Facebook is one of the best places for you, as an author, to build a community and develop potential readers for your books. Yet, many authors do nothing to create a presence. It’s as if they are hiding out.
Groups
Groups are one of the best ways to focus your efforts on building a presence with people who have similar interests. There are groups for just about any interest both personally and professionally.
Groups are a great way to build community, create engagement and add value. Whether you own the group or belong to groups, involvement is essential.
My own Facebook group, Power Up for Profits, was created as a place for anyone who is into content creation. Whether it be to write books, develop information products, speak on the platform, offer webinars and teleseminars or blog, the goal with this group is to create an environment of individuals who want to up their game with content creation and content marketing.
I belong to several groups on Facebook that align with my own interests, as do many people I know. The group owners do what they can to get people involved.
Amazingly, lots of people will join groups, but do nothing beyond join. Rather than taking advantage of being in a group of people who have similar interests, they lurk.
Fact is, if you make yourself visible, create value by contributing to conversations, you may likely increase the number of people who are interested in your books, information products and/or services.
It’s not about blatantly selling, it’s about engagement.
Plan Your Engagement
Many people spend a great deal of time on Facebook, but have no plan for engagement.
Engagement is about interaction beyond views. Facebook defines engagement as clicks, comments, likes and shares. The more engagement, the better your metrics with Facebook.
Rather than simply hanging out on Facebook, develop a strategy for engagement. You will be amazed at how beneficial this can be.
Content Rules
Content is a h
uge part of engagement. Three types of content you can create to engage your community are images, videos and blog posts.
Images
Images have become incredibly popular on Facebook (as well as other social networks). They grab attention, are easy to share and have the potential for incredible reach. As an author, you can put images of your book cover, activities you’re involved with and your own quotes.
Video
Without a doubt, video is a great way to position your message. It’s simple to create video. Whether it be from Facebook live or shooting from your iPhone, video can create incredible engagement. Of course, you can post professionally developed video, but for the sake of ease and simplicity, Facebook Live and iPhone video works great.
With video, you have only a couple of seconds to grab the attention of the viewer. Think through what you want to say before shooting. Then, once you go live, have fun.
Blog posts
A great way to encourage engagement and drive traffic outside of Facebook is with blog posts. However, rather than simply putting your blog URL use a permalink to a specific post. A permalink is the link to an individual blog post.
If you plan to run Facebook ads, you can create an ad for a specific blog post. When done right, this allows you to gather information on who visited your blog. From there, you can profile the people interested in your content and run ads to those people.
Engagement
The whole idea with Facebook is to create engagement. The more engagement, the more you create a community. The stronger your community, the more likely it is they will buy your books.
- Be yourself
Let your personality shine through. This is how you build community. Keep in mind, there are people who will enjoy you for who you are and others who will not. It’s better to build a community of people who appreciate you for you, rather than trying to create a persona that is not reflective of who you are.
- Use images
Images are a great way to attract attention. Post pictures of activities you’re involved with to convey more of your personality. For example, I often post pictures of my animals, my outdoor activity and my family. Recently, I posted images of my kitchen in the beginning stages of a remodel. I was amazed at how many likes and comments I received.
You can also post images with your own quotes. This is another way to let your personality shine through.
- Ask questions
When you ask questions, you give people a chance to get involved. Design your questions around your book. This creates the opportunity to make mention of your book.
- Vary your content
Keep things interesting. Visual quotes, images, video, text, fun facts, comics, quizzes, surveys and questions are all ways to engage your audience. There are so many options to choose from. Think in terms of how you can position the content of your book in order to build interest from your community.
As an author, you have so many options to create interest in your book. Engage your community to create raving fans. Because bottom line is this; raving fans want more of you and your books give them this opportunity.
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This is such good advice for authors, and business owners, and others who depend on social content to make a living. I am not a “video” person but I love photography, and I agree on the power of images to attract attention and start dialog. It’s important to me, too, because in real life I am shy, and I need “icebreakers”.
Great tips, I do some of them, working on others and procrastinating on even more. I joined your Facebook, hopefully I won’t just be a lurker!
Would love to have you involved Martha! 🙂
Hi, Kathleen. I find that authors are some of the best accounts to follow. Their gift of writing shines even in everyday descriptions of their life.
Groups are great and I’m one who lurks. I used to participate more but I’ve let my social engagement schedule go lax.
Enjoying your series during the challenge.
#blogboost
Great point Sara. Thanks for sharing.