One of the best ways to network these days is through the social networking site Facebook. There are millions of people doing it and if you have an account you are probably connected with anyone and everyone you ever spent time with–including your 3rd grade teacher and your best friend’s second cousin from Kalamazoo.
Beyond staying in touch, catching up, and playing all those fabulous Facebook games, you can now share your content (thereby your writing talent) with your friends at little or no risk to them or you. I say risk because no one wants to alienate their friends and if you follow these 6 free tips you may grow your writing business and your friends will appreciate your effort instead of taking you off their friend list or ignoring you for mucking up their home page.
Image via CrunchBase
6 Free Facebook Tips for Your Success:
#1: Once you’ve been published and you post your article to your Facebook profile, ask one or two of your closest Facebook friends–your favorite aunt, your significant other, your BFF (best friend forever)–to read one of your articles. You don’t have to be pushy about it. Just ask for feedback and if they enjoy your writing ask them to share your link with their friends.
At this point you’ve shared with your friend list (say 200 people), the person you asked (and trust) shared it with their friend list (say 200 people), and chances are if your content is good the sharing will continue. Who knows? If your content sparks an interest in others you could end up having your link make its way around the whole site with relatively little effort from you and no annoyance risk either.
#2: Once you have a few articles under your belt, now may be the time to start your own fan page on Facebook. A fan page is a great way to include your friends and keep them connected to your personal life as well as what’s going on in your writing world; at the same time keeping the two separate–as little or as much as you wish.
Set up your fan page–make sure to fill out the necessary profile information. You want people to know about you in a professional way, right? Next, invite friends to (like) your fan page. I recommend sending email invites to your fan page in small increments–say 10 a day for however long it takes. You may invite all your friends or only those you believe may have an interest in your writing. If you are good your other friends will eventually see this and join/like your fan page all on their own.
Upload a new article link every day to the fan page and come back a couple of hours later to share it to your personal profile page. You are maximizing your exposure (without annoying) and making sure that friends are seeing your content throughout the day.
Interact with your friends and fans and do not always post (just) links to your articles. If you are feeling funky that day, share something on your fan page wall that reflects it; which may further endear your fans and keep them coming back for more–of you and your fabulous style.
#3: Choose one of your articles and search Facebook for groups and pages that have to do with your subject. Join a group (or two or three) and become part of this community. Share your relevant link and be sure to interact with others on the page. If you do this properly it will not be considered spam and you may make some new friends along the way. If people like what they are reading from you they will search you out and wish to read more; whether its about that topic or not.
#4: Quick Tip:
Do not be afraid to share your writing with your friends but remember your friends are often your harshest critics. Again I recommend easing your friends in and if they like your “stuff” then it’s no hardship for them to read you–a win-win for everyone.
#5: Quick Tip:
Mesh your personal profile with your (business) fan page only as much as you can handle. You may choose to have them completely intertwined or you may wish to keep them separate. Your reasons are your own–just think before you do–about how you wish to grow your writing business.
#6: Quick Tip:
Be mindful of who you accept to be friends with you on your personal profile. Your writing life may take over your personal life a bit but you still may not want every Tom, Barry, and Fred (or Sally, Katie, and Sue) to have access to all your personal stuff. This is another benefit of your fan page. Your fans can like the page and if you get to know one another you can make the decision to include them more personally.
Image by Intersection Consulting via Flickr
There you have it; 6 free tips for succeeding in your writing business by using your Facebook but not abusing it. All the above is based upon this author’s personal experience and if you’ll notice I tend to take a laid back approach with Facebook (as opposed to some of my more aggressive promoting elsewhere–more on that later).
My laid back approach seems to be working though; no one is de-friending me; I’m growing readers and fans daily; and without having to beg they are sharing my content with their friends. So take my advice, mold it to what works for you and happy Facebooking and growing your writing business.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the preceding and be sure to check out my Triond profile page for all my other fabulous writing tips and promoting tricks. Stay tuned, there is more to come–I am dedicated to our (yours and my) writing success. Good luck and Happy Writing and Publishing!
Please visit AskSan’s blog for all my latest updates, publications, and pictures!
Check out my profile at AC for more writing/promoting tips and other good reads!
And please: visit my Facebook Fan page to get an idea of how it is working for me!
Great post…………….
well written!
Good Post
i’ll keep this in mind when writing in my FB
The tips are good but I have discovered that most people who hang out their on facebook don’t even bother with clicking on links however good you make it sound.
Thanks all!!!
@Jimmy: You may be right in part but I am growing my readership. I have not been intrusive (shoving, begging, offering cash…lol) trying to get people to read me and that’s been a good thing.
I also don’t have a big friend list (on purpose) but 25% of those friends are members of my fan page and I do know SOME of them are reading me.
As for the rest, well who can tell them that they are simply missing out on brilliance?? LOL.
Anyway, this has just been my experience so far and its a good one so I do hope some or all the tips help (in any way
)
Thanks for reading and commenting, always!!!
Hey, San. Guess I better explore FB better. I didn’t even know I had such a thing as a fan page. That explains why some have more than 50 followers. Thank you.
Cool. I started my own fan page.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Strovek-Writes/149044158448954?ref=ts
good tips. however I find Triond more interesting than Facebook, as it gives humongous new information, such as this one
Good Post
You give helpful information about Facebook.
i really enjoyed reading through all the tips. very informative and helpful. thanks very much for sharing,
wow, this is really helpful! i’m going to try these new concepts out.
I have a facebook account, I hate it, but it helps. Thanks
!
I DON’T DO FACE BOOK MUCH CHEERS
HEY, I didn’t really read this but I’m hoping you pop over and read MY stuff and then comment. You comment so much better than me anyway and so if you could, I’d be much obliged because I’m trying to get views and so nice share is my way of saying thank you for taking the time to write this brilliant piece but I just didn’t read it. Again, head over to my profile, I’ve got lots to say too but I save that for my stuff. Again. Nice share.
Look familiar? ;-P
Just thought I’d try it and see if it works.
Bahhahahahahhahaha. Bruce, you rock!
Has had a facebook account to keep track of family and play farmville.Didnt consider using it for this purpose but gives me somethin to consider.Interesting readsing.