Reprinted with permission from AuthorDev.com – guest post from Author Trish LeSage
There are many reasons why authors should use a personal profile page on Facebook in addition to using a business page. Creating a personal profile page is very beneficial and advantageous and can increase book sales if you are an author.
First of all, Facebook only allows your posts to be seen by 10-20% of the people who have “liked” your business page. If you want a higher percentage of people who have liked your page to see your posts, you must pay Facebook in order to do so by clicking on the “boost post” button in the lower right hand corner of your post.
On the other hand, this is not the case with personal profile pages. Your posts on your wall of your personal profile page are not limited to only 10-20% of your friends seeing your posts. Facebook does not automatically block your friends from seeing your posts to your personal profile page.
When you use a business page on Facebook, you cannot see who has “liked” your page. Therefore, you can not visit their page and write a thank you note on it. Being able to write a thank you note on the walls of the people who have “liked” your business page would help to spread the word about your page, you, and your books. However, because you cannot see who has “liked” your business page, and you cannot visit the pages of those who have “liked” your page, you cannot do this. This limits the expansion of your network of potential customers.
However, if you use a personal profile page as your author page, you can visit the pages of those who have added you as a friend and write a thank you note on their wall so that others see your thank you note and hopefully add you as a friend also, thereby further expanding your network of potential friends and potential customers who buy your book.
If you use only a business page, you cannot join any Facebook groups. However, if you use a personal profile page, you can join many groups. The advantage of joining groups is that you can write useful, helpful, informative, or educational articles and post them to the walls of the groups that you are a member of. I have found that by doing this, many people have enjoyed my articles and have added me as a friend as a result of it. Hundreds of people have also subscribed to see my posts in their newsfeeds (are following me on Facebook). I have also found that by joining groups on Facebook and posting articles on their walls, it has generated many sales revenues for my books. This cannot be done with a business page on Facebook.
Since we are blocked from being able to join groups, etc. on Facebook with a business page, we must then spread the word about our business page elsewhere. Unless we pay Facebook money, we cannot promote nor expand our network for our business page on Facebook itself at all if we do not have a personal profile page.
Furthermore, focusing on asking people or begging people to “like” our business page on Facebook does not necessarily mean that those people that we have begged are going to be customers who will buy our books. Efforts could be better spent on writing good quality articles and posting them on group walls or getting interviewed on radio shows and posting links to the shows on group walls than begging people to “like” our business pages.
I have a few suggestions, however, when using a personal profile page as your author page on Facebook:
First of all, do not place spam on your wall constantly, and do not place spam on your friends’ walls. Your friends/fans will see your posts on your wall in their newsfeeds and may become angry and block you, unfriend you, or report you for spam if constantly place spam on the wall of your personal profile page. Your Facebook account could end up being closed, and you could lose out on the many wonderful benefits of spreading the word about your book through Facebook.
Also, it is wise to refrain from placing spam on the walls of the groups that you are a member of, and it is wise to refrain from spamming group members. Although many of the admins. of the groups on Facebook do tolerate posts on their group walls stating that you recommend such and such a book because….., some admins. do not tolerate any spam at all whatsoever which leads to your posts being deleted from the groups’ walls, your being kicked out of the group altogether, or your being reported to Facebook for spam. It is best to post to group walls cautiously. Posting helpful articles or anything else that is helpful is the best practice.
Secondly, although your fans may want to add you as a friend and may want to learn more about your personal life, it would be wise to be selective of what you post on the wall of your personal profile page if you are using it as your author page. Sharing your life with others is fine to an extent. Keeping things professional even when posting about your personal life is the best option so as to retain customers instead of losing them.
Facebook is a wonderful social media platform for authors. Using a personal profile page in addition to a business page is very beneficial and can further expand an author’s customer base and increase their sales.
About The Author:
Trish LeSage is an Author Consultant (She helps authors to plan their book launches and gives them advice on promoting their books.). She is also a best selling author on Amazon and is a writer of magazine articles on Metaphysics, self-empowerment, and body-mind-spirit topics. She is the author of three books: Meditations For Past Lives, Starseeds, Soul Mates And Beyond; Manifesting Success In Relationships, Career, And Business Via Numerology; and Traveling To Parallel Universes which became instant best sellers on Amazon upon publication. More information about her work is available on her website at www.beyond3dbooks.com
