How To Use Facebook To Market Your Book

Everyone’s screaming about the changes that were just made to Facebook, but the fact remains that Facebook continues to be one of the top social networks. And when it comes to marketing or promoting just about anything — especially books, it’s still an extremely useful tool.

For that reason, today book publicist Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that often works with authors, is back with another guest post to tell us how we can use Facebook to market our books. So, let’s get beyond the changes we don’t like. Le’ts forget about the fact that we may not be able to find everything anymore. And let’s remember that Facebook can help us sell books. Let’s let Scott tell us how…

How To Use Facebook To Market Your Book
By Scott Lorenz

Facebook is a great marketing tool for any author, and if you’re not using it, you’re losing sales! Using Facebook for book publicity is both easy and effective and following these few simple steps will help boost your sales and expand your market.

STEP 1.  Create a “Fan Page” for your book

What is the first thing you do after reading a good book?  You tell people about it!  Creating a Facebook Fan Page allows your readers to easily share with their networks the great book they just read and provides you with a free, “mini website” to interact with your fans.

Using the link above, select “Entertainment” then “Book” and follow the step-by-step instructions to begin completing your page. Once you’re done, users will be able to list your book on their info pages, interact with you, the author, and other fans on the Fan Page wall, and share the link with their friends through email and other social networking sites.

One important option to take advantage of is giving your page a username (after you reach 25 followers you’ll be able to do so). For example, https://www.facebook.com/stieglarsson  goes to the fan page author Stieg Larsson. Having a username in your URL will be much easier for people to navigate your page than suggesting they search for you on Facebook. Plus, your link looks much cleaner.

STEP 2. Keep your page updated

Once you’ve created your page, you need to keep it up to date with fresh content.  It’s standard practice to post three to four times a week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays having the highest click through rates) being conscious not to “overshare” or fans will unsubscribe from your page.

When fans post on your wall, be sure to respond to them in a timely fashion and respond to their comment or question.  Facebook is a conversation and that means both parties have to participate.

STEP 3. Give your fans content they can’t get anywhere else

You’ve accumulated some fans, now you need to keep them coming back.  Providing them with content they can’t find anywhere else rewards them for liking your page and can help you at the same time.

In the “discussions” section, you can post excerpts of your work, allowing people to read and comment on your progress. This also allows you to keep your fans up to date on whatever it is that you are working on. You simply click the “discussions” option, select “start new topic,” fill out the topic title and then write a post about it. Your fans will be free to read and reply to all posts on the discussion board.

STEP 4. “Like” it

A page allows people to “like” your book’s page. A fun fact is that when people “like” your page, it helps in your search engine rank. Google figures that if people are “liking” your page, it must be pretty good and worth seeing. One note about liking things; make sure that you click around to other author’s books and pages and “like” them. Odds are, they’ll “like” you right back!

STEP 5. Promote your book signing and speaking engagements

Say you have a book signing or a speaking engagement coming soon. Sure, you’ll post it on your blog and your website. Another option you should utilize is the Facebook “events” tool. Using the “event” function, you can create an event, like your upcoming book signing or reading, and invite all of your Facebook friends to join. You can list information like the time, location, and even directions of how to get to your event. Adding a photo to an event is always a nice touch. List as much information as you can so people will be well informed and more likely to attend. People can RSVP and even if they don’t, the event will linger on their Facebook mini-feed as a constant reminder. Use this example for inspiration. http://tinyurl.com/3lfa9oo

STEP 6. Show appreciation

Once you start to rack up Facebook friends and fans, a nice gesture of appreciation for their support might be to offer some incentives. For example, update your book’s page status to something like, “2,986 people like my book’s page so far! If I can get to 3,000 I’ll be giving away a signed copy to one of my wonderful fans!” People like free things. More importantly, people will keep checking your page not only because of your literary masterpiece, but also to see when you’re giving away more prizes. Giveaways generate interest and will help maintain and produce more fans.

Step 7. Badge and advertise

To let the public know you’ve created this fantastic Facebook page for your book, be sure to add a Facebook badge somewhere on your blog or website so people can click right over to it. Finally, consider utilizing Facebook’s advertising space. You can buy ad space on Facebook. You’ll be able to create your own custom advertisement by filling out the URL, title, and body of your ad. Then, you just have to add a photo and preview. Facebook ads allow you to choose your audience by age, sex, location, interests, even by place of employment. You’ll also be informed how many are in each demographic, which will allow you to target your advertisements to the exact market you want to reach. Facebook allows you to set a daily budget and you can also adjust it at any time, so you won’t break the bank.

So, be sure to hop on over to your Facebook account and set up a page for your book. It is an effective way to market your work and it will allow you to connect with your fans.

About the Author

Book publicist Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether it’s their first book or their 15th book. He’s handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA Officers, Navy SEALS, Homemakers, Fitness Gurus, Doctors, Lawyers and Adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman’s World, & Howard Stern to name a few. Learn more about Westwind Communications’ book marketing approach at http://www.book-marketing-expert.com  or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist