Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Promoting Yourself as an Author on Facebook




A message from Susan Katz

Hello Amazing Authors!

I wanted to reach out and let you know that I am now the Strategic Partner Manager for Authors & Publishers at Facebook! This opportunity will definitely benefit all of you as authors in terms of discoverability/visibility and best-in-class utilization of the Facebook platform.)  The goal is to help you reach your readers (or their parents if you write pix book/MG).  If you write older/YA material,  you certainly have fans on Facebook!  If you want to target teachers, etc, you can engage that fan base. 

There are several new, free features available on Facebook to help you promote yourself and your books: Facebook Q&As, A Day in the Life and Book Clubs.  I'd be happy to schedule a time to walk you through any/all of these. You can also do a Q&A "Take Over" of another page like your publisher's page (with their permission— but I am working in partnership with all of the major houses already, so I can help make that happen) or a content area that relates to your book(s). 

Below and attached is some information.  Please feel free to pass it along to your author community (writers' group, agent, etc.)  Do let me know if you want to schedule a time to talk through this OR if you're social media savvy enough to jump right in and book a Q&A.  I'd LOVE that!  We can get you set up this week or next…


Facebook Q&As

Our goal is to increase your FB engagement and readership by helping you post quality content more frequently.   One new opportunity is hosting a Facebook Q&A. We are excited to start engaging authors such as yours with their readership via Facebook Q&As. 

A Q&A is a free, threaded/ranked comments feature that lends itself perfectly to launching a book, creating new content or just reaching out to your readers.  Very lightweight, easy, effective and efficient, Q&As can be a fantastic way to garner reach, discoverability and distribution. 

How a Q&A works on Facebook:
1.        An author posts a status update or a photo that he/she is doing to do a 30-45-60 (you decide) minute Q&A on his/her Facebook Page. A photo of them at their computer works.
2.       The author then hosts a live Q&A using our threaded comments feature, which helps to surface the most Liked and relevant comments to the top of the post, making it easy for the author to respond to the most popular questions 
3.      The comment feature is the same as the current comment moderation tools, meaning that you can X out inappropriate or irrelevant comments and/or ban spammy participants

Here are a few examples of author partners who have done this particularly well:

Nicholas Sparks: http://on.fb.me/10XfDK1
Arianna Huffington: http://on.fb.me/XfepKu
Chelsea Clinton: http://on.fb.me/12RpE90
Financial Times: http://on.fb.me/19Evdwy

This essentially means that you pick a time to be at your computer and let your fans/followers know so that you can answer questions "live."  Q&As are simple, fun, and will help your authors become a 'best in class' example of executing on social media effectively. 

1.Schedule a 30 minute window about 1 week prior to Q&A
2.Take a picture at their computer with official page on screen behind them (or at a signing, etc.)
3.Run 2-3 posts on FB to promote the Q&A
4.Cross promote on other sites (Goodreads,Twitter)
5.Turn on 'Reply to Comments' feature
6.Answer questions during Q&A
7.Possibly link to Amazon/B&N or Wattpad/Bookshout at the end to track sales


A Day in the Life:  Frequent postings throughout a particular day (while on tour, etc.) that allow fans a "window into the world" of the author. Here are some examples:




#DayInTheLife


Best,
Susan

Susan B. Katz, Award-Winning Author
Strategic Partner Manager for Authors & Publishers
Facebook
415-312-1212 cell
650-739-6917 office

at

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