Facebook for Authors: How to Use an Author Page

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Facebook is currently the king of social media. With 2.8 billion monthly active users, it’s the largest social media platform that currently exists.

This means that if you’re an author, it’s one of the best places to engage with your current and future readers. But between all its features, it’s easy to get lost and confused when using Facebook. So in this article, you’ll learn:

  • How to create and manage your author page
  • General tips and tricks to be successful in this platform
  • The benefits of using Facebook to grow an audience

Ready to get started? Let’s jump right into it!

How to Create An Author Page

Before we start, ask yourself this important question first: Are you prepared to create and maintain an author page rather than stick to your personal profile?

Author pages will take effort to develop, including devising your own content strategy. If you’re not averse to extra work, then here are instructions on how to create your own author page:

  1. Log in to your personal account, then click on the Menu button.

2. Click on the Page button from the dropdown menu that appears.

3. You’ll be taken to a page and asked to fill in your page’s details: page name, category, and page description. I recommend using your name or pen name as the page name. Select “author” as the category and add a short description of your page. Once you’re satisfied, click on “Create Page” at the lower-left of your screen.

4. You can preview how your page will look for desktop and mobile versions by clicking on the two buttons on the upper-right side.

5. You’ll receive a notification of the page’s creation. Once you’re done, scroll down the “Set up your page” section and you’ll see two new options.

You can now add a profile picture and cover photo for your page. For the profile picture, I recommend using a simple headshot photo. The cover photo can be the cover page of your works, a behind-the-scenes picture, or anything that’s in theme with the content you’ll put out. Once you’re done, click on the Save button at the lower left of your screen.

You’re all set to personalize your page! Don’t worry too much about the name and other details if you’re still not sure of them. You can always make changes later on. Make sure to familiarize yourself with page settings and features before posting content. They’re easy and self-explanatory anyway, so you’ll likely not have trouble with them.

Tips for Managing Your Author Page

Managing your page is no longer as simple as consistently posting content. With so many features available on Facebook, it can quickly get complicated and confusing, so here are a few tips you can follow to better manage your page.

Post Regularly

Ideally, one post per day is a great way to start off your page. But if you can’t commit to that, then try and keep yourself posting regularly, even if it’s only once a week.

If people like your content and see that you’re posting regularly, they’ll be more motivated to stick with you. If you rarely post, they might forget your page exists or decide to unfollow it.

Stay Organized

It’s easy to lose track of all the content you put out. Consider using a content calendar to stay organized. It doesn’t have to be complicated, either.

Look at this simple content calendar I made with Notion. It only shows the title of the post, its type, and what day I should be posting it. That’s all you really need with a new page.

Tone Down the Sales Pitch

While your primary goal with your page is to market yourself as an author, it’s best to go easy on self-promotion. Not everything you post should be about selling your works. It quickly becomes annoying, and self-promotion posts rarely bring value to your followers.

For starters, stick with the 80/20 rule: 80% of your posts should be about informing, entertaining, and educating followers, leaving 20% for self-promotion.

Engage with Your Audience

Respond to comments and messages, invite positive discourse, ask questions, open polls, and the like. By doing so, you’re building a deeper relationship with your audience. If they see that you actively engage with them, they’re more likely to leave comments, and like and share posts. This way, you’re creating an online community centered around you.

Additionally, follow and join pages and groups with similar interests. It’ll keep you surrounded by people with similar interests who are more likely to engage with you.

What’s So Great About Facebook?

Let’s look at a few key statistics that make Facebook a perfect place to grow as an author.

Active Users

Aside from the 2.8 billion monthly users I mentioned above, Facebook has 1.84 billion daily active users and is the only platform that’s used by more than half of the world’s social media population.

That’s a constant stream of people using the platform. While you won’t be targeting most of them for your works, these numbers are proof that the platform is working. With proper strategy and care, you can use these numbers to your advantage.

Mobile Traffic

Facebook’s apps (Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and Instagram) dominate mobile rankings when it comes to active users. So not only is it the most popular social media platform, but it’s also the most popular social media mobile app. Plus, 98.5% of Facebook users use mobile phones to access the platform, with 81.5% of that exclusively accessing it via mobile.

Considering that more digital traffic comes from mobile activity, there’s a greater chance for a person to access Facebook and potentially check out your content than any other social media platform.

Marketers Love Facebook

As the largest social media platform, Facebook gets a lot of attention from marketers of different niches. For example, in the United States, 86% of marketers use it specifically for marketing purposes. That number proves that marketing your product on Facebook can be successful.

Perhaps one of the reasons why marketers love it so much is because it caters to almost all types of content. Different pages and groups cater to different interests and attract people with different backgrounds. This is a perfect environment to start showcasing yourself.

When Facebook Can Be Ineffective

Let’s also talk about why Facebook (and any social media platform) can have weak to no results for you. There are basically two main reasons:

No Strategy

Jumping into the platform without a basic strategy can quickly bog down your efforts of marketing yourself as an author. Putting out content that’s all over the place (no themes, too many niches, etc.) for example, doesn’t build your brand. It only confuses potential followers on what value you’re offering.

Lack of Patience

Digital content is largely a waiting game. While some content can go viral overnight, most of what you put out will start off slow or fail to attract an audience quickly. A lot of people assume these are signs of failure, and thus abandon their efforts. In truth, the fruits of their efforts are still developing.

Facebook for Writers

Using Facebook to grow your author brand is a long game, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t see results early on. It will take at least months to even years of effort to build up your presence on the platform. But once you get the ball rolling, it will be easy to stay consistent.

Focus on creating content that will entertain and inform your intended audience. They’ll be curious about what else you’ve got and stick with you to find out. If they think you’re there just to market yourself, then they’ll probably ignore you.

Do you use Facebook to grow your author brand? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

 

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