Welcome to Tip #28 of our 52 Ways to Market Your Book!

14 Ways to Make Your Facebook Page Fun and Lively

Congratulations! Now you have a Facebook Page, but that’s just the beginning.

Unlike a profile, which can and should be personal, a Page can be used to promote you and your book since it has fewer restrictions (such as number of followers). You can connect with your audience, conduct promotions and participate in real-time conversations. Pages offer a lot of great options, including the means to post photos and videos from events, the ability to create groups and a means to publicize events and allow attendees to RSVP.

The first question is usually the same, however: what should I do now?

Let the world know you have a Facebook Page!

• Make sure you have a Facebook widget on your website and blog so it’s clear that you have a fanpage and people can click on the widget and get to your fanpage. There is also a “share” button on the bottom left of your fanpage that allows you to send the page to your Facebook friends and/or post the fanpage to your own Facebook profile.
• If you have a personal Facebook page, be sure to “like” your fanpage.
• If you have an e-newsletter or mailing list, be sure to alert them to your fanpage so they can click the link and join! The same goes for your personal Facebook page; invite anyone you like to “like” your fanpage and to follow you over there for the latest news and updates.
• Add your Facebook fanpage link to your email signature.
• Fan other authors and/or books in your topic; authors can and should support each other and this also increases your exposure and allows people interested in your topic to find you through these other Facebook pages.
• Join groups on Facebook with topics related to your book – another way to network and make contacts.

Update your content regularly

• Your Wall is the most important piece of real estate on your fanpage. The truth is, busy people may not spend much time visiting the other tabs on your fanpage, so making the wall lively and interesting is key.
• When you update your wall regularly and frequently, the updates will appear in your fan’s newsfeeds – don’t just post messages but photos from events, video – anything visual is a big draw!
• Think about making it a two-way conversation: you can hold contests, have a question of the day, host polls, post your reviews and interviews, ask your fans to post some content – ask them to suggest their own strategies for getting outside, green living, healthy tips, etc.
• Run your blog feed through your Facebook fanpage so you automatically have new content available on your Facebook page whenever you update your blog. Your Twitter feed is now set to automatically send out a Tweet when your Facebook page is updated.
• You can also post book excerpts, and if you have a topic that’s in the news, or find something newsworthy that’s writing/book/publishing related, you can post the link to the news item, add your own comments and invite others to join in the conversation.
• The page is quite easy to update – when you’re signed in you’ll see, on the top left side under the photo, “edit this page.” When you click on each tab, you’ll see the “edit information” logo on the top right. Facebook is pretty streamlined in its setup, so using the fanpage is relatively easy to learn, especially if you are already on Facebook.

Other ways to connect

You want to get out there and connect on Facebook with potential fans, who can then “like” your page. Use the Facebook search function to find people or search by keyword terms to find them and invite them to your page.

Don’t forget to interact with your friends and fans – that’s what social media is all about.

Is it working? The stats tell the story

Don’t forget to check your stats; the Insights tool on your page will let you know how many visitors you page gets, what they liked and so forth. This will give you a good sense of what your fans are interested in, what causes them to like something on your page or comment. It will look like this:

+41 Fans this week (3,284 total Fans)

31 Wall Posts, Comments, and Likes this week (68 last week)

1,477 visits to your page this week (1,869 visits last week)

And finally… have fun!

Additional resources

http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPages

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