Facebook Friday: To Be 2 or Not To Be 2

Today's Facebook Friday asks the age-old question (well, as old as FB is, anyway): should you have two Facebook pages - one for friends and family and one for your writer persona.

There is no right or wrong answer to this. Some of my clients do have two pages and they should because their personal comments should never be seen by their customers, if you know what I mean. But for other people, that's not always the best idea. Here are a few things you should consider when making your decision:

First, in favor of one page -

1. Two pages is twice the work. Seriously. The tendency with two FB pages is to give most of your attention to your personal page and unfortunately your second page may get neglected.
   
2. Your personal friends and family are your readers too. This one is a hard one for some people (like me!) who want to hide behind their characters. We sometimes tend to think our books are for strangers - the people we don't know. It's easier to share with strangers, right? But truthfully, readership begins with your personal friends and family. Keep them involved.
   
3. Your friends and family might get confused. I'm not kidding. They don't know which page is your real page and which page is your fan page and for some people, that's really daunting. And when you don't accept their friend request because they friended the wrong page, they might get hurt. I'm just sayin'.
4. Readers like to know the real you. If they like you enough to friend you, they want to know you. They feel close to a celebrity that way. Look how many people follow Ashton Kutcher or other famous people. It's all about feeling like you have some inside knowledge. Yes, the inside knowledge can be read by everyone and their dog, but it feels like inside knowledge.

In favor of two pages -

1. Some things should not be shared with your readers. If you are the type to make off-color remarks or if you spend a lot of FB time talking politics or religion, this isn't the appropriate thing for readers of your books to view. And if you're playing Farmville all day, every day - well, no one needs to see that.
   
2. Some people should not be shared with your readers. If you have a friend that likes to drop an F-bomb on your wall at least once a week, maybe you should consider starting a new page.
3. You don't want to piss off your friends with endless self-promotion. This is valid. But what is FB, though, except a platform to endlessly self-promote? Think about it...
4. Work and Play should be separate. I'm not one of the people who believes that because I'm a bit of a work-a-holic, but some people actually enjoy taking time away from work. And for many, FB is one of the ways they do it.

Other considerations: 

• Make an author fan page. This can give you a place for your fans. But again, you have to manage it. If you get really popular you can hire someone to manage it for you (actually, that's what I do for some of my clients! not authors, mind you, but businesses). Or you can get a fan to run it.
• Make a page for each book. Again, more work. But if you are the type of person who likes to put things in nice little compartmentalized boxes, this is a perfect way to divide your work even more.
• Managing two pages doesn't have to be impossible. You can use a handy gadget like hootsuite or tweetdeck to help you do it. Don't know about hootsuite or tweetdeck? Well, that's a whole 'nother post for the future.

I am keeping one FB page. Like I said, no right or wrong, but this is the right choice for me. Maybe in the future I'll make an author page. For now, I'm sticking with this.

How about you? What's your right choice? How did you decide? Have you had any problems? Let us learn from your mistakes and achievements!