Building an Online Presence: Facebook

Hey guys!  Intern Kenny here again with more tips in building an online presence.  Today, I am covering Facebook.  For the past few years, Facebook has been the premier social media platform in the world and here are some tips on how to flourish on the medium.


Tip #1: It's not personal.

While Facebook is a great medium to reconnect with long lost friends, what you want as an author is to connect with current and potential fans.  This is what a Facebook fan page is for.  Through your private personal Facebook, you can extend into a fan page where anyone can like you and begin receiving updates from you.  This is a great way to connect with fans, most of which are on Facebook.


Tip #2: The Professional

Keep your Facebook fan page professional.  This means that it must be treated differently than your personal page.  This is for two different but equally important reasons.  First of all, your Facebook fan page is for updating your fans and not your friends.  Fans, as much as they want to know about your personal life, seek more about your upcoming events and book releases.  They care more about how you are doing on your next book than how awesome Disneyland was.  Secondly, your Facebook fan page is not a private page.  Anyone can like it and anyone can receive your updates.  In order to protect yourself, you should not put too many personal details on your professional Facebook fan page.


Tip #3: Say Cheese

One big advantage that Facebook has over social media sites like Twitter is that Facebook makes sharing pictures much more easily.  Instead of overflowing your Twitter feed with single picture after single picture, Facebook allows the uploading of albums of pictures to your fan page.  With a Facebook fan page, you can upload pictures and let your fans see pictures from book signings or readings or from conventions.  However, remember Tip #1, don't post personal pictures on to your fan page, only pictures that you deem appropriate to allow your fans to see.


Tip #4: What are friends for?

The most difficult part about developing a successful Facebook fan page is the initial push to get likes.  Because fan pages are linked to your personal account, you can invite all of your friends to like your professional fan page.  While it may annoy your friends, you will get an initial surge of likes that will serve as a foundation for your site.


Tip #5: 140 more.

Unlike Twitter, Facebook posts can exceed more than 140 characters.  That is one of the key differences that you should take advantage of.  On your Facebook fan page, you should be encouraged to write longer posts.  Do not treat your Facebook as a Twitter under a different name.  It should be an extension of your social media and while linking your Twitter to your Facebook is useful, you should have Facebook independent posts as well.


With these quick tips, you will now be ready to peruse the world of Facebook.  This is only the beginnings of all that you can do on this social media platform and with more exploration you will discover the full capabilities of Facebook.

For more tips to build an online presence, come back to the KC&A blog in the future.