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.
Excellent post with great information. Thank you for helping me to navigate the fickle, over-sensitive ***** that is FB in a way that I can still enjoy it and appropriately build platform.
Piper Bayard recently posted…Spy Truth & Fiction–Are Silencers Silent?
Still being able to enjoy it is something a lot of authors seem to forget. They get so caught up in selling and followers and fans they forget to be human.
Try contacting FB to explained why you are in jail.
Insane.!
Yes, FB’s customer service is notoriously bad. Usually you just have to start over – there’s no discussion involved.
Great info, Lisa. I know a few people who this has happened to. I don’t add people to events, or add people I don’t know. Not sure about turning a profile into a page…more and more I am seeing that pages do not hold great value for engagement unless you pay, but that’s just me. I am also not willing to put the time in that is needed to keep my page on everyone’s radar as I find that time is better spend on other platforms or in other ways, but that’s just me.
Pages are more work, and increasingly you need to commit even a modest monthly budget to keep your organic reach stable. FB isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, that’s for sure. Especially when the policing of rules feels so arbitrary.
I got tired of trying to navigate the “what should I post where” maze. I also noticed that I was getting less interaction with my own REGULAR posts on my profile. My friends just weren’t seeing me. So it was much harder to keep both my profile and my page running and interesting.
After watching what author Anne Rice (yes THE Anne Rice) does with her page I figured it was time to let go. I am “regular me” and “Author me” ALL from my page. I’ll post the occasional personal update, share stuff, post those fun quizzes, – pretty much anything YOU would share or post as a normal human being I post instead to my page. I try to keep it 95% based on what I think my key audience would enjoy, but occasionally I might post some cute thing my son did- why? Because authors are people too! Oh, I also share my blog posts only to my page.
What do I do with my profile? I ONLY use my profile now to comment in groups and on other people’s posts (since you can’t do that with a page). But, here’s the kicker, my page has gone from completely dead to getting at least one comment every day! People know where to find me now-> Aaaand I don’t have to try to beg my “friends and family” from my profile to wander over to my page to check something out that I couldn’t share on my regular wall 😉
The key is- Don’t spam, BE REAL, and find what works best for you!
My author friend Jo Linsdell has a little formula that she uses for her posts- one helpful, one inspirational, one conversational, one fun, then one promotional- DO NOT post another promotional until you have done another of all the rest! 😉
Showing up and being human is the only way to build a tribe organically on FB with a Page or a Profile. That’s great the Page is working for you. Some people struggle with the idea of having fans and find growth very slow with a Page – but long term you have to consider it because of the marketing capabilities.
Facebook shut down my account because about three years ago for some red reason my my email”amy.hefner1@mail.com”!!!!! Expi red ed Iost every thing linked to it and fb would not assist in a way for me to recover photos and things posted by siblings family that passed away it took me a year to be able to recover what was left I can not do any thing in my old account and I, don’t know how it got linked to my new one except for the friend request so that my friends could move to my new fbcpage”*!!! FACE BOOK DONT HAVE A WAY TO DELE
TE THE ACCOUNT YOU LOST AND cCOULDNT RECOVER ANYTHING”*”!!!!!! Well I have NO CLUE as to why I have not been cable to loge into my only account And they are now telling me I am shut down for Things that I have nothing to do with I do not feel that this isjustifiable and I am going to dispute this Face book needs to make this Right I have not set up two account and linked them to deliberately and if you look it is clear that I have not intensionally done this ******** MY NEW ACCOU T SHOULD BE RESTORED and I WOULD BE GLAD TO DELETE THE OLD ONE