Facebook: Connections are Key

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In my experience,here is the key benefit of being on Facebook where marketing is concerned:  the connections you can make!

I have been on email loops of writers almost since such a thing was possible, but they have many cons that Facebook fixes.  So today I want to focus on Facebook Groups–groups of people coming together to discuss and help each other out.

There are different types of groups:  some groups have what amounts to a page.  On those groups, you can post, but your post will not show up as a post.  It will be confined to the side as “Other People Said.”  These, from what I have seen, are the less beneficial types.

Then there are Groups.  Groups can be public, private, or secret.

Public Groups info goes out on all newsfeeds and can be seen by everyone.

Private Groups the info goes out on newsfeeds but can only be seen by members of the group.

Secret Groups the info only goes out in the group, not to anyone else.  Also, you have to be inputted into the member list by someone else–you can’t directly ask to be put into the group.

I am the member of several groups, and the founder of the one I started, “Grace & Faith Authors.”  This group has been the key in marketing the way I do now, and I don’t think we could do what we do without doing it on Facebook.

For one thing, you can see pics of each person.  That makes it far more personal than an email loop where it might take a long time to learn names.

In our group, you can post a question and in an hour have tons of opinions and an avalanche of good advice by people in the trenches with you.  For our group, we also post prayer requests and even personal issues that we’re needing help with.  Not every group is like that, so be careful.

However, our group was founded upon the principle of helping one another PROMOTE, so we are constantly sending out ways to do that.  We have a daily “Tweet doc” where any author who wants to participate can post a few tweets with the understanding that they then tweet out the others on the doc.  It works very well and gets the information out much farther than a member’s own Twitter feed.

Moreover, you make friends in the group very easily just by participating, so when you have something to promote, others are far more willing because they see you as a friend.

Also, the amount I have learned in that group has been invaluable.  I’ve learned about covers and KDP. I’ve refined how I tweet and how I Facebook.

So the right group can make a TON of difference.  For me, that ability to connect has been the key value in Facebook from a marketing perspective.