Make the Most of the New Facebook Profile

Facebook recently did a major redesign of the Profile. In a previous post, I demonstrated some of the changes with before and after shots of my own profile. For authors who want to promote their book through their Facebook Profile, the most negative thing about the redesign is that it removed the information box and web links that used to be under the photo on the left side of the screen.

Now, let's talk about how to make the most of the new design. At the top of the Profile is a new summary area that looks like this:

 

It shows my current job title and employer, where I went to college and my major. Items show in blue are hyperlinks. This screenshot shows how my profile appears to me—because I have not entered a city or hometown, it's prompting me to add that information. Those two areas will be blank when other people view my profile.

If you want to feature yourself as an author at the top of your own Profile, click on the Edit Profile link in this area of your profile, then select Education and Work from the menu on the left. List your current employer as the name of your publishing company or business, and list your job title as "author of your book title." Be sure to check the "I currently work here" box. The word "at" that appears between the job title and employer name in this example is fixed and you cannot change it. You may want to experiment with this until you're happy with the way it looks.

Notice how the name of my employer (The Savvy Book Marketer) appears as a blue hyperlink in this example. Because I have a Fan Page on Facebook called "The Savvy Book Marketer," Facebook has automatically linked to that as my "employer." This is great news! You may want to consider making your employer name match the name of your Facebook Fan Page in order to create a hyperlink like this.

See this post for tips on optimizing the Info tab on your Facebook Profile.

 

Comments

[Joan Price]

Oh, this is so good! I've been struggling with what to do about this. Thank you! Tweeting this -- now gotta go do it.

Tips for directing people from your personal page to your book page?

Joan Price

Author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty and the upcoming Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud about Senior Sex.

Join us -- we're talking about ageless sexuality at http://www.NakedAtOurAge.com

[Joan Price]

Sorry, I posted too fast. You say you can link to the book page by making that your employer, but is there another way? (I want to display more than just that book page as my self-employer.) Thanks!

[Dana Lynn Smith]

Hi Joan,
I don't know of any other way to get a link into that top section. It automatically links to your current employer, your current city and your hometown. Keep in mind that Profiles are supposed to be for personal use, so Facebook doesn't design them with business-friendly features. The Fan Page is more biz-friendly.
Dana

[Nordzin Pamo]

Very helpful, thank you. I now have a FB profile that says something useful.