Facebook For Authors
Back in 2015, I did a series on Ginger & Books called “The Social Writer” all about social media for writers. Well, two years later – a lot of things have changed which is why I decided it was time to take a look back at some different social media platforms. I decided to start with Facebook, because despite what my 16-year-old brother says (“Facebook is for old people”), it’s still the most popular social media platform, for now. So today, we’ll talk about Facebook for Authors.
After spending half a year in social media last year, placing ads and running Facebook pages for Congressional Campaigns, I’m pretty familiar with how Facebook works. Truthfully? Unless you have money to invest in it, Facebook doesn’t work.
Let me explain: Facebook pages who post content are constantly fighting to get onto your newsfeed. There’s this mathematical algorithm involved – including how often someone interacts with your page. So when you’re first starting out, your page reach? It will be non-existent. That’s how Facebook works now, it’s pay-to-play.
Now, given that everyone is still on Facebook, you need a presence. But don’t spend a lot of time in it.
In fact, the whole point of having a Facebook page is to push people to your mailing list. But we’ll talk about your mailing list at a later date. Today we’re focusing on Facebook. So in the name of having content to share, without wasting too much time because your reach will not be good (sorry, it’s the truth), let’s talk about ideas to share.
1. Books!
I’ve talked about why a writing blog and an author website are different before – and the social media strategy is different, too. Laura Teagan, my pen name, wants people to read books, so I share posts about books.
Personally, I love posts with a little humor (dark humor gets bonus points), so a book post that ends with the extension of dinosaurs? Perfect, and my audience loves these posts, too. Even when I’m not promoting my own books, I’m being on-brand by talking about books. Laura Teagan, as an author, loves to talk about books – because my audience is full of readers who want to talk about books.
Even if you haven’t published a book yet, think long term. If you want people to read your story eventually, you need to plant the seeds early.
Facebook got you down as an author? Here are some things you ought to know. Share on X2. Quotes
Everyone loves a good motivational quote, it’s just fact. Use a program like Canva or Photoshop to make a graphic to make quotes. Keep a theme, so you can stay on brand. You can make your quotes motivational or focus on ones about reading.
3. Share Your Own Quotes
Once a week, I share a quote from one of my books. These mainly come from Instagram, but Instagram posts shared to Facebook actually get more reach than most posts on Facebook do.
4. Share Fun, Viral Content
While every author on social media should have a brand, what’s the point of a brand if you can’t break the brand every now and then? Take some time to share something fun that isn’t always related to your brand. Share your interests with your fans/readers. They’re fans of your writing, but they’re also fans of you. You are more than just an author, you’re a human being with interests outside of your work!
5. Get People to Your Mailing List
I mentioned it earlier, but with social media everchanging, you need to have a place where you can hold the attention of your readers, all the time. That’s your newsletter list. So you want to capture people on your mailing list so you can connect with them all the time. With a mailing list, Facebook can’t try to block you from your readers.
So, Facebook isn’t worth a lot of your time as a writer or an author. You need to invest a little bit of time, but honestly, if you’re smart, you can probably schedule your posts for the week all within half an hour. If you don’t want to update the page, at least have one because you will occasionally have people looking for you.