5 Facebook tips for authors 2 Comments


If you have ever run an Author Page on Facebook, you will know that getting views can be very hard.

Here are five tips for authors trying to get a bit more attention on Facebook.

1. Start conversations

Facebook has realised that there are now more posts than people can possibly look at. So to keep Facebook interesting they filter the boring stuff away.

Facebook works out what is interesting by the number of people that click, like, share, or comment on something. By starting conversations you engage people (by being interesting). If you are consistently interesting Facebook will give you the benefit of the doubt with new content.

2. Post every day

Facebook developers have invested a lot of time and effort into making sure that people see fresh stuff to keep them using Facebook. After 24 hours whatever amazing thing you posted is no longer interesting because it is old.

I’ve seen a lot of studies about the optimal frequency of posting to a page. Once or twice a day seems to be about right.

3. Mix it up a bit

If you have a blog, you have probably set your blog to post to your social media accounts when things are published. That’s good but between blog posts try to mix in a few pictures, videos, and status updates.

On the whole images and videos perform best on Facebook. That’s just one of those things.

However, unless you are sharing a cover design no one has ever seen – your book cover is old news. If you are feeling desperate you could always take a snap of your writing space.

4. Shut up about your book already

The neediest thing you can do is keep posting “hey, I’ve written a book,” followed by “I’ve got a book,” and then “you really need to see my book.” We get it. You are an author. You have a book. What else have you got to say?

Unless your book manages to talk about nothing at all, it raises at least a few themes. Talk about those themes.

  • If you write love stories, talk about love.
  • If you write space opera, talk about Star Wars.
  • Do you have a dark and scary tone to your book? Well, let’s talk about things that scare us.
  • Set it in the 1950s? Great talk about the 1950s.
  • The lead character is a nerd? Talk about nerd culture.

5. Be the first to like and share your post

Switch to your private account. Give yourself a “like” and then a share. If your content is too boring to share it should not be up there. Show some faith in your own stuff.

Doing just these things we have seen a page with 28 fans reach 2,500 in a day. Subscribe to the Author Buzz page to get more tips for authors like this these.


About Matthew Brown

Matthew is a writer and geek from Kent (UK). He is the founder and current chair of Thanet Creative as well as head geek for Author Buzz. His ambitions include appearing in some future incarnation of TableTop with Wil Wheaton and seeing a film or TV series based on something he wrote. Matt is also responsible for fixing stuff here when it breaks.

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