{"id":3598,"date":"2011-01-17T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T06:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/?p=3598"},"modified":"2014-12-23T17:21:52","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T11:51:52","slug":"readers-who-like-you-or-readers-who-friend-you-which-is-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/readers-who-like-you-or-readers-who-friend-you-which-is-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Readers Who \u201cLike\u201d You, or Readers Who \u201cFriend\u201d You — Which Is Better?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Expert: Laurel Marshfield<\/a><\/p>\n

This year, Facebook topped 550 million members. If it were a country, Facebook would be the third largest in the world (ahead of the United States, in fourth place with a mere 309 million).<\/p>\n

Impressive numbers, but why should that interest authors \u2013 interest you as an author? Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

If only a tenth of a relatively small percentage of all \u201cFacebookians\u201d became your loyal readers, you could easily attain the Ultimate Author Dream: Writing the books you most want to, while netting the royalties associated with authors who are mega famous.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019d like to know, right about now, what the basic guidelines for attracting readers on the biggest social networking site in the world are?<\/p>\n

You Have to Play to Play <\/strong><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t already have one, set up a \u201cprofile page\u201d \u2013 a basic Facebook account. Simply go to www.facebook.com<\/a> and fill in the requested information (realize that you must christen your profile page with your real name \u2013 a Facebook rule; if you need to differentiate your page from all the other Jane or John Smiths on the site, use a middle name or middle initial).<\/p>\n

Once you have a profile account, you\u2019ve earned the right to create a \u201cfan page.\u201d That\u2019s where you\u2019ll stage the serious book promotion designed to attract your new readers. (Quick aside: you can create as many fan pages as you want, but you only get one<\/em> profile page — in the same way that you only get one name.) Go to http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/create.php<\/a> to set up your fan page, or pages.<\/p>\n

Profile Page, Fan Page, What\u2019s the Difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your profile<\/em> page is for friends — for fun. But only 5,000 people can \u201cFriend\u201d you, or join your page and get your status updates in their Facebook feed. Your fan<\/em> page is for fans, readers, clients — for business. An unlimited number of people can \u201cLike\u201d you, with the same result as above. There are, however, some areas of overlap, and your profile page can and will draw potential readers, too.<\/p>\n

To see how the differences play out, let\u2019s explore the Facebook world of author and attraction coach, Eva Gregory. Esteemed in her field, she\u2019s written two books, one of them with Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul<\/em> fame. (Another quick aside: the Facebook pages of famous authors aren\u2019t particularly helpful, as they\u2019re either maintained by their publishers \u2013 see Dan Brown, or they only contain a Wikipedia profile \u2013 see Jodi Picoult. But Gregory\u2019s pages are<\/em> instructive.) Here\u2019s her profile page: http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/evagregory<\/a> ; and here\u2019s her fan page: http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/evagregoryfan<\/a> (notice how she finds a way to use her name for both pages while making the difference clear; yet she\u2019s still playing by Facebook\u2019s rules).<\/p>\n

If you go to the Info tab on Gregory\u2019s Profile page, you\u2019ll see a multi-paragraph description of her background, her service offerings, her books and programs, and her several businesses. You would not be amiss to wonder what all that has to do with \u201cfun\u201d and \u201cfriends.\u201d But this is where that aforementioned overlap between the two pages resides. (Also note that, like everyone else with a Facebook profile page, Gregory\u2019s nearly 5,000 \u201cFriends\u201d are most likely not friends in the usual sense, but in the social networking sense.)<\/p>\n

Now, if you click over to Gregory\u2019s fan page, you\u2019ll see an immediate difference in both design and approach. A first-time visitor will enter through a Welcome page, and will be greeted with a pitch video, an ezine signup form, and a big, bold logo. You know right away that this page is about business \u2013 a friendly sort of business \u2013 but still, those profile page lists of interests and favorite movies are gone. In their place, you get a guided tour of Gregory\u2019s many, many offerings.<\/p>\n

Why Bother with Facebook When You\u2019ve Got a Site?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may seem odd that Gregory has established her presence so solidly on Facebook when — as you may remember from the Info tab of her profile page — she has three websites. Well, here\u2019s why it\u2019s not redundant, why it\u2019s actually new territory. Facebook is where the people are. More people, in fact, than the entire population of the United States. Optimistically speaking, up to half of them could be readers. Being able to access that many potential book buyers in one place offers a huge advantage to any author — one that has never been available before. How can you make the most of it?<\/p>\n

Finding Readers on Facebook<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scroll up to the top of any Facebook screen and you\u2019ll see a Search box. To find potential readers, type in keywords like \u201cSelf-Help Author,\u201d \u201cMystery Author,\u201d and \u201cYA Author\u201d — based on your book genre or niche. Then try the plural and singular variations of other author- and book-related words. The results may appear erratic, at first, following as they do some arcane algorithm beyond the interest level of most bookish types. But you\u2019ll eventually find authors who interest you. When you do, \u201cLike\u201d their fan pages and send them a friendly message about anything you may have in common. They may or may not \u201cLike\u201d you back, but keep at it.<\/p>\n

Next, search for like-minded groups on Facebook — using such keywords as \u201cAuthor Groups,\u201d \u201cMystery Book Groups,\u201d \u201cChildren\u2019s Book Groups,\u201d and a nearly infinite number of others. Join the conversation in the groups that attract you, make some connections, and you\u2019ll begin building your potential-reader base. True, it won\u2019t happen overnight, unless you\u2019re already well-known. But, gradually, you\u2019ll accumulate a following on Facebook \u2013 especially if you add new, interesting content to your fan page each week, while participating in the groups you\u2019ve joined.<\/p>\n

So, we\u2019re back to our original question. Is it better to have readers who \u201cLike\u201d you, or readers who \u201cFriend\u201d you?<\/p>\n

Readers may be readers, but it\u2019s still better to encourage those for whom you are primarily an author to join your fan page. You can have an unlimited number of fans there, and you can promote your work in a way that\u2019s not at all \u201cindirect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before you do, though, study the fan pages of other authors, and Google on \u201cFacebook promotions\u201d to be sure you violate none of the site\u2019s ever-changing guidelines and terms of use. Once a page has been banned, for whatever reason, it\u2019s impossible to get it restored (everything is automated; there are no customer service people to intervene). And that would be a shame, since \u2013 despite its many flaws \u2013 Facebook is<\/em> the biggest social networking site on the planet. So it\u2019s an ideal place to meet people who could become your loyal readers, and enable you to live the Ultimate Author Dream.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Laurel Marshfield<\/strong> is a professional writer, developmental editor, and ghostwriter who helps authors shape, develop, and refine their book manuscripts for publication. She offers manuscript evaluation, developmental editing, co-writing, collaboration, ghostwriting, book coaching, and consultation for authors.
\nHer blogsite publishes inspiration and advice for the author\u2019s journey: Blue Horizon Communications<\/a> And her free eBook, available for newsletter signup (see the upper right-hand corner of her homepage) is titled: I Need to Be a Bestselling Author \u2013 Is That True?: The Five-Destination Roadmap to Authorship<\/strong>.
\nOn Twitter, you can find her at: @BookEditorLM<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Expert: Laurel Marshfield This year, Facebook topped 550 million members. If it were a country, Facebook would be the third largest in the world (ahead of the United States, in fourth place with a mere 309 million). Impressive numbers, but why should that interest authors \u2013 interest you as an author? Here\u2019s why. If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[353,3],"tags":[3,18,20,374,324,373],"class_list":["post-3598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bbmtc","category-book-marketing","tag-book-marketing","tag-book-promotion","tag-facebook","tag-facebook-for-authors","tag-facebook-pages","tag-marketing-on-facebook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookbuzzr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}