How to promote your book with facebook

Anyone who is self-publishing knows that the promotion of the book itself is entirely up to them, how much time, effort and money which goes into the project lays squarely at your feet, and it goes without saying that the more you put in the more you’ll get out.

So where do many authors turn to in order to raise awareness of their new title? Well, this question is easily answered, one of the first ports of call for the indie author is social media, this is because it’s relatively cheap to set up and with access to your feeds available upon every device you own, it’s easy to keep on top of.

But there are of course many options to choose from when it comes to deciding which social media streams you use, the most popular being Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Obviously there are many more services out there and each person will have their own favorite (which I’m sure they’ll use to promote with too).

However, for this post we’ll look at the most popular network in the world which is Facebook.

1. Author or Personal? - The first choice that you are going to have is with the set-up of your account, you can either choose to have a personal (if you don’t have one already that you can use) or you can create a new account as an author. To do this you’ll need to go to the log-in page of Facebook and under the green ‘Sign Up’ button click on the link which says ‘Create a page for a celebrity, band or business’. On the next screen click on the bottom left icon which is labelled as ‘Artist, Band or Public Figure’, from here you can choose Author in the dropdown menu. Setting up a Facebook account as an Author (and keeping it separate from your personal page) is highly recommended and allows you to connect to your readers in a far more professional manner, it also gives more information on how your interactions and posts perform with your followers.
   
2. Get some likes – Start as early as you can with your Facebook page and link to it from other locations, if you have an author’s page upon Amazon make sure you link back to your Facebook page, also, if you have your own website then make sure you have links back from here too. Start off with all of your current family and friends (from your personal page) and invite them to like your Author’s page, be cheeky and ask your friends to share your page to their friends too.
3. Content – If your page is nothing but one long advert for your book then you will turn people off, plug your book but also add content that engages and entertains your followers.
4. Bold and Bright – The most successful posts always include images, these can be either as a short video or a graphic/photograph highlighting your message, remember that if you are using a video, add subtitles, as most videos are watched within the page where the sound won’t actually be played.
5. Engage and keep active – Having your author’s page accessible from your smart phone gives you the opportunity to keep the feed updated on a regular basis, you don’t have to be posting every five minutes but you should check at least once a day. Engage with others too, the key to social media is that it is SOCIAL, making it a two-way process and connecting with others keeps you interested and builds relationships that benefit both parties.
   
6. Giveaways – Facebook is a great place to promote special offers that you may have, so if you’re planning on offering your eBook for free for a couple of days than you can shout about it on your page and send out links to your followers.
   
7. Create an Ad – Facebook offers you the facility to create your own Facebook advert, (see this link - https://www.facebook.com/business/products/ads ). It allows you to create an ad and target it very specifically towards those you think who will be more likely to buy your book. Facebook currently charges you per click on the ad, you can set a budget and ensure that you never spend more than the limit you set, you can also monitor the add and see how it performed for you. Again, use bold images and a title which intrigues the reader, you should also have a direct link from your ad to the sales page where the viewer can actually buy a copy.
   
8. Enjoy – Social media shouldn’t be a chore, it’s a great opportunity to connect to those who share similar interests and could possibly be readers of your next book, if you view it as a learning opportunity and a chance to meet new friends you’ll get the most from it (and so will your book).