F is for Facebook

I have many posts about Facebook. Try hitting that label over there that says Facebook to see what information I have to share with you. One of those posts I am recycling for you here, because I think it best answers: Why Facebook?

For those of you who are not so fond of Facebook, I just wanted to share some statistics with you gathered from www.pewinternet.org.  Take a look at this graph:

That graph is telling you that 83% of people ages 18-29 who use the internet are on a social network. 70% of users ages 30-49. And most of those social network accounts are on Facebook:

Of adult Social Network users:

• 73% have a Facebook account
• 48% have a MySpace profile
• 14% have an account on LinkedIn
• 1% each on Yahoo, YouTube, Tagged, Flickr and Classmates.com
• 10-12% are on “other” sites like Bebo, Last.FM, Digg, Blackplanet, Orkut, Hi5 and Match.com

Teens are on Facebook too:

• 54% of teens ages 12-14 are on Facebook
• Teens between the ages of 15-17 are on Facebook nearly 19.9 hours a week

Comparatively, only 19% of internet users are on Twitter. Take a look at this graph:

Your readers are on Facebook. If you are trying to reach them through Twitter, through blogs, they're somewhere else. Just sayin'.

Do these stats surprise you? Do they change your mind about social networking? I'm interested in your thoughts.

Facebook Friday: Just for fun

This picture is going around on Facebook, but I think it's funny and awfully accurate:

And I also have to correct myself:  At one point and time, the little search box at the top of Blogger blogs searched ALL blogger blogs and not just the current blog. Well, guess I haven't attempted to use that search box in awhile because I have no idea when it changed, but apparently it now only searches the blog you are on. So for all of you that I told to get a search box when you already had the one up top - I'M SORRY! I have been set straight now :)

Finally, I have been given two blog awards this week! Stay tuned next week where I will do my part of the blog award requirements, but for now I just wanted to thank Savannah Rose for the Versatile Blogger award and Jamie Ayers  for the Kreativ Blogger award.  Wow! I'm truly honored by the support and kind words. I really appreciate the award!


So now that I've made you laugh, shared my humiliation and thanked two very lovely bloggers, what are you doing with your Friday?  Do you have a Just for Fun to share?

Facebook Friday: Fan Page Mistakes

It's been awhile since we've had a Facebook Friday, but I found this interesting article the other day about the 7 Biggest Fan Page Marketing Mistakes. Some of them have no use to writers and others are some great tips. But one in particular struck me because I see it all the time.  So I am sharing with you what I think is the number one fan page mistake:

Assuming people go to your fan page versus reading your posts in their news stream.

Stop for a minute and think about the fan pages you have "liked". I am willing to bet that the majority of them you visited one time - the time that you "liked" it - and then never again. This is true of most people. Generally people read their news feed and that is all. Look at this nifty graphic to see how what I'm talking about:

I'm not telling you that fan pages are not a good idea. I'm telling you that we don't always know how to use them. The majority of fans never go to your page and potentially 75% of your fans never see your posts. Here are three things this teaches us:

1. You need to post to your fan page often so people don't forget you. I like watching Project Runway and I "liked" the fan page which I've been to once, so now I get constant reminders about the show. Even when the show isn't currently airing I get posts about Project Runway. This is good marketing.
2. You can't expect that all your fans read your post. If you have something important, post it several times. Get creative with how you post it so you don't sound redundant, but you must say it more than once.
3. Fans who go to your fan page often are probably stalking you. I'm just kidding. But sort of not since very few people repeat visit a fan page without good reason.

A more interactive way to use Facebook is to set up a Group. All members of groups get notification whenever someone posts and, if you're in a good group, members are much more likely to interact. 

Do you have a fan page? Does this information change the way you plan on using your fan page?

Facebook Friday: Need help? Try Odyl

So a couple of weeks ago I taunted you who are somewhat cold on the Facebook subject with statistics of how many people use the social network. And maybe I convinced you that FB is an amazing resource that can' be ignored. But knowing that might not change how you feel about FB.

Well, here's an alternative. In general I believe you all have the power/knowledge/capability of making your own buzz on FB, but if you truly aren't into it or you haven't got the time, consider Odyl.

Odyl is a fairly inexpensive company that specializes in publicizing published books via FB. They really are awesome. Here's some of the things they will set up for you:

• Exclusive book content on your FB page
• Publisher giveaways
• Reader polls and quizzes
• Photo and writing contests
• GoodReads reviews
• Reader stats
• and more!

Author J.T. Ellison used Odyl for her latest book launch and found her followers rose 250% in one week. Check out her FB page to see what it looks like.  I don't know the cost so I can't promise its worth it, but they at least have some great ideas for marketing on FB. 

Oh, and they say it's my birthday. It's Mickey Mouse's birthday too. Isn't that kinda cool?

What do you think about Odyl? Would you pay for FB marketing? 

Facebook Friday: Your Readers are on Facebook

For those of you who are not so fond of Facebook, I just wanted to share some statistics with you gathered from www.pewinternet.org.  Take a look at this graph:

That graph is telling you that 83% of people ages 18-29 who use the internet are on a social network. 70% of users ages 30-49. And most of those social network accounts are on Facebook:

Of adult Social Network users:

• 73% have a Facebook account
• 48% have a MySpace profile
• 14% have an account on LinkedIn
• 1% each on Yahoo, YouTube, Tagged, Flickr and Classmates.com
• 10-12% are on “other” sites like Bebo, Last.FM, Digg, Blackplanet, Orkut, Hi5 and Match.com

Teens are on Facebook too:

• 54% of teens ages 12-14 are on Facebook
• Teens between the ages of 15-17 are on Facebook nearly 19.9 hours a week

Comparatively, only 19% of internet users are on Twitter. Take a look at this graph:

Your readers are on Facebook. If you are trying to reach them through Twitter, through blogs, they're somewhere else. Just sayin'.

Do these stats surprise you? Do they change your mind about social networking? I'm interested in your thoughts.

Facebook Friday: Links, Photos, and Videos, Oh, My!

Cool graph showing how people share links on the intenet.
See how high FB is? That makes FB staff happy :)

Remember before all the recent FB changes how I said that FB was like high school? And then I told you more about what that meant as an author here and here and here? Well, this is the conclusion of that series that is only slightly invalid because of the new FB.


To briefly recap: FB has some mysterious algorithm to decide which of your posts show up in other people's newsfeeds and which do not.  While they will not release the exact information, recent studies have given us some insight. It seems that posts that include links to other things rank higher than posts that do not. And posts that have photos and videos are even better.  


"That's cool," you say. "Um, what does that have to do with me as an author?"


Plenty if you are using FB to reach out to your readers.  It means you need to share. Share links, share photos, share videos.  If you do, your posts are more likely to show up on the people who are your friends (or who subscribe to you) and then they are more likely to interact with you and share your links themselves. It gets you publicity.


But here's the thing: you need to share things that are relevant. Relevant does not need to mean just your own author stuff (your book cover, your book reviews, your profile page on Amazon). Though all of that is important, it gets a little overkill to your FB friends. What you need to do is share things that will be of interest to your followers that can also be connected to your writing. Here's some suggestions of other relevant items to share by link, pic, or video:

• books that are similar to yours
• interviews to authors that are similar to you
• movie trailers based on books that are similar to yours 
• things related to your book(s)' subject(s) 

First, I have to stress the similar to yours portion of the suggestions above. You may love Stephen King but if you write picture books and you are constantly sharing Stephen King material, well, that's all good and fine for your friends, but you may lose the interest of your readers. Share material from your category and your genre for best results. (It helps to really decide if your FB page is for your readers or your friends or your writer friends. This post is geared for FB pages designed for readers. You may want to have two pages.)

That last suggestion in my list above is where you can be the most unique and creative.  Get your thinking cap on and come up with something good. If you wrote a book about outer space, share the new pics from Hubble.  If you wrote a book about ice skating, post the scores of the US Figure Skating Championship (then include a poll where your readers could vote on their favorite Hubble pic or who they think will win the championship). Have fun with it!

Do you share a lot of links, photos, or videos? Will this information make you share more links?

Do as I say, Not as I do

Maybe I don't actually have to say this out loud but I feel like I need to: Most everything I put on this blog I would tell a client of mine, but I'm not always so good at following my own advice.

Isn't that lame?

I know, it totally is. But this blog is really about building MY platforms and recording it and my advice as I go along my journey. Most of the time I tell you about something I am also just implementing it myself.  Other times I realize I need to be doing such and such, but for some reason am not able to implement it in my life yet, so instead I just share it with you.  And some times I know that a particular tool or technique is not for me, but it may be for one of you so I post that. 

Here's some examples of things I think I need to do differently:

• my font consistency is lacking - in interviews I copy and paste whatever the interviewee used and don't make it my default font
• I need to have About Me and Sample Chapters of my books on other pages
• I should tweet more
• I should comment on more of the blogs I read
• I should respond to more of the comments on my blog
• my posts should be shorter
• I don't have an FB author page or use my personal page for all the writer things I should/could
• my blog template doesn't really say much about my writing (though it does speak to my personality)
• more things, but now I'm starting to feel defeated so I'll just stop

In short, I'm at a place in my writing where my main focus is on my first draft of my current manuscript. I'm also really occupied with being a mom. I'm not ashamed of those things, but sometimes my marketing suffers. That's just a fact. It's ok. But I hope that when you are searching for examples for your own platform building you look to my words not my actions. And be proud of the good things you do with your online media presence - don't dwell on the things you feel are lacking.

What do you think you should be doing that you aren't?

Facebook Friday: Get yourself stalked

A few weeks ago I likened FB to high school. (Remember that?) Since then I've set about telling you what that means to you as an author here and here.

Today I continue this discussion with stalking. You know what I'm talking about. Reading everything someone has posted on FB but never interacting so that person is completely oblivious to your interest in him or her. We've all done it. And as I said in my FB is like HS post, when you stalk someone else, it has no bearing on the popularity of your own posts.

BUT

If people stalk you, your posts do become more popular. So if you want to be popular, get yourself stalked.

Ok, ok, that sounds like a great sentiment, but how do you do that, you ask. Here's a few ideas:

1. Pull people to FB through your other social media.  For example, let's say I have a picture I want you all to look at of me signing my book contract (and believe me, if I had a book contract I would have a picture). Maybe I post one on my blog and then, because I don't want to clutter my blog and I want you to visit my FB page, I say, "Come see more of my pics here" and then link to more photos on FB.I'm inviting people to stalk me. And lots of times, they will. 
2. Post status updates that have a past. Nothing draws me into someone's FB profile than a status like, "Remember when I told you that cool thing might happen? Well it happened!" Yes, it's annoying, but it makes me wanna know more. Suddenly I'm spending all day looking through someone's FB profile for the cool thing. Ok, that example is mean and lame, but I'm trying to illustrate a point. If you can find a way to connect your FB statuses in an unannoying way, then totally go for it. Like tell a story over several statuses. People who missed parts of it will go to your profile and go back. Automatic stalking.
3. Get other people to do the work for you.  Creating ways to draw other people to post to your FB page can also draw other people to read. Hold a contest, for example, asking people to post pictures to your page of their favorite book covers. Or ask people to write tag lines for your book. You are correct - that isn't stalking, but other people will come to read them. Especially if you ask for something that might draw witty or humorous posts. And that's stalking.

And there are so many other ways to draw people to stalk your FB page. Do you have some you'd like to share? Do you have any examples of authors who have drawn people to stalk? What makes you stalk?

Facebook Friday: It's cool to have friends who don't have friends

I scheduled the following article before FB rolled out the latest news feed changes.  Though there are some definite new features, the following still applies.  For really excellent information about the newest news feed look and subscribe feature, read this blog entry here from Facebookprivacyandsecurity.wordpress.com.  I couldn't say it any better myself.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how FB is like highschool.  Now little by little I've been expanding on what that means for us author types. The first explanation can be found here.

The second way I likened FB to HS was by stating the obvious: You show up more on the news streams of people with fewer friends then you do on people with tons of friends.

Of course. My friend who has 1000 friends has a lot more status updates to read than my friend who has 26 friends. Which one is guaranteed to read my post?

There's actually even more to it than that.

Let's say that I am an author who is just about to publish my first book.  I have just made a book trailer and I want people to see it so I post it on Facebook. The friends who are most likely to see this book trailer are my friends who don't have a lot of other news in their streams - the friends who don't have a lot of friends. If these friends see my trailer and start to respond to it, then suddenly my story becomes rated higher by FB and now my friends who have lots of FB friends are more likely to see it.  Now they start to comment and I'm even more popular so my friends who have lots and lots of FB friends are more likely to see it.

This shows the benefits of having FB friends with lots of friends and those with very few. This may sound manipulative, but I'm kind of saying it's a good idea to make friends with the newbies as well as the FB giants just so that when you have something to say, it's more likely to get around.

And here's a variation of my usual disclaimer: I don't mean to say that Facebook is all about promoting yourself. (It certainly isn't for me). But there's nothing wrong with that being one component of your FB interactions. It really isn't any different from those of you who have blogs in order to build community AND build your platform. These are just tips on how to use FB the same way.

How many friends do you have? Are you friends with the giants and the newbies? Do you use FB for promotion or community or both? I always enjoy your comments.

Facebook Friday: Don't be the newbie

Last week I told you how Facebook is like high school. It's really popularity we're talking about. This week I promised to tell you how this information relates to you as an author. And I am going to tell you. But I'd like to break this down into several posts. That means if you want the fullness of this subject, you're going to have to come back. (Wait, is that a marketing ploy? Hmm...)

First, we need to chat just a bit on why it's important that you're popular on Facebook. Because I know that many of us, particularly those of us who maybe weren't ever so popular in high school, have learned to not give a flying Frito about who likes us and who doesn't like us. Or we've learned to pretend anyway.

But here's the thing: Eventually we're going to have a book. We are. I know it. And when we do, we are going to have to work to sell our books so that we can have the fortunate experience of getting paid to write another. Whether we like it or not, that means we have to sell a little bit. Selling doesn't have to be painful. And it doesn't have to be pushy car salesman like either. The easiest sell is to people who already know and like you. So the more friends you have before you sell your book, the better. Hence, popularity is your friend.

And Facebook is where our focus of popularity is in this series of posts.

Now, back to last week's post:
The first way in which I likened Facebook to high school was that, just like in HS, FB doesn't like the newbie. Even if you manage to make a ton of friends overnight, FB won't put your posts in very many news streams until you have been around awhile.  (Remember, you need to be in people's news streams to be popular).

How do you counteract this?

Simple. Don't be new.

Of course you have to be new when you are new to FB, but don't be new when it counts. Establish an FB account, make friends, interact, LONG before your book gets published so that when it is published, you don't have to start then.

I have to give my usual disclaimer that you don't have to use FB to market your book and I won't judge you (too much) if you don't choose to participate. But it's free. And it's easy. And a lot of agent's expect it. So just think about it.

I've heard from a lot of you that you don't like Facebook.  Are you using it anyway? What do you dislike the most? I love hearing the whys from you.

Facebook Friday: Why Facebook's Like High School

Popularity still matters.  Especially if you are trying to promote yourself or connect with people through Facebook.  Your Facebook is through status updates that are then streamed to your friends or fans news feeds.  If you want people to interact with you, you need to show up on their news stream Have you ever wondered how Facebook decides what goes in the news feed and what doesn't? Well, they won't tell us, because they're all secretive like that, but some studies have been done and the findings seem much like high school:

1. FB doesn't love the newbie.  If you are new on FB, you won't show up in as many people's news feeds until you build up a some coolness.
2. You show up more on news feeds of people with fewer friends.  Well, duh. That's just math. If your friends all have 600 friends or more, you're like a needle in a haystack with your posts. So having some friends with less friends will equal more quality friendships. Just like high school
3. Lots of interactions doesn't guarantee you're the top.  FB has two options of viewing your news feed: Top News (default) and Most Recent.  You would think that the more interactions the more your status would be top news.  Well, yes, but like high school, the quality of your interactions is more important than the quantity. Keep reading.
4. Stalking doesn't make you popular. And it never did in high school either. If you lurk on other's FB pages or keep your news feed open at all hours, it means nothing. You have to do the posting to be cool.
5. Being stalked does make you cool. Of course. The more you are stalked, the more FB thinks you matter. 
6. Links are cooler than status updates. Because just like in high school, gossip is king. When you post a link in your status update, you're doing the FB equivalent of gossip. You're saying, "Guess what I just read!" And that ups your popularity.
7. Videos and Photos are cooler than links. Because photos and videos are proof of gossip, right? Think about high school - a great story was better with pics. 
8. If people talk about you, you're cool.  The more other readers comment on your status, photos, links, etc., the cooler you are. The more people tag you, the cooler you are.  Coolness = you showing up in their news feed.

And FYI, Most Recent news doesn't always just show the most recent news. It likes links and videos better too. 

Think about these facts as you decide how you want to interact on FB. Next week we'll talk a little more about what these tips mean for you as an author.

Do you think FB is like high school? How's your popularity? Do you post lots of links? photos? videos? Or just say "hi" cuz that's cool too :)

Facebook Friday: How the heck do you get those little badges on the side of your blog?

Someone asked me recently, I forget who, how to put those handy dandy Facebook badges and social plug-ins on the side of your blog that pull Facebook info directly to your blog. I have one to the side (are you looking to your right?) for The Write Advice Facebook page.  See it? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Well, it's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy as my daughter would say.

For badges...

• Profile badge that shares your FB info on other websites
• Photo badge that shares your FB photos 
• Like badge that shows off your favorite FB pages
• Page badge that shares your FB page on other websites

For social plug-ins...

• Like button lets a user share your content with friends on Facebook (this is the button over there to the right above The Write Advice stuff)
• Send button allows readers to easily send your content to others (also to the right)
• Comments button allows readers to comment on your site 
• Activity feed displays the most interesting recent activity taking place on your site
• Like box enables FB page owners to attract and gain Likes from their own website (The Write Advice box to your right)
• Recommendations shows personalized recommendations to your users
• Registration allows users to easily sign up for your website with their Facebook account 
• Facepile displays the FB pics of people who have liked your page
• Live stream lets users visiting your site or application share activity and comment in real time

Word of warning: many of these badges and plug-ins are so cool you'll think you need to add them all.  Don't do it! You will totally clutter your site. Think stream-lined.

So which cool FB badges have you added/or are you adding? What about the social plug-ins? Or do you think they're all just too much Facebook (cuz that's cool too)?

Facebook Friday: Friend Lists

Facebook lists are a beautiful thing. They are an easy way to manage your Facebook relationships, particularly if you are using your personal FB page to also act as your author presence.

The benefit: say you want to post something on your FB page that you only want certain people to see. You can choose which people see your posts (I show you how here) but that can be time consuming if you have a large group of people you want to select. Having a list makes it easy to choose the same large group of people over and over.

How to:  

Step 1

          On your FB profile page.
          1. On the left under your profile pic, click on "Friends".
          2. Click on the "Edit Friends" button on the right hand side.
          3. Select "Create a List".
          4. Name your list in the box that says "Enter a List Name."
          5. Select the people you want on your list.
          6. Select Create List.

If you want to create your list based on interest or location or group, etc., do steps 1-3 above, then:

4. Select the "All Friends" tab. (It might say "Recently Interacted").

5. Choose the category you want from there. (SHOWN BELOW)

You can create several lists. Some ideas: 

• Coworkers
• Family
• Writer Friends
• Fans
• Crit Partners

Have fun making different lists and posting selectively.  Really great tool.

Are you using Facebook Lists? How do you use them? Any ideas you can share with us to use them better?

Iframe Apps (aka Landing Tabs) Part 2

Monday's From a Marketing Perspective will not be brought to you today.  Instead I bring you part 2 of creating landing tabs on your Facebook Page.  If you missed it, here's part one.

(From a marketing perspective - having a landing tab is an ideal choice for your Facebook author page or book page. So technically, I could still call this FAMP.)

By now you should have created two images for your Facebook page: one for non-fans and one for fans. Now let's go install the app itself.

1. From your Facebook page, click on your profile image. 
2. Click on the button that says "Add Profile Picture"
3. Click on select image and upload the image you want your fans to see (the second image). You can change this back later.
4. The picture you want your fans to see should,  now be your profile picture. Click "View Page". 
5. Click on your profile picture again. And then again so you are looking at your image like the image on the right.
6. From here, right click on your picture and select "properties".  This doesn't work in Google Chrome, by the way. I did it in Internet Explorer. You should get a box that looks like this:

7.  Do you see that long bunch of mumbo jumbo after the word "Address" in the picture above? You need to copy that address and paste it somewhere until later.  Make sure you copy the whole thing. It should start with http and end in jpg.  Mine looks like this: http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/312554_181606861909148_165666926836475_364009_726800_n.jpg

You can now put your Facebook profile picture back to what you had it as before if you would like.

8. From Facebook, search for Iframe Apps or click on the link here. There are many apps that will make a landing tab, but this is the easiest as far as I'm concerned.

9. Select to add the app to your page.  If you have several pages, you'll need to choose which page to add it to. Your page should look like this:

10. In that big white box, copy and paste the code that follows in red:

<style type='text/css'>

#wrapper {

width:520px;

height:500px;

margin:0 auto; border:0; padding:0;

position:relative;

}

</style>

<div id="wrapper">

 <div style='width:520px;'>

 <img src='COPY YOUR PICTURE ADDRESS IN PLACE OF THESE GREEN WORDS' /> 

 </div>

</div>

11. In place of the green font you should paste that address I told you to get earlier from your profile picture.

12. Almost done! Click on fan gate.

13. Upload your non-fan picture.  This is the image you want people to see if they have not liked your page yet.  

14. Click the box "Enable fan gate".

15. Go back to your Facebook page and click "Edit Page".

16. About a third down on this page you should see the words "Default Landing Tab".  Select "Welcome".

17. Hit save and you're done!

You won't be able to test your page yourself because you are an Admin to your Facebook Page. You can log out of Facebook entirely and then search for your page and you should see your non-fan page image. 

Whew, that was a lot of steps. I promise I won't get this technical on Facebook again. But now you have a great Facebook app that authors usually only get when they have a publisher designing their FB page. Aren't you super cool now?

Did I lose you? Please ask any questions in the comments below. 

Facebook Sunday: Iframe Apps (aka Landing Tabs) Part I

I must begin this post by saying I'm not a loser. I'm saying that to convince me, not you. The last time I did the handy little trick I'm about to show, FB pages were set up completely different. So I spent several hours (not exaggerating) learning how to do this again. I finally figured it out but it was a stressful process (ask my kidlets - I think I screamed at them way too many times throughout the process!) But on to the post...

One reason I set up The Write Advice on Facebook was so that I had a FB page to use for demonstrations on this blog. The trick I'm going to show you is probably my favorite FB page app, but has lots of steps to setting up so I hope I don't get too technical on y'all.  I promise it's worth it.

Have you ever gone to a Facebook page and seen a cool advertisement-ish pic or info instead of their wall? For example, if you are NOT a fan of Elana Johnson's Facebook page for Possession, then you will see this when you go to her page:

If you are a fan of her page already, then you will arrive at her wall:

You can also try looking at American Express, Coca-cola, or Pepsi.  All of them, if you have NOT "liked" their page, will take you to what is known as a landing tab. (If you already are a fan of every single example I have given you, then go to one of them, scroll down to the left hand side of the page and choose the option "unlike".  You can easily "like" the page again when you're done seeing what I'm talking about.)

Landing tabs are super cool because, think about it, do you really have the same message to share with your fans as you do with your non-fans? The marketing answer is no, you do not. People who are not yet your fans should see your sales pitch. The people who are already fans should not. If you have an author or a book page, I seriously recommend adding a landing tab.

Now, here's the how. It's lengthy so we will be doing this in 2 posts. 

First:  Create the images to use for your landing tab.  You will need 2 images: the first is your actual landing tab.  The second is the image will see immediately after liking your page.  If you are not a fan of The Write Advice, you can see what I'm talking about by going to that page. You see the image on the left.  If you "like" the page, you will immediately see the image to the right. The next time you come to this page, you will see the wall.

You can create your two images using any photo creator you desire.  Photoshop is, of course, excellent.  But if you are really not very graphically savvy, you can make your landing tab with simple graphics and text in Publisher or even PowerPoint.  

I did mine in PowerPoint just to show you how easy it is. I created one slide for each picture. To get the scale right, I only used half the slide. Here's what my first slide looked like in PowerPoint:

After you've made your slide you must save it as a PNG.  To do this, select "Save As".  Name your file. Then hit the button beneath the name and it will open up to a list of different files.  Select PNG Portable Networks Graphic.

Ok, that's your homework, folks. Folks with a Facebook page anyway.  Go create your two images and come back Monday. On Monday I will show you the next steps in place of Monday's FAMP.

Remember this can only work with a Facebook page. Not a Facebook personal profile.


Do you have a Facebook author or book page? Are you planning to have one? Did I just teach this to a whole bunch of readers who have no intentions at all of having a Facebook author or book page? Gee, maybe I truly am a loser!

Facebook Friday: Facebook Sunday?

Wow, it feels like forever since I've posted anything on this blog! But I have been very much consumed with WriteOnCon fabulousness this week, and today I find I have to actually work at those places that earn me a living.

Anyway, today I am just not ready with a Facebook Friday post.  But I do have something really cool I want to share with you about Facebook, and don't feel like waiting until next Friday to post.  So come back Sunday and I will have amazing FB advice that you just can't live without. Seriously.

If you are dying to have some FB info today, then visit here for some Facebook Trivia or here to take a FB quiz.

Meanwhile, how was WriteOnCon for you?  Please share your favorite advice.  I'd love to hear wha you got out of it!

Facebook Friday: The Write Advice

I am so excited - I mean, really, totally excited - to give to you today's Facebook Friday, something I've been working on for a few weeks now. And I think this is a fitting announcement on the heels of my Wednesday post, "Be Part of Something Bigger Than Yourself."

I'd like to present a new Facebook Page to you called The Write Advice. This page streams the blog posts from five bloggers, giving advice on writing, publicity, and platform building. All this "advice" will show up in your Facebook news feed, providing you with crucial writing advice without having to go to different blogs. At this time, The Write Advice features the following blogs:

• Janice Hardy of The Other Side of the Story 
• Lynda R Young of W.I.P. It, A Writer's Journey 
• Sarah Pinneo of Blurb is a Verb
• Shallee McArthur of Shallee McArthur, Life, the Universe, and Writing
• and me, Laura Barnes of Laura B.Writer

I invite you all to take a trip to The Write Advice, check-it-out, "like" the page even, and enjoy the advice you receive. 

Since we're talking about writing and Facebook and advice, let's hear from you:  Do you know of a Facebook  page (or have one of your own) that you'd like to share with us? Do you know of or have a blog dedicated to writing advice? Tell us in comments.

Be Part of Something Bigger Than Yourself

Three items on the agenda, today, but not too long of a post because I am in Glenwood Springs, CO for a couple of relaxing days.  Though not very relaxing, really, because I have my husband and kids with me.

Each of today's topics have to do with being something bigger than just you. When you step outside of your own little author world, you are opened to a community of people who are often amazing, inspiring, and just as enthusiastic about you as you are about them.  If you find an opportunity to join with others in this manner, your world increases exponentially - which is beneficial to you as a person as well as you as an author trying to gain awareness and recognition.  Here's my three attempts at being part of something bigger:

1. In conjunction with my Saturday Savvy Sensation series, I am now giving an award to my savvy picks.  Michelle Fayard receives the first award, of course, and is very much deserving.  You all saw how she responded to your comments - that's one of her best traits!  Michelle, feel free to pass on this award to anyone as you see fit because we are moving to be part of something bigger than us:)
2. I have recently joined author, Gennifer Albin's WrAHM, a community for write-at-home-moms.  I urge you moms to check it out and join yourself.  Gen posts WrAHM stuff on her blog as well as having a Facebook page.  Join us, we're small, but mighty!
3. You have to come back Friday for my last one.  I'll give you two hints, though: it has to do with Facebook and being bigger than yourself.  That's all you get for now.

What are you doing that's part of something bigger than you? Do you think it's important to be part of the bigger community? Feel free to share some ideas of your favorite community spots in comments.

Facebook Friday: 2 Status Tricks

The two tricks I am sharing today may be already known to a lot of you, but there are enough new Facebook users that I think these are useful.

First Trick - Hide people from your stream:  This is especially nice when you use your personal facebook page as your author page and you have a lot of people you don't really know in your stream.  Really simple to do.

1. Move your mouse over the upper right hand side of any status and an X and a text box with the word "Remove" will appear. 

2. Click on the X and you will be given the following choices:

3. Choose one and Poof! the status is gone.

You can also use this strategy to hide all those games your friends play.  If you do these steps on a game status, one of the options will be "Remove al posts from blah blah blah".  Blah blah blah is the game, such as Farmville.

NOTE:  If you have a fan page, it's not a "Remove" X that shows up, but a Settings wheel and you only have the choice to remove the post or hide the post, not hide all by a person.  You can also view your hidden posts at any time by clicking on that option under "Wall" on the left side of your fan page.

Second Trick - Post status updates that can be viewed by only certain people: If you have something you'd like to post, but you only want your writer friends to see it, for example, use this option.

1. Type your status update.
2. Click the lock on the bottom right of your status box. 

3. Choose "Customize". 
4. From here you can hide from specific people or lists of people or make visible to specific people or lists of people.

NOTE:  If you do this on a fan page, you only have the choice to customize location.  This could be helpful if you were going to a city for a book signing and want to let everyone in that area know but keep it from everyone else.

Hopefully these status tricks make your Facebook life a lot easier.

And now for something completely different:  Join me tomorrow for a brand new series called Savvy Sensations.  This series will highlight other bloggers who are out there building a following.  I think it will be very beneficial.

So do you use the Facebook tips suggested here?  Did you already know about them?  Do you think they're useful? Let me know, I love to hear from you!

Facebook Friday: Hootsuite

Wednesday we talked about Google Reader saving time for reading blogs.  Today I have to share another time saver, this time for Facebook as well as other social networking applications: HootSuite.  If you don't know about HootSuite, then it's time you learned.  HootSuite is a social media dashboard.  In other words, it's a FREE application you can download on your desktop or phone and then manage several social media networks from that one place, such as Twitter, Facebook, 4Square, and LinkedIn. If you've used TweetDeck, HootSuite is like that, except so much better (I'll get to why in a minute).  

I must pause to tell you right now how I love HootSuite. I so love HootSuite.  When I first discovered HootSuite for use with my clients, I think I did an hour long happy dance.  So what is it that I love so much about HootSuite? Well, let me tell you five reasons:

A screenshot of HootSuite 

1. One place to do all my social networking. Like I mentioned before, I only have to log in to one place and I can see all my social networks at once. TweetDeck does this as well, but it doesn't allow updates of Fan Pages and that's crucial. At least it didn't the last time I checked it out which was a year ago now. Though, to be fair, TweetDeck looks cooler.
2. Can manage multiple accounts without having to sign-in and out. Once I downloaded the app to my phone and my desktop, I could do it all with one sign-in.  This is probably not relevant to many writers, but I can also see other accounts.  For example, not only is my Facebook page on my HootSuite deck, also several clients Facebook and Twitter pages are there.  You can also use HootSuite with multiple users and share management of an account.  So if a bunch of people are part of a Writer's Group, for example, you could all you HootSuite to manage one Twitter account for the group. You can also use HootSuite to automatically feed your blogs to all your social networks.  As I've mentioned before, I use RSS Grafitti for my FB page, but I use HootSuite to get my blog posts to Twitter.
3. I can write a message one time and post it to multiple places at once.  This feature is awesome. Especially when managing many accounts.  Also, if you drag the Hootlet to your toolbar, you can VERY EASILY post pages you are reading to all your social media accounts.  Seriously! Does it get awesomer than this? Actually it does. Read on.
4. Great traffic stats reports.  I'm in marketing.  I'm into looking at the stats of my accounts.  Who came where from where and when they did it.  All that's cool to me.  HootSuite offers 30 different analytic modules to create your own reports including Google Analytics.  Downside here is that you have to upgrade to the Pro version ($5.99 a month).  So I still log-in to Google Analytics on my own, but I love that HootSuite could do it if I wanted it too. 
5. and the best reason of all, I can schedule posts for the future. This is why I truly love HootSuite.  TweetDeck does not offer this feature, by the way, or it may have swayed me with its eye-catchiness.  I can schedule posts anytime in the future for any of my social media accounts. I do this for clients - I schedule posts a month out at a time.  You know, not the spur of the moment kind of posts, of course, but things like "Two Days until the greatest contest of all time!" and that sort.  Maybe my book is being released at the end of the month.  I can do a countdown everyday on my FB and Twitter accounts, which could be a real pain in the butt if I didn't have it all entered in at one time and scheduled through HootSuite.

Try it. Love it like I do.  And yes, this isn't really a post for just Facebook, but HootSuite makes Facebook so much easier so I felt it was valid to include it here. I promise. One final thing to note about HootSuite: I don't even use the program to a quarter of its potential.  It is an amazing app. Truly.

Did I convince you to give a Hoot? Do you already use it? Are you a TweetDeck fan instead? Is this the first time you've ever heard of this apps? I'd love to hear from you.