As a writer, are you actively marketing your brand on Facebook?
By “marketing,” I mean selling. And by “your brand,” I mean you. Are you actively selling yourself to your fans, to friends of your fans, to strangers who have the potential to become fans?
I, myself, am notoriously negligent in this area. I hate selling anything. From girl scout cookies to boy scout popcorn — I’m the mom who, after 8 weeks, brings in the sign-up sheet with three names on it, and two of them belong to Awesome IT Hubby and myself. Fundraising moms all across the county cringe when the dilapidated Hyundai stutters into the parking lot.
I just really, really hate selling things.
If you do too — and I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you do — you are a writer after all, you’re probably losing out on at least a few of the perks that notoriety brings: a bigger paycheck, a wider audience, phenomenal cosmic power.
Even if you’re someone who’s a bit reticent about accumulating Facebook friends, you really need to try — at least on your professional page. Because every fan that likes your page becomes a potential conversion. This means that you have a shot at convincing them to do whatever it is you want them to do. Whether you’re hoping they’ll buy your latest book, read your latest blog post, stop by your brick and mortar business, or recommend your talents to a magazine editor, connecting with people on Facebook who are open to what you do is a solid first step.
I’ve known this for awhile, but just haven’t had the time or the energy to put into cultivating my fan page. I’ve been hovering around a sad little number of fans for about a year now. In fact, my Facebook fans are even more sparse than my Twitter followers, and who knew that was possible?
But because I have big dreams of one day building a blog that’s actually a force within the writing community and not just a happy tool for my own procrastination, I’ve decided to begin courting Facebook in earnest.
Famous last words, you say?
Not today, Zurg!
I’ve been doing a little research into what makes a good Facebook fan page post, how often you should write one, and just exactly how the powers-that-be decide who and how many fans actually see what you put out there. If you thought everyone who likes your fan page can see your posts, you’re ever so wrong.
In reality, Facebook is constantly tweaking its methods for the singular purpose of throwing keepers of fan pages under the bus. No, not really — but they are constantly changing how they operate. And unless you understand the convoluted process, your popularity can begin dropping like dead fleas off a beagle.
Did I just give too much away here?
What Facebook cares most about these days is engagement, and that’s measured by the Big Four:
- Likes
- Clicks
- Shares
- Comments
Even if you have fans numbering in the tens of thousands, if they never like, click, share, or comment on your posts, Facebook will stop sharing your thoughts with the masses. Because it fears cluttering individual newsfeeds with unwanted content, the social network wants confirmation that what’s showing up is actually what people want to see.
Of course, if you have 10,000 fans, the chances are slim that you’re lacking engagement. But if you have 52 … well, you can see the sad possibilities.
Most of the experts say you should post to your professional Facebook page between three and five times a day to garner the most engagement — less than this makes you too forgettable. More just makes you annoying. The time of day that you post makes a difference too. You can check this by pulling up your Insights page. (if you have enough fans to qualify for this perk) Insights will tell you what time of day your posts experience the most interaction, among other interesting tidbits.
Of course, what you share is important too. It shouldn’t all be links to your latest posts. If you experiment with posting photos, the occasional personal glimpse into your life, famous quotes by notable people, videos, and links to other websites that relate to what your page is about, you’ll keep things interesting. Don’t be afraid to mix it up and experiment to find out which types of posts are the ones most likely to move your fans to conversion.
I’ve been following these and other tips from the power bloggers for about a week now, and I’ve already begun seeing results. They’re minute, but they’re there if you use a magnifying glass to see: a few more fans, a slightly higher engagement score. And this is good news because it means that my posts will now appear in more newsfeeds for people to see. Which, in turn, of course, leads to phenomenal cosmic power.
Wait, did I mention that already?
If you’ve been questioning the success of your Facebook fan page lately, please don’t just give up. It takes a lot of work to culminate a profitable page on this power network, but it can done. The bloggers from whom I’ve learned the most about this topic are listed in the links below. I guess technically they’re the competition, but who cares; I love them regardless.
And anyway, it’s phenomenal cosmic power; there should be enough of it to go around, right?
Like AnneG on Facebook!
Links
Darren Rowse on Problogger
Amy Porterfield at AmyPorterfield.com
The post Writers on Facebook: Why It Pays to Just Keep Posting appeared first on An Unedited Life.