Facebook: Keep it Social!

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I’ll admit, one of the reasons for me that Facebook doesn’t work like a charm for book promotions is that it is far more a pull medium than a push one.

Facebook puts the “social” in social media.

While this is true for the others like Twitter, I think it is especially true on Facebook.

I have seen authors who post only about their books, and it gets old FAST.  On Facebook for it to work well for promotions, you have to engage in conversations, meet people, post to their feeds, etc.  If all you do is post about your book, you’re sunk.

Further, I think it is extremely important to keep your own wall posts up-to-date with info other than about your books.  That’s fine and good, but it begs the question what DO you share.  For me, it’s a challenge because I don’t want to focus on my other natural thing to share–my family–because this is supposed to be my professional face.  And while I do share about that sometimes, I don’t want to overload with “we went to the store to get cheese.”

I think if I would try to post more things like are on my Spirit Light Blog–just uplifting comments in general, that would probably work well.  I may try that when I get finished with this blog… Until then, I’m trying not to be that person that annoys everyone by posting about her book all the time.

I also know on Facebook it can really work to build a community around you.  I have a friend who did this and it’s worked well.  He is very involved with his group of friends–praying with them, commiserating with them, celebrating with them.  I think FB can work very well in your favor if you are willing to put in this kind of time (or if you just naturally have that kind of personality).  For me, I have a difficult time giving that level of commitment to the medium.

So you have to decide for yourself how social you are, how social you want to be, and if Facebook fits into that niche for you.

But keep reading for other ways to use Facebook rather than just posting to your Profile or your Page.