It’s important not to be a one-writer/artist show on Facebook. It’s absolutely OK to share links from other writers or blogs and promote other people’s work if it’s something your fans would enjoy. The problems I see are when only links to a writer’s own content (sometimes to the exclusion of any other kind of content) are posted, writers too shy to post links to their own content, or posting links without showing fans how or why that’s relevant to your brand.

But beyond posting relevant links, and a good mix of the kinds of links you’re posting, how the link looks on Facebook can hinder how many clickthroughs your content receives.

Credit

First, you need to know when you share a photo or link from another Page or Profile, you won’t get credit for the interaction generated by that content. Not full credit anyway. The original poster will get the full credit for every Like, Comment and Share even if it’s on your Page. If I post a photo and twelve people share that photo—great! My friend Joe shared my photo and got ten Likes and one Share on my photo—super great because I get credit for all those interactions too. This is why it’s important to post your own content and not rely entirely on sharing content from others.

Lost Opportunities To Shine

The worst thing I see are people who post a link and run. They don’t stick around to make sure the link is going to appear in news feeds in an attractive way (you definitely want the bigger link share image instead of the thumbnail). They don’t give people a reason to click through. Auto-posting from other websites can be problematic because you have no idea how it’s going to appear until it’s already posted. Don’t be afraid to delete a post and try again to get it looking right.

This kind of link sharing is awful. Have I given you any reason at all to click on that? I see so many writers doing this. They don’t edit the link preview, don’t add a hook or editorial comment, no photo. Thumbs down.

Cosmetic Link-Sharing Tips

Crafting great post titles is super important when trying to entice people to click through to your blog. I’ve found some great posts about how to improve on that here and here and here.

Having a great post title is only part of the equation. You need a great photo that appears properly as well. When words are cut off or the photo is off-centre, or is too small and only appears as a thumbnail, this is not your best foot forward. The news feed moves fast and is a competitive space.

Facebook usually (sometimes this is glitchy) provides a link preview box. When you paste a link URL into the status box, a larger box will appear with the website page you’ve linked to. Most parts of that box are editable. If the title is scrambled or garbled you can fix that, if there’s no link description or it’s the wrong description usually you can fix that. If the wrong image comes up, most of the time you can flip through other images or upload a different one. (I’m only advocating editing these details when it’s a link to your own content.)

All of these cosmetic type things give your link the best possible edge in a crowded news feed space. But what will really make it stand out is the hook. You have to give people a reason to click through to read the post.

Link-Bait

Facebook penalizes anything it considers link-bait. What’s that? Link-bait are those hooks that entice you to click through without telling you anything about the content. “See what Miley did last week?” or “You won’t believe this until you see it for yourself.” <– That’s link-bait. Don’t do that.

Hooks

Instead, just like you’re going to try and hook your reader on the first page, hook those reading your link to click through. What value are you offering? Why should they spend their precious five minutes reading your content? Sometimes you can quote the post, ask a question, offer a small piece of the wisdom — there are lots of ways to do this. Be creative.

Get some writer friends together and test out your links on each other. Would they click through if they didn’t know you? How could you craft more compelling hooks?

What if it’s not your link?

Sometimes you post a link to a news article or another blog because you’re looking to get a discussion going. A friend is a mommy blogger and she posted a link to a news item where a home daycare provider was charged for calling Children’s Aid. That’s a news item that would be both interesting and relevant to her readers, and one people will likely form an opinion about. People will read the article, but the point or objective in posting that content was to get a discussion going.

You craft your hook based on the kind of interaction you’re looking for. The hook crafted to generate discussion will look different than the hook crafted to drive traffic to a blog.

So, here’s a link I posted that really wasn’t effective. The smaller thumbnail showed up and definitely did not draw people in at all. I’m also giving people a reason NOT to click *slaps wrist* Bad writer.

I wrote this hook mainly to get people to laugh, but it sparked a pretty interesting discussion among my tech friends which then reached friends of friends (and then the discussion went over my head – but that’s OK). 😀

I shared this link and it did very well in driving traffic. Can you see how different the hooks were for each link I shared and reflected what actions I wanted people to take. I should have taken an extra second and tweaked the link description so it wasn’t cut off.

Do you struggle to write effective hooks, or forget to edit link previews? 

Been told you should learn Deep Point Of View? Had an editor or critique partner tell you to “go deeper” with the emotions in your fiction? Looking for a community of writers seeking to create emotional connections with readers? Check out the Free Resource Hub and then join the Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction Facebook group.

Hang Out On Social With The Deep Dive Author Club!

“If you like my Page, I’ll like yours back. Then we both have more followers and everybody wins.”

Nope.

Not even close.

Please stop — for the love of bacon and beavers this isn’t helping you. Worse, you’re hurting your organic reach. (No, organic reach is not dead.) Here’s why.

No matter how many fans you have, the measure of a successful Page is whether people interact and engage with your content in a strategic way. If the intended action to a blog link is to get people to click through to your blog and that doesn’t happen then your platform isn’t solid. If you post a photo and all you hear is crickets, that’s not a successful Page (not that EVERY piece of content has to do super well, but no reaction at all is a bad sign). A Page is successful if it accomplishes what you need it to — build platform, drive traffic, etc. If the point of your Page is to simply have a lot of fans then ignore everything else I’m going to say.

Edge Rank Simplified

When you post content, FB decides — based on several criteria — how interesting you are. Remember — FB wants to show users content they’re interested in. In the FB economy, how does your content’s interestingness get evaluated?

Interaction.

Interaction and engagement is the name of the game. Your interestingness (or edge) is measured in clicks, likes, comments, and shares. When you become interesting, when the edge value (or rank) associated with a specific piece of content increases, FB shows that content to friends of friends, or friends of fans, with the idea that they also may find that content interesting.

The problem with Like-Fests

So, you go to a group of writers on FB and say let’s exchange Likes. Unless that writer is genuinely interested in what you have to say, in engaging with your content on a regular basis, they are actually hurting your organic reach. FB looks at engagement to evaluate how interesting your content is and sees a bunch of your fans never interact. If that’s a large group of your fans, FB assumes that your content isn’t very interesting and shows it to fewer people.

Moving Forward

If you’ve already done this and have a collection of Likes from well-meaning writer friends who don’t write in your genre and never engage with your content, you may feel like you have a problem. And you do because there’s no way that I know of to purge those uninterested fans. Sometimes this happens as a result of poorly targeted ads, sometimes it’s the double-edged sword to going viral, but regardless — Like-fests definitely don’t help.

When writers face low organic reach, they tend to react in one of two ways:

1. Post content the writer fans are interested in. Graphics with quotes from famous writers, links aimed to help writers write better, etc. Because that’s what the writer friends are interested in and that’s what gets the desired engagement.

2. Decide that MORE fans is the answer and more aggressively initiate Like-fests. Start sending out Like requests via private messages, Twitter, G+, anywhere people might see a desperate plea and click Like.

The problem with #1 is that unless you’re writing for writers, you’re not growing a platform for your writing. You’re still stuck with the problem that any time you post about your own writing or try to grow your brand you hear crickets. You want to target your content at people who will actually WANT to read what you’re writing.

The problem with #2 is that you still have a Page full of empty likes which will tank your organic reach — PLUS it’s super annoying. People will block you, ignore you, or worse hide all your content.

There’s a 3rd option that takes more time, requires more thought and strategy, and success won’t remain static:

3. Figure out through trial and error what kinds of content fans are interested in and post more of that.

Figure out what your fans are interested in (that’s next week’s post). Create content that not only provides value but also promotes your brand. Take the time to chat with and respond to your fans so they think you might actually care whether they show up and interact.

I have heard of like-genre writers joining together and liking each other’s pages and committing to interact and share a link from another page at least twice a week. My question is: how long does this keep going? Unless there’s an ongoing commitment, when it falls apart you’re right back to the mutual like-fest problem. Granted, presumably these are fans of your genre at least, so that might help.

Building platform on FB doesn’t have an easy button. Finding loop-holes around the algorithm only works until FB adjusts the algorithm to stop the cheating. Old-fashioned relationship building is the key and there’s no fast-tracking that (unless you’re willing to spend money on well-targeted ads). It’s an investment of time, energy, and heart.

Next week I’ll post more about how to create content your fans find valuable. Do you have a Facebook platform question? 

Been told you should learn Deep Point Of View? Had an editor or critique partner tell you to “go deeper” with the emotions in your fiction? Looking for a community of writers seeking to create emotional connections with readers? Check out the Free Resource Hub and then join the Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction Facebook group.

Hang Out On Social With The Deep Dive Author Club!

Your Page’s or Profile’s cover photo is some of the most valuable marketing real estate you have on Facebook – how are you using that space to promote your writing or brand?

A cover photo is the large photo at the top of Pages and Profiles. This is a big piece of FREE prime real estate that many authors ignore or fail to take advantage of.

Why It’s Important

When you change your cover photo, Facebook posts that in the News Feed of your fans, and when they engage (Like, Comment), that post appears to their friends and gives them a chance to Like your Page. (Appearing in the News Feed of friends of fans is how you grow an audience organically.) Works the same way with a Profile cover photo.

It’s a really great way to let people know visually what you write, what you’re about — your brand.

** You are your brand. A brand is a promise to your readers and that promise is what keeps them coming back. Readers get emotionally attached to our stories, to our voice—especially to those writing fiction.**

A good cover photo will visually convey what you’re about, what you write, and your brand. Many authors use this space to promote their latest or upcoming release. Book covers are a great idea. What I see way too often are authors and writers posting pics of a bird they saw in their backyard, a sunset, or some such thing that might be fun for fans to see but won’t help new people get to know you or what you write. Those sorts of pictures belong in the News Feed, not your cover photo space.

There have been a lot of rules surrounding cover photos, but they’ve come and gone. *Insert Admin happy dance* What you can’t do is buy/sell cover photo space. Asking people to upload a cover photo promoting your next book is a bad idea even if no money is exchanged.

You don’t need to be the all-author-all-the-time channel, but this is such a great space why not let it do double duty! You should be changing up your cover photo every month or two simply because it gets such great exposure in News Feeds.

Tips For Using Cover Photos To Help Convey Brand and Promote Writing:

1. Eye-tracking studies have found people notice faces before text. Avoid the temptation to use a lot of text (just to make sure people get it). Stick to ONE-1-uno call-to-action if you use one.
2. The space on the far right is seen before the space in the middle or above the profile pic space.
3. Where the eyes of the model in the photo are looking, users will follow that sight line — take advantage of this.
4. Properly sized cover photos look more professional. Take the time to resize your cover photo to 851x315pixels in Paint, Picmonkey — whatever application you like. Some websites like Picmonkey, Quotescover.com and Canva provide properly sized templates for you to use.
5. You can’t turn the cover photo into a link, but you can edit the photo after you post it and add a link or other text in the description. Where the cover photo goes, the description (and links) will go with it.
6. Think beyond your book – what about your or your brand can you convey visually? I like to make people think with my writing so I’m trying to capture that in the cover photos above. If you write humor incorporate humor into the cover photo. If you’re a mommy blogger incorporate family life into the cover photo in some way (you don’t have to show your kids’ faces to do this).
7. Instead of trying to promote ALL your books at once, pick one at a time — or the most recent release.
8. Visit the Pages and Profiles of other authors writing in your genre. How are they using their cover photo space? Do they convey brand, genre, newest book visually? Don’t copy, but take the best of what you see from several sources and use that as a launching point in creating something unique to you.
9. You don’t have a book out yet? Begin as you mean to continue – this means you can practice portraying you and your brand visually with fewer consequences. Experiment – see what people react to (go for positive reactions). Visit the profiles of prominent journalists and see what they’re doing – many of them don’t have a book but they are promoting their writing (especially columnists).
10. Book covers are not the only way to convey visually what kind of writing you do — think outside the box. Stop whining – writers are creative people. You can do this!

Been told you should learn Deep Point Of View? Had an editor or critique partner tell you to “go deeper” with the emotions in your fiction? Looking for a community of writers seeking to create emotional connections with readers? Check out the Free Resource Hub and then join the Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction Facebook group.

Hang Out On Social With The Deep Dive Author Club!

Facebook is my happy place. I spend A LOT of time there managing Pages for non-profits and small businesses and on the side I help writers trying to figure out how to tame the gorilla. One of the most common questions I get asked is, when should I start building a Facebook platform before my book is released?

The answer: 6 months ago. Maybe a  year.

I know – not the answer you were looking for. Gathering a tribe and building a Facebook platform is really hard to do — it’s almost impossible to do quickly without a substantial ad budget or an existing audience. If you’re already a best-selling author then sure – six months is totally reasonable. If you’ve got several thousand dollars to spend on ads it might be possible — if you’re a savvy marketer (or you can afford to hire one).

But most new authors don’t have the resources to kick start a Facebook platform, so they improvise. *Here’s where things go off the rails.*

The author is now panicking because they have this book coming out in a week or a month and they’ve only used Facebook to connect with close friends and family. They don’t do any research on how to grow an audience — because they already know that takes too much time. They decide to sacrifice the long game for initial exposure. The more eyeballs on your content the better, they think.

The panicked author joins a hundred groups for writers and sends out a hundred or more friend requests in a day. They send out mass private messages begging people to buy their book. They take aim at a group for book reviewers: buy-my-book-BAM. Find an author with a larger audience and post on their Page’s wall: buy-my-book-BAM. Take repeated potshots at friends and family: buy-my-book-BAM-BAM-BAM. “Why didn’t that work?” Reload. Aim at a group for book reviewers . . .

But no one’s buying their book (and let’s assume this is a fantastic book).

Now they’ve received negative feedback from Facebook because people are hiding their content or blocking their content entirely (banished to Facebook hinterland), so their organic reach tanks. Or they’re using their Profile and get put in Facebook jail over their friending strategy.

“Why doesn’t this work?” They throw their hands up. I guess I just need to spend some money so Facebook won’t discriminate against me. They spend not a small amount of money on ads, but don’t take the time to learn how the various ad units work or how to target those ads so the ads are about as effective as the book spam.

Clearly this is all Facebook’s fault. They’re out to get authors and small businesses.

That dam won’t hold water and you’ve run out of fingers to plug the holes. It’s not working. *waves white flag*

The time to build a sizeable audience for this book might have passed (or be close at hand), but ebooks never go out of print and you’re only as successful as your next book. Instead of burning bridges you’ll have to rebuild, begin with a view to the long-term career value of social media. Spamming people doesn’t work, you know that, so stop. Relationships sell books – real, authentic, I-actually-care-about-you relationships.

Facebook is the gorilla of social media platforms and is perhaps the slowest social media site to build an audience on. But your Facebook fans will be the most dedicated and enthusiastic fans you have. They want to get to know you, so stop hiding behind your book and be personable, be friendly, and start a conversation. Be human!

What are the most annoying book marketing tactics you’ve seen on Facebook?

Been told you should learn Deep Point Of View? Had an editor or critique partner tell you to “go deeper” with the emotions in your fiction? Looking for a community of writers seeking to create emotional connections with readers? Check out the Free Resource Hub and then join the Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction Facebook group.

Hang Out On Social With The Deep Dive Author Club!

**Warning – About to climb on a soapbox**

I receive messages and people tag me on Facebook asking questions. Totally cool – I love helping people whenever I can. One of the most common complaints I see on FB is about reach stats.

What do you mean that ALL of my fans don’t see everything I post? They liked my Page, they should be shown everything I post.

No.

There are 300 people in this group, why does it say that only 35 people saw this post? Shouldn’t FB make sure everyone in the group sees it?

No.

Before this turns into an essay, let me make a few things clear.

1. Not everyone who ‘liked’ your Page actually likes you or your work. (Try not to take this too hard. Did you run a mutual like fest at any point? Did you have a post go viral organically? Did you run badly targeted ads? Did you coerce beg family, friends, or coworkers to like your Page ’cause they said they liked your writing’)
2. Not everyone who ‘liked’ your Page wants to see every kind of content you post. (Some people scroll past photos, and others only engage when asked a direct question, etc.)
3. Not everyone who ‘liked’ your Page will engage with every piece of content, even if they did see and enjoy it.
4. Not everyone is on Facebook every day.
5. Not everyone is on Facebook when you post. (Timezones, work schedules, etc.)
6. You’re competing with approx. 200 pieces of content at any given time. It could be that your post was edged out by people with a more engaged audience at that precise moment. There’s no way to tell when this happens – but this is what keeps the playing field level.
7. FB tells you who could have seen it – doesn’t mean they did. Maybe they were distracted, or scrolling, or just not interested at that moment.
8. People can choose what notifications they receive in a group, what content appears in their news feed. The average Canadian has joined close to 200 groups — it would be impossible to have all that content appear in news feeds.
9. Not everyone who joins a group checks in with that group everyday, or even every time they’re on FB. The most recently engaged content pops up to the top, it’s possible your post got lost amid others that were more popular that day.
10. Reach stats are notoriously buggy, so relying on them makes people lose it when they’re off. What do you mean only 5 people saw this post – 7 people liked it. Obviously there’s a bug. Deep breath, the stats will be fixed in a day or so.

I’m also a little tired of people complaining that Facebook ads don’t work. WHAT?! Facebook is a really great way to connect with readers, find new readers, and build your tribe. Facebook is NOT out to get you. They are a publicly traded company, they have to make money. Just like any other business, they’ll let you buy exactly what you want whether that’s what you need or not. Does a cashier pull you aside to let you know that top you’re about to buy really looks awful on you? Does the coffee barrista refuse to sell you that fifth cup of coffee in a day?

Spend some time to learn how to run effective ads, how to engage with people to get great organic reach, how to build a tribe that’s genuinely interested in what you do or write.

**climbs off soapbox**

Been told you should learn Deep Point Of View? Had an editor or critique partner tell you to “go deeper” with the emotions in your fiction? Looking for a community of writers seeking to create emotional connections with readers? Check out the Free Resource Hub and then join the Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction Facebook group.

Hang Out On Social With The Deep Dive Author Club!

I received the above frantic message from an author this week looking for help. Unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do because I don’t have the Zuck on speed dial. The author, in hindsight, had a few ideas on why that happened but bottom line – they had over 5000 friends and several hundred followers and now have to start all over again.

Lots of authors love to hear me give them permission to use their Profile to build platform on Facebook because they don’t want to have to pay for ads, because using a Page to build platform can be very slow going, and they might not have anything to sell – yet.

But here are a few cautions for those who prefer to use their Profile:

1. Facebook says you can’t use your Profile for personal gain. You can’t make money from it. Be cautious posting to a Profile the way you would post to a Page. You can promote your own work and the work of other authors as much as you want on a Page, but on a Profile you must remain human and interact with people – a lot!

2. If you have or are approaching the 5000 friend limit, you should strongly consider converting that Profile to a Page. You can backup all your data before the swtich (because you’ll lose it all). What data? Photos, messages, status updates, etc. When you convert your Profile to a Page all that makes the transfer are your friends and followers.

3. Facebook can and will suspend various privileges and put you in Facebook jail for friending a lot of people you don’t know. Technically, you’re only supposed to send a friend request to people you know IRL. If too many people report to FB that they don’t know you outside of FB, you’ll get your wrist slapped.

4. Spam reports are very very bad. I’ve had authors report that just one spam report about a link or a comment has gotten their link privileges suspended for a week, a month, three months. And sometimes this is beyond your control – somebody sends a spam report by accident or they’re a troll, but this can be devastating. Avoid unnecessary controversy.

5. Remember that you can’t use groups with a Page only a Profile, and for some people groups are the best source of traffic for their blog. Don’t be a spam bot. Observe the posted rules in each group, be a helpful contributing member of the group. Kindness begets kindness.

6. DO NOT force invite people to an event that’s actually a book launch. If people leave that group, do not force add them again. Stop worrying about numbers. 100 fans who love your work and will tell all their friends about you is more profitable than 1000 fans who don’t care.

How have you seen authors abusing their Profile on Facebook?

Been told you should learn Deep Point Of View? Had an editor or critique partner tell you to “go deeper” with the emotions in your fiction? Looking for a community of writers seeking to create emotional connections with readers? Check out the Free Resource Hub and then join the Going Deeper With Emotions In Fiction Facebook group.

Hang Out On Social With The Deep Dive Author Club!