Fake Protest Part Deux 2011 by Sheila Dee
I’m stealing a page — literally — from Jay Baer. Luckily, he’s a friend and will probably forgive the intrusion or be flattered by the mimicry. On Sunday, he published 14 Ways Facebook Betrays Small Businesses. His post is less scathing than it sounds, but it is a warning cry. I’m taking his post as inspiration, giving you the 4 Ways Authors Need to Prepare For and Adapt To Facebook Timeline.
First of all, the info below applies to those authors who’ve opted to engage on Facebook with a Page, not a Profile. As we have discussed before, authors reluctant to join the social space of Facebook may be better off with a Page. And if you’re one of those who took my advice from months back; sorry. Your world just changed. Here’s how:
- Cover image
You need one. Not just a nice profile image. But a gigantic, 850×315 pixel shot that shows you at your best as an author. What, you don’t have one of those? Well… tough. Get one. Maybe from a signing you did. Or make a collage of your book covers. Whatever it is, it needs to look great. And it needs to be 850 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. And don’t make is salesy: Facebook has prohibited including things like your website, price-points for your books, or any sort of call-to-action. It’s intended to be an image that represents you as a brand. Leave it that way. - Pin, for the win!
The new vertical timeline flow is a little strange, and looks totally different from the “wall” you’re probably used to seeing. One of the neat things you can do with your timeline is highlight a post. It takes up twice the space of anything else posted, making a very clear landmark. Use this for the dates when your books were published, or any other major milestones in your career as an author. Pinning is something special that moves a post to the top of the page. This is only for serious stuff, and anything pinned goes back to its normal timeline position after 7 days. - Be on the lookout for Direct Messages
People (and by that I mean Profiles) can now send direct messages to brands (and by that I mean Pages). So a “fan” could send you a direct message and expect a response from you. Yikes! Couple that with the fact that Facebook’s notifications of these events to Pages currently is less-than-optimal, and it means regular policing of these messages so you don’t look like you’re ignoring your fans. I anticipate Facebook will provide a fix for this soon, so that you are notified when someone sends a DM to your Page. But for now, that doesn’t happen. Check your Page at least daily for new messages. And don’t trust Facebook’s built-in notification system. Log into Facebook. Select your page. Visit the Admin panel. And _then_ check for new messages. Don’t leave your fans hanging! - Be active!
Activity now displays for every page to anyone who happens to look. Fans can see how many of their friends like your Page, and have easy access to how often you’ve been engaging. Or not. This means you have to be posting often — daily is good — to make sure that you have solid engagement. If not, the page may look abandoned. And who wants to fan a page that isn’t interacting? Answer: few.
So take note, authors. Facebook has changed the game. They will again. And so will the other social properties in which you engage. Or should be engaging. They don’t do this to penalize you. They do it to benefit them. And as long as their users see benefits as well, they’ll continue to do so. So stop lamenting. Stop pining for stability and uniformity. Embrace change, for it is the only constant in this world.
And go get your Facebook Page set up for Timeline. You have until the end of the month. Then Facebook is gonna do it for you.
7 Ways for Authors To Get More Comments
Image by Bogdan Suditu via Flickr
Part of the appeal of social media is the social aspect. That doesn’t just mean a two-way conversation between the author and the fans, but also many-way communications, where fans are interacting with each other. That’s a social conversation, and it’s a goal authors should have in mind. More importantly, they should have a plan to get there.
Getting comments is, as many of you have found, a bit of a challenge. Below you’ll find seven tips to help you, the social author, get more comments. Take a step back and consider how the whole commenting process works, and you’ll easily fit these into your daily (yeah, we said daily) routine.
Tip 01 – Make it dead simple to comment
OK, this one seems a little obvious but many authors fall down right out of the gate with this one. Go check your main social properties right now and see if it’s easy to comment. Chances are, you’ve got one or more barriers in the way:
Standard social sites frequented by authors — Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc. — automatically remove most of the barriers above. But you should check that someone interacting with you in the social space has every bit as much chance commenting on your social stuff as your own website. Go check. I’ll wait.
Tip 02 – Post new content often
If you have a static website, no one will comment on it. If you post once a month at best, no one will comment. No one will comment because it’s not worth their time or effort to do so. Without fail, the properties that receive the most comments are owned by authors who make the dedication to post new content often. Very, very often.
Need a definition of often? Future posts will go into that in more depth. For now, here are are some good minimum standards:
Remember, those are minimum standards. More is OK. Don’t have time? Sure you do. You just need help making a calendar. We’ll get there in future content.
Tip 03 – Monitor comments as if you were obsessive/compulsive
No, I’m not suggesting you intentionally cultivate a mental disorder. Most of the popular social sites and even your blog make it easy to stay on top of comments as they happen. Until it makes you crazy, I highly recommend having all comments to your Facebook profile or page alert you via SMS text messaging. With a little work, you can make all tweets about you buzz your phone, too. And the same goes for comments made on your blog.
When you get to the point where your phone buzzes so much you can’t keep a battery charged, then you can scale back and check periodically throughout the day. But you must check frequently. Which leads me to the next tip…
Tip 04 – Comments beget more comments
Yes, I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of comment threads where dozens of people are merrily commenting away amongst themselves, while the content originator is blissfully absent. That won’t happen to you. So stop thinking of that.
Instead, think about responding to each and every comment, tweet, status update, review and anything else you can find where someone said nice things about you. You must participate in the conversation. It’ll be great when people people start talking to each other when they are commenting on your work. But even when that eventually does start to happen, you still need to be there commenting right back. (Note – Slightly different rules apply to negative comments. For now, keep a cool head and don’t feel the need to defend yourself. We’ll deal with negative comments in future materials.)
Tip 05 – Make commentable stuff
If all you’re posting is what your cat had for lunch, you’re not making commentable stuff. Yes, I’m sure your cat is fascinating and you can point to other authors who do write about their cat. A lot. But those are exceptions to the rule. You need to be focusing on making good stuff.
What is good stuff, you ask? Remarkable things is the answer. I’m using the literal definition of the roots of remarkable: Something that can be remarked upon.
Polls and questions are easy ways to get comments, because you’re asking a question. Don’t rely on this completely, as you should be generating content, not seeking content from your masses. Post controversial topics, but don’t stray too far from your knitting. Just because it’s politicking season, it doesn’t mean you should jump on the bandwagon when you aren’t remotely political in nature.
The best advice is this: be true to yourself, but skip the boring stuff. Start writing down things that you do that are both interesting and remarkable. Then build on that list.
Tip 06 – Showcase the best comments
Not all comments are created equal, and that’s OK. Nothing feels better than to see a string of 10 or 20 “you rock!” notes. Good for the ego. But you should start to notice some comments rise above the rest. Maybe it’s a really good review. Maybe it’s a question that you can answer to really let your personality shine. Whatever the nature, grab that outstanding comment and elevate it.
Make that comment the subject of a new blog post. Like that comment on Facebook. Re-tweet an excellent review. Yes, it is very OK to draw attention to this kind of stuff. Is it a little self-congratulatory? Yes; and your point is? Bonus tip: send the originator of that great comment a personal thank you note, message, direct message or email. Maybe they’ll do it again!
Tip 07 – Cross-pollinate comment threads.
You’ll quickly learn that your social channels don’t have 100% cross over. While your hard-core fans may keep up with you on multiple social channels, most people have a favorite that they check into frequently. Similar to the “showcasing” tip above, shine some light across your channels from time to time. Facebook and Google+ are great places to do this, as you can associate individuals in your post, drawing even more attention. But don’t forget to do that in reverse. If there’s a great Google+ thread happening, send out a tweet to let your followers on Twitter know about it. More is better!
Got a tip to share?
We’re going to start sharing social tips on a regular basis. Leave your suggestions for future topics to cover in the comment section below. And if you’ve got a great tip that needs to be shared, tell us!