have learned about it has been though trial and error without benefit of friends to walk me though it.
To me, social media is fun. To some of my friends and writing colleagues, it’s scary and a waste of time. And we all know how precious time is.
What is the value in social media, specifically Facebook, for writers?
Three things come instantly to mind: cost, connection and community.
Cost: Facebook is free to use. And it is a great companion marketing tool for your website, allowing you, the author, to get quick and timely news to your readers without having to pay your website administrator for changes to your site.
Connection: Your readers have to make a conscious decision to visit your web page. And even if they do it once, they may never return again. If you can get them to connect with you on Facebook, every time you update your status, it will stream to their News Feed.
Community: Your interaction with readers on Facebook is more conversational, giving them a great glimpse into what goes into creating your work. And when that book is released, they might feel more personally vested in it and be more likely to recommend it to others.
Last September, Deb Pfeiffer wrote an introduction to Facebook and gave great advice on how to register and create your personal profile.
Many writers might feel content using their personal profile for all their Facebook needs. I would argue that you should go the next step and create an Official Page (aka Fan Page) for yourself.
Why create an Official Page on Facebook instead of using your personal profile to promote your writing?
Your personal profile is meant to be personal. You probably have family and non-writing friends on Facebook with whom you’d like to keep in touch. Having an Official Page helps you separate people you know from people you don’t personally know and limit how much personal information you’re potentially exposing to strangers.
You want to make it easy on your readers. On personal profiles, you become “friends” with people, and that “friend” status creates a two-way relationship. On an Official Page, a person chooses to “Like” the page, which creates a one-way relationship. Many readers would feel it’s too presumptuous to ask a writer to be their friend, but wouldn’t hesitate to “Like” her and subscribe to her Official Page.
Your fans are interested in news about your writing career. That’s why they became fans on Facebook. They hope to get rewarded with news about what’s happening with your writing. If you have a Official Page, when you post career-related news, you don’t have to be afraid of inundating family and personal friends with too much self-promotion.
Official Pages look and act a lot like your profile page, so navigating one doesn’t require much extra knowledge.
Official Page status updates stream to fans’ Home Pages, just like updates from their personal friends. It’s hard to tell the difference when viewing your Home Page.
Official Page administrators aren’t public. You can administer a Official Page without revealing who you are or your personal profile information.
You can have multiple administrators for a Official Page. This way, you can have someone else silently help you run your Official Page and build community.
How do I create an Official Page?
If you’re looking at an existing Official Page, you’ll see a link to “Create a Page” in the lower left column of the page. If you’re on your Home Page, you’ll see a link for “Ads and Pages” in the left column, which should give you the option to “Create Page”.
Once you’re on the page titled “Create a Page”, fill out the information and click the button to “Create Official Page”.
Voila! Your page is created. Now you need to personalize it, which is very similar to personalizing your profile. You can add photos, write status updates and share links.
Notice that anything you do while you’re on this page is published in the persona of the page. If you called the page “Romance Writer”, then if you post a link to the page’s wall, it looks like a Facebook user named “Romance Writer” wrote on your wall. This is true of anyone with administrator status on the page. You cannot accidentally write on the page as your real identity.
Remember, Official Pages are public, so anything you do write will be viewable by anyone on the internet, unless that page is “unpublished”, which means it will only be visible to page administrators.
(NOTE: Under your profile photo you’ll see a link to “Edit Page”. This link gives you more fine-detailed control over the appearance of the page.)
My page is created, now what?
Now you should be ready to promote your page to your friends. In the left column is a link to “Suggest to Friends”. You can use this option to send an invitation to any and all of your Facebook friends to become fans of the page.
You can also use the “Share” option in the lower left column of the page to post a link to the page to your personal profile.
How often you post to your Official Page is up to you, but once a day is a good place to start.
Try brainstorming several status update ideas at one time, then parcel them gradually. This should make your Facebook time more organized and distract less from the important stuff, your writing.
Remember to respond to any comments or wall posts. In my experience, it takes comments to get comments. A statistic I’ve seen thrown around is that for every bit of self promotion you do, you should have 10 other interactions with people.
I hope this collection of my knowledge about Official Pages for writers is helpful. I’m curious to hear about your experiences, both good and bad, with using Facebook as a writer. What makes your Official Pages work? And what frustrations have you run into?
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Thanks, Haley!
RU Crew, now it’s your turn. Ask away.
Stop by tomorrow for Laurie London’s third lecture in our Debut Author’s Journey series chronicling her nail-biting moments before hearing the word “Sold!”
Haley’s Bio:
Haley Hughes likes the paranormal, time-travel and a well-crafted alpha male. While her new role as a stay-at-home mom to an active 10-month-old son has put a temporary damper on her romance writing, she has found that Facebook remains a vital link to the outside world. While she has helped several writer friends create Official Pages, she hasn’t published her own Official Page yet. You can find her at haleyhughes.com and haleyhughes.blogspot.com.
Carrie Spencer, writing romantic comedy and goofy middle-grade, personifies her alter-ego - 
Hi Haley,
Thanks for joining us! Currently, I have RU’s and my Fan page connected to my personal profile, which I only use for writing purposes.
Is this still the best way to have a Fan page setup–off an existing profile? Is there a way to setup a Fan page without having a profile first?
Thanks, Tracey
Posted by TraceyDevlyn | June 21, 2010, 5:27 amHi Tracy,
Thanks for having me here at the Romance University.
You’re correct. You must have a personal profile first. Once that is created, you can have as many fan pages as you like.
Posted by haleyhughes | June 21, 2010, 8:26 amHi Haley. Thank you for stopping by today. The details on what to do after the page has been created are very helpful. I’ve created a public page already, but haven’t done anything with it. Mostly because I haven’t taken the time to figure it out! You’ve just given me a shortcut.
Thanks!
Posted by AdrienneGiordano | June 21, 2010, 8:42 amHi Adrienne,
I hope the tips are helpful. There is no one correct way to use your page. I think you have to find your own comfort level when it comes to posting.
Posted by haleyhughes | June 21, 2010, 8:55 amMorning Haley!
Thanks for the great information! I have a Fan page set up myself, and I post probably 3 times a week, but what frustrates me is that you don’t get an email update when someone has posted to you on your Fan page. Argh!
Is there any way to change the look of a FB page? Or are all FB pages created equal?
Thanks for being here today!
carrie
Posted by Carrie Spencer | June 21, 2010, 10:46 amHaley -
Thanks so much for being here! Is the fan page (or other) a way for someone who uses a pen name to keep their personal name private?
This lecture will go in my keeper file!
Many thanks!
Kelsey
Posted by Kelsey Browning | June 21, 2010, 11:04 amHaley,
This is great information. Thanks!
~Laurie
Posted by Laurie London | June 21, 2010, 12:02 pmHi Haley,
Thank you for the excellent tips and step-thru for creating a fan page. I have a FB account and I write under my own name. I’m unpublished in novel length, but have published one short love story, so far, and other fiction. I want to create a fan page. Are there drawbacks or concerns if I use my own name on my fan page?
Sheila
Posted by Sheila Tenold | June 21, 2010, 12:39 pmHi Carrie,
I’ve found the lack of notification frustrating also. Besides checking the page a few times a day, I’ve found that “liking” a post can ensure I see followup comments. It might feel weird “liking” your own post, but it works.
Another thing you might want to do is set your page’s default wall setting to show both your posts “+ others”. I’ve found that if the default view is to only show your posts, it’s very easy to miss wall posts from fans.
As for changing the look of the FB page, I did a quick search for “facebook themes” and “facebook layouts” and there appear to be some options, but I know nothing about them. One of the strengths of FB is its clean and easy-to-read design, but that can be frustrating for people who love to tinker with design.
Posted by haleyhughes | June 21, 2010, 1:11 pmHi Kelsey,
Exactly. An official page (aka fan page) is designed to not reveal your personal name.
Posted by haleyhughes | June 21, 2010, 1:16 pmHi Laurie,
Thanks! I hope you find it useful.
Posted by haleyhughes | June 21, 2010, 1:16 pmHi Sheila,
I know of no concerns that are specific to using your real name on Facebook pages. You’ve made the decision to make your real name your brand, so you should do everything you can to build that brand.
However, I would make sure that your privacy settings on your personal profile page are set to your satisfaction. Your personal profile is the place where you are more likely to unknowingly reveal your address, phone number or other sensitive information.
Posted by haleyhughes | June 21, 2010, 1:22 pmGreat blog, Haley! I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Great idea too about “liking” your post to keep track of other comments. I also like the idea of brainstorming post ideas ahead of time so you don’t have to necessarily go there every day. I have noticed in my own Page stats that the weeks I post something I tend to gain a few followers (Likers?), or probably more importantly, I have more page visits. OTOH if I don’t, the number of followers stays static (or drops) as do the visits.
Like Carrie, I’d love it if FB would add the feature to get notification of comments posted to my public persona Page. If you have a suggestion for FB like this, you can go here to do so (pick the appropriate topic):
http://www.facebook.com/help/#!/help/?topic=suggestions
Thanks so much for the great Facebook Page tips, Haley!
Posted by Debbie Pfeiffer | June 21, 2010, 3:36 pmHaley, one more question!
Sometimes I receive an email from a FB friend(s). I don’t think it’s a direct message to me, but a mass distribution. Do you know what function these individuals might be using?
Thanks, Tracey
Posted by TraceyDevlyn | June 21, 2010, 8:10 pmThanks Deb! And thanks for posting the link to make Facebook suggestions.
Posted by haleyhughes | June 21, 2010, 9:03 pmHi Tracey,
I did a quick look around. I haven’t actually used either of these functions below, but they look pretty straight forward.
If you’d like to send a mass distribution to friends of your personal profile, then it helps if you have your friends organized into lists. When you select the option to send a new message, in the “To:” field you can simply type the name of the list, and the message should go to all people on that list. (You can create and edit lists through the “Friends” link in the left column of your Home page.)
If you’d like to send a mass distribution to fans of an official page, then you can do that through the “Edit page” function. In the right column of the edit page, under the heading “Promote your page” is an option to “Send an Update to Fans”. When you do this, you can send the update to all fans, or you can target by demographics.
Posted by haleyhughes | June 21, 2010, 9:22 pm