Most people in the world have a profile or page on some form of social media. There are numerous platforms out there though some of the most recognizable are Instagram, Twitter and of course Facebook. Today I want to examine Facebook, but the profile we all know and love, the additional options that can help grow your marketing abilities and visibility.
When I first joined with the indy publisher Pure Ice I was thrilled. It was a whole new world for me and I was ready to make the jump to published author complete with the royalty checks, copies of my books and the readers and fans. I was going to make a splash in the publishing world selling my book anytime I got the chance and people were going to be excited to meet me and have me sign copies right? To a very small extent yes, but in a much larger and worldly sense, a definite no. No one knew who I was and even with the fast approaching date of my release I realized that only a handful of people, almost all of whom I knew personally were actually interested.
That was when I was told to help my marketing by creating a twitter account as well as a Facebook author page. I am slightly inept at social media so this was not something I was aware was even an option. I opened up Facebook on my computer and searched the application with fresh eyes finding the options running down the left side of the screen. When I found the option to create a page I clicked it and immediately started filling out the information. I have dreamt of being an author for so long I thought it would be a breeze but it turned into a struggle shortly after I began.
I had no idea what to put in the about section other than "aspiring author". It was so short and kind of lame that I deleted it determined to come back to it. I finally got all of the questions answered, did fill in the about section and prepared to make my first inspiring and profound post. That was when I froze again. What was I going to say? What if I said or did something that would turn potential readers off to my book? What if I wasn't doing it right? All of these doubts and more swirled in my head. O was lost.
I chatted online with some of the fellow writers I had met and they were able to bring me back down to a calm and relatively competent state of mind. Relax, they told me, not everyone is going to like what I say or even like me. My work will speak for itself when I get to that point and growing a fan base takes time and dedication. There will be days that you will struggle for content (beyond true), there will be days you post something you feel is just a space filler and it will get more likes than something deep and meaningful to you (has happened more than I can count) and there will be days when you post something about your work and receive support that will send you over the moon ( those posts never stop being amazing).
The biggest advice I can give is to go ahead and jump in with the author page on Facebook and make sure to be active as much as possible but remember to take the good for what it is and the bad with a grain of salt. It does take time but when you start seeing people support your work and you as an artist it makes every post, emotion and moment spent working on it completely worth it.
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