2 Things Every Author Should Do On Facebook

So I ran across this issue this week and thought that I would blog about it. I was looking at an upcoming Facebook party for one of my favorite authors. In the description, she listed all the other authors that would be participating and I saw someone I was really excited about! An author I hear great things about and even own one of her books. I clicked on her name and it took me to her personal profile.

THIS IS THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS THAT HAPPENED…

1) I want to get to know this author! But I'm not a friend of hers, I'm a potential fan, so I'm not going to friend her. That would be presumptuous of me especially since we only have two or three friends in common. So I'll “Follow” her…

2) Oops, she doesn't have the Follow feature turned on :( Bummer. It looks like she posts some things Public and I would have loved to see them. Oh well, I'll Like her Page instead…

3) Well, I suppose I could search for her Page but it would have been awesome if she had just listed her Page in her “Work” area so I could click and Like right away.

Guess what? I never searched because I got called away from my computer and I forgot about the whole thing until I decided to write this post.

This author just lost me as a fan and potentially lost a lot of other people too.

What can you do to prevent this and retain potential fans?

If you post a lot of things to your personal FB profile “Public”, then you should turn on Following. Not everyone is going to try and friend you. They may be a little shy and worried you’ll just deny them. If you turn on following, it gives them the option of getting your Public posts in their newsfeed.

Learn more about Facebook Following here

Also if you do this, turn on commenting to “Everybody” so they can comment and share. And if you’re really savvy, alter your cover image to reflect that you’d love for people to follow you. You can see this in action on my Facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/spajonas/

If you don’t want to allow following, you should AT LEAST put your FB Page as your place of business in the work section. This way people can click over to your Page and like and follow it. This is especially important if you do Facebook parties and use your profile, not your Page. People may see you’re hosting at a party and click through to your profile. They know you’re an author but not how to like your Page or even if you have one! It should be RIGHT THERE in the left hand column under work. Just stating you’re an author isn’t enough.

To change this, click on the Edit arrow in the left side About section. On the following page, click on “Add a Workplace” and search for the name of your Page. Add it as a workplace and make sure to say you currently work there.

Want to know how your profile looks to others who come by? On your profile page, go to the “•••” button to the right of “View Activity Log” and click “View As…” It will show you what’s visible to the Public.

I hope this helps and brings you many followers and likes!