Facebook as we all know it is a massive trafficking tool for internet users. In today's lesson, I will show you all the tricks that Facebook has to offer to published writers.
I will show you the six most important procedures of setting up your facebook's marketing platform, and the first step is 'Setting up your Fan-Page.' If you already have a Fan Page, skip to step 11 below to learn how to optimize the Fan page for better results.
"Setting up your Fan Page"
1. Log-in to Facebook.com
2. Visit this link to set-up a page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?campaign_id=372931622610&a...
3. Choose the “Artist, Band, or Public Figure” tile—it’s in the lower-left corner
4. Select either “author” or “writer” from the drop-down menu and enter your name (see note below)
NOTE: Other Facebook Pages that may appeal to writers include: “book,” “book store,” “fictional character,” “library,” or “magazine” under the “Entertainment” category (the lower middle tile), and “media, news, and publishing” under the “Company, Organization, or Institution” category (upper middle tile)
5. Check the box to agree to Facebook’s Pages Terms
6. You will be greeted by the “Get Started” page, just to the right of this text, there will be a like button, click it.
7. You’ll see a numbered list of steps. Step 1: Upload a picture. People are more likely to trust a page with a picture, I think (even if it’s merely a book cover or an avatar)
8. Steps 2 and 3—invite your friends and import your contacts. When you click to invite your friends a screen will pop up with all of your existing Facebook contacts, you can search for particular friends that you think may be interested, filter your friends by the lists you’ve set up, or just go through everybody and click who you want to invite. To import your contacts, you’ll have to upload a contact list or enter your email account ID and password.
9. An alternative/supplemental approach to tap your existing fan base: Scroll to the bottom of the left-hand column and click “share.” This will post a promo of your new site to your Facebook feed. Write a comment asking your friends to like your new page.
10. Fill in the info for your page. You’ll need to provide as much information as you can (concisely written so as not to overwhelm the page-viewer). For an author page, this will include: name, address, affiliation, birthday, about, description, biography, awards, favorite books, gender, personal information, personal interests, email, phone, and website—obviously some of this information may be too personal to share and other categories are a bit redundant. Only fill in what you want to fill in.
"Optimizing your Fan Page"
11. Click on the “Edit Page” button located in the top right corner.
12. Go to “Apps,” it’s located on the left side-bar
13. The first app listed is “Events.” Set up an event called “Please like my author page.” Specify a longer time period like one week or one month for where list the link to your new fan page. Under the description, write something like “Won’t you please like my new author page? It will only take you a second, but it would mean the world to me. Thank you J” You may also want to write in a bit about how to like your page, step-by-step instructions—this may be required if you want your less tech-savvy friends (like your Grandma or Great Uncle Herman) to like you. Invite all of your friends to this event. This is the number one best way to get followers.
14. If you want to include discussion boards on your site, which I highly recommend for an author’s page. Go back to the “Edit Page” screen and return to the “Apps” page. Scroll down to the discussion boards and click “edit settings,” then click “add.” You can also do this to add in other standard apps like notes, videos, events, photos, and links—yes, you have to add all of that manually now, thanks to the new layout.
15. I also highly (HIGHLY) recommend adding “RSS Graffiti” to your Facebook page. I prefer this to the other, more popular “Social RSS,” because it is far more reliable. It will run your RSS feed directly to your Facebook wall. As I’ve said before, Twitter is the best way to find new followers for your blog or website; Facebook is how you’re going to keep them coming back. https://www.facebook.com/RSS.Graffiti
16. Another app for your Fan Page that gets my shining endorsement is the aptly named “Fan Appz.” You can use it to set up quizzes, polls, give-aways and much more. https://apps.facebook.com/fanappz/
17. Link your Facebook page to your other social networks. Add a “like me” button to the sidebar of your blog or website. Ask your Twitter family to like your page (bonus tip: if you say something like “I only need X more fans to customize my Facebook author page URL. Please “like” me. I follow back!” you are much more likely to get people to head on over to your page—don’t forget to add a link to your tweet).
18. Once you’ve secured your first 25 fans, you’ll be able to customize your page URL. To do this you need to go to https://www.facebook.com/username/Enter your desired page name, and if it’s available it’ll become yours! Make sure you choose a good name, because you won’t be able to change it once it’s set. Customizing your URL means that your link will look something like this: www.facebook.com/emlynchand
19. Add favorite pages. Go to any page you want to add as a favorite to your page. In the left column, you’ll find “add this to my page’s favorites” listed directly after the number of users who like that page. Add the page, and if you’re smart, you’ll post on its wall, saying “hey, I added your page to my page’s favorites. Any chance you’d be willing to return the favor?” Make sure to include your link with your request.
"Create Your Author-App with your Fan Page"
Perhaps one of the most crucial of all facebook apps for writers, this application will build an Amazon Buy Link for your published books with options for readers to join your mailing list or sample the book, but only after they Liked it (pressing the like button). This app is so exciting. All you will have to do is enter your ISBN numbers and the facebook app will link with your published books on Amazon.com. The step on how to set up this AuthorApp is further explained below.
1. After creating your Fan Page, go to this facebook site; http://apps.facebook.com/authorapp/ and a page will show up that says 'The Author Marketing App.' Click on the 'Let's get started-" button and the page will direct you to your established Fan Page.
2. The application will ask you to use your fan Page, and after choosing so, you will see the Author-App as an app button. It is a big red button, titled “Read My Book”. When you click it, the app takes you to a separate tabbed page. Under the Author-App tab, you can create an author profile which includes a mailing list, and an option for you to put your books for sale.
3. You can provide each book you list with the buying link URL (to Amazon or similar), price, description, cover shot image, and two fields that allow you to input an URL or upload a PDF file of your book's excerpt. This can be entered manually, or you can add a book simply using an ISBN number. This feature also allows you to bring in details of other books not published by you. Yes, I know, it is exciting.
Here is a Author-App page created by one of our members here at Indie Writers Support. Check it out and see what your Author-App with facebook will look like after you're finished. View the sample here; https://www.facebook.com/AuthorApp/Author-Korede-Abayomi/
We hope that you enjoy this lecture, and look forward to reading more as we continue.
"How do I invite people to like my Page via email? "
If less than 5,000 people like your Page, you can invite your email contacts to like your Page. You can upload a file containing your email contacts and Facebook will securely import them. You can also import your contacts by providing your web email address and password. You can then suggest your Page to your contacts.
To invite your email contacts:
- Click Build Audience at the top of your Page
- Select Invite Email Contacts...
- Upload a contact list file or choose your email service and follow the instructions
Facebook won't store your password after importing your contacts. They may use the email addresses you upload to help people connect on Facebook. If you don't want them to store this information, you can manage your imported contacts.
Note: You can import contacts up to five times for a maximum of 7,000 contacts per day per Page. Read more about this from the facebook help center; https://www.facebook.com/help/212291088790957.
Get a list of 900,000 Facebook members in the U.S.A with profile links and email addresses at http://bit.ly/2uf42bV.
Use this tool, http://www.onlineemailextractor.net, to extract the email addresses from the 900,000 list effortlessly. Extract up to 10,000 at a time.
"Run a Facebook Contest with Fan Page"
Creating a contest hosted on your business page is a great way to create buzz about your fan page. You can run a contest through a Facebook app such as rafflecopter. You can also now run a contest directly through your business page as long as the rules and restrictions are properly outlined and that the ways to win are made clear.
"Add a Fan Gate"
What is a Fan Gate? Fan gates (also referred to as like gates) have users “Like” a page before they can see the posts, contests, or products that are offered on an application inside of your fan page. You do this by adding an app to your page. If you want to display different information to fans you can use ShortStack; if you are looking to promote a Facebook store or a daily deal you should use an app specifically for that such as ShopTab for your Facebook store or SharedDeal for your daily deal. All these apps are equipped with optional fan gates that will prompt users to like your page before they can view your deals or products.
Get a list of 900,000 Facebook members in the U.S.A with profile links and email addresses at http://bit.ly/1mixFPP
Use this tool, http://www.onlineemailextractor.net, to extract the email addresses from the 900,000 list effortlessly. Extract up to 10,000 at a time.
