The Savvy Book Marketer

Important News for Authors with Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook has launched a re-design of the Fan Page. If your Page hasn’t already been converted to the new design, it will be automatically upgraded on March 10, or you can convert it manually by clicking the “upgrade this page” button at the top of your Page. Before you make the move, click the “preview” button and then click the “take a tour” button for a quick overview of the new design.

The first thing you will notice about the new layout is that it looks quite similar to the new personal profile layout, including the strip of photos across the top. Here is a look at some of the most significant changes:

Useful Links in the Right Column

Your Page now has the ability to network on Facebook. So, instead of you commenting on someone’s post or participating in a group using your personal profile persona, you can switch to Page mode to interact with others on Facebook. This is very useful if you’re trying to promote your page and de-emphasize your personal profile. Here’s how: From the right column of your  Page, click on the “Use Facebook as YOUR PAGE NAME” link. You can click a link in that same spot to switch back to your personal profile persona.

It’s easy to check the statistics for your Page by clicking on the “View Insights” link in the right column. There’s also a handy link for suggesting the Page to friends or building an ad.

Note that the Edit Page button has moved to the upper right corner of the screen.

New Placement of Tabs

As you can see in the screenshot below, the navigation “tabs” that used to be across the top of the Page have been moved to the left column.

Each tab links to a separate screen on your Fan Page. This new layout is probably good news if want to have a lot of tabs, because it looks like there will be space to show more tabs. But, I don’t think these tabs are as visible on the left side as they were across the top of the page in the old layout. On the other hand, once Facebook users get used to the new layout, it may not matter much. 

Remember that on the Manage Permissions screen (accessible when you are in Edit mode), you can specify which tab you want new visitors to land on. On my Page, new visitors land on the Welcome tab shown above.

Promote Your Books in the Publications Section on LinkedIn

In a recent post, I gave instructions for promoting your books on your LinkedIn profile by using the Reading List by Amazon application to post a book cover image and a link to your book’s Amazon sales page

Another way to get visibility for your books on LinkedIn is to use the new Publications section on the profile. The great thing about this Publications area is that you can list any type of publication, regardless of whether it is available on Amazon. You can even list free ebooks or newsletters.

Just follow these four easy steps to promote your books and other publications on LinkedIn:

1. Click on “Profile” and make sure you are on the “Edit Profile” tab.

2. Go to the “Are You Published” area and click on “Add Sections.”

Note: If you don’t see the “Are You Published” box on your profile, look for a similar box that says “Add sections to reflect achievements and experiences on your profile.”

3. On the next screen, click the “Publications” button on the left and then click the “Add to Profile” button.

4. Complete the publication description on the next screen, then click the “Add Publication” button.  Remember to include important keywords in your publication descriptions, to help people find your profile and your publications when they search by keyword.

Here is what the finished product looks like on my profile:

The book title is hyperlinked to the book sales page on my website. On my LinkedIn profile, the “Publications” section appeared below the “Experience” section, but you can move some of the sections around by dragging and dropping them.

To add additional books, go back into "Edit Profile" mode, scroll down to the "Publications" area, and click on "Add a Publication."

How to Feature Your Book on Your LinkedIn Profile

If you use the professional networking site LinkedIn, there’s an easy way to get your book and cover featured on your profile by using the “Reading List by Amazon” application. Here’s what it looks like on my profile:

Notice the "See this book on Amazon" link that links directly to my book's sales page on Amazon.com!

To install this app on your own profile, just follow these steps:

1.  Click the “More” button on the top menu of your LinkedIn profile, then choose “Get more applications.”

2.  Click on the “Reading List by Amazon” application and install it on your profile.

3.  Make sure the “Display on Profile” and “Display on Home Page” buttons are checked.

4.  Open the application, go to the “Your Reading List” tab, and use the search box to find your book on Amazon.

5.  When your book appears in the search results, click the yellow “Select” button, and it will appear on your reading list.

6.  On the next screen, check “I read it” and “I recommend this book” and then write a comment. If there’s a Kindle version, also check the “I’m reading this book on my Amazon Kindle” box. Click the save button when you’re finished.

You can add additional books to your reading list, but the book you entered most recently will show up at the top when this app is displayed on your profile. You can also edit or delete entries to your reading list.

How to Use the Info Tab on the New Facebook Profile

I have always encouraged authors to use the small box beneath the photo on their Facebook profile to talk about their book. Unfortunately, that box was removed in the recent redesign of the Facebook profile, along with the space below it where website links appeared.

In a recent post I demonstrated how to make your book title appear at the very top of the new profile. Today, let's take a look at the Info tab of the profile.

The tabs that used to be at the top of the profile now appear in the left column. Clicking the Info tab link will take you to your Info page. Here's what the top portion of my Info page looks like:

Beneath the Education and Work section, you can see an area called Activities and Interests. Because I use my Facebook profile primarily for business, I have chosen to leave most of the information in that area blank. The only thing that is visible there is a list of the Facebook Fan Pages that I have "liked."

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.

 

Facebook Announces Major Redesign

Facebook has just announced a complete redesign of the Profile and there are indications that the Fan Pages will receive a similar makeover. The change will be rolled out gradually, so you may not see it on your own Profile or Page right away. To see the extent of the changes, take a look at the before and after shots of my Facebook profile:

New Profile:

As you can see, the tabs have been moved to the left side and the top focuses on a summary of my job, college and cities. There's space for five photos just beneath that. Apparently, it's randomly displaying photos that I have been "tagged" in.

It's very disapointing that the information box beneath my Profile photo is gone and the web links no longer appear on the main page. In upcoming posts I'll be making some suggestions on how authors can modify their Profiles to make best use of the new format. Stay tuned for more details.

Facebook Accounts for 10% of Online Use

In the U.S., Facebook accounts for nearly 10 percent of the total time spent online. As you can see from the above graph, Facebook usage continues to rise. If your target market is on Facebook, it's important that you be there too. Want to learn how to build an effective prescense on Facebook to promote yourself and your book? Check out these articles and resources:

Does Social Networking Really Sell Books?

7 Reasons You Need a Facebook Fan Page

How to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page

The Right (and Wrong) Way to Use Facebook Tags

Facebook Guide for Authors

Graph courtesty of comScore.

Is Facebook Just for Kids?

Some people have the idea that social networks like Facebook are mostly used by young people. It's true that Facebook started out as a networking site for college students, but today adults are the fastest growing segment of users. In fact, half of Facebook users are 35 or older, and 13 percent are 55 or older. If your target audience is on Facebook, you should be too. Learn more in the Facebook Guide for Authors.

Graph courtesty of ComScore.

Promote Your Book on the Goodreads Network

With more than 3 million members, Goodreads is the largest social network for readers. The site is a terrific way for authors (especially fiction authors) to interact with their target audiences through the Goodreads Author Program.

Like other social networks, members join and set up a profile. But the emphasis of this site is on discussing books and sharing book recommendations with others. Members can create a catalog of the books they have read, are currently reading, and plan to read in the future; post reviews; create lists of books; start a book club; join a discussion group; or even contact an author.

To sign up for this free reader network, just enter your name, email, and a password on this page. I recommend setting up your own profile and book catalog and becoming familiar with the site before you get started with the author program.

See this page for details on how to upgrade your account to "author" status. Here are some of the things you can do to promote yourself and your books on Goodreads:

• Post a picture and bio.
• Share your list of favorite books and recent reads with your fans.
• Start a blog or import a feed of your existing blog.
• Publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements.
• Share book excerpts and other writing.
• Write a quiz about your book or a related topic.
• Post videos.

How to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page

Recently I wrote a post outlining 7 Reasons You Need a Facebook Fan Page.  So, once you've got your Facebook Page set up, how do you attract traffic to the page and get people to join the page (or become a fan) by clicking on the "like" button?  Here are some ideas:

Include a link to your Page in your email signature, on your website and blog, and on your social network profiles, including your personal Profile on Facebook.

Invite your Facebook friends to join your Page by clicking on the "Suggest to Friends" button in the left column of your Page.

Post a message occasionally on your Page encouraging your fans and visitors to recommend your Page to others. For example, "Do you know any other authors who can benefit from the resources on The Savvy Book Marketer page? Please invite them to visit http://bit.ly/SavvyFB."

Create a welcome screen to promote the value of your Page and encourage visitors to click on the "like" button. One option is to design your Page as an information hub, offering valuable resources and discussions.

You can create a text-based welcome screen for your Page or use graphics and video to enhance your message, as Mari Smith does. This is a great spot to encourage people to click on the "like" button.

Post status updates on your social networks giving people an incentive to visit. For example, "Authors, be sure to claim your free report, 10 Steps to Online Networking Success, on the Savvy Book Marketer page at http://bit.ly/SavvyFB."

It's even possible to offer valuable content that is available only to people who join your page. I just ran across this article by Kim Woodbridge with instructions on how to create exclusive content on a Facebook Page that's visible only to people who "like" the page. This would be a great way to give people an incentive to "like" your page, by offering free chapters or special bonus material that's available exclusively to them.

I haven't had a chance to try out the exclusive content feature yet, but I'll let you know how it works when I do. By the way, if you're wondering about the "FBML tag" mentioned in Kim Woodbridge's article, it refers to website code (similar to HTML) that can be used to create custom content (such as the welcome screen mentioned above) on your Facebook Page.

I recently published a tutorial, How to Create Custom Content on Your Facebook Page, in my newsletter that explains how to use FBML to create customized content. If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up now and you’ll receive exclusive access to the newsletter archives and get a free copy of my ebook, Top Book Marketing Tips.

To learn more about how to use Facebook to promote yourself and your book, read Facebook Guide for Authors or The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing.

Have you already created a Facebook Page? How do you promote your page? Please share using the comment area below.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Online Networking

Online networking can be a terrific book promotion tool, but there's sometimes a fine line between letting your contacts know about your book and being overly promotional. If you're too passive, you may not get much benefit from networking, but if you're too agressive, you may turn people off.

In the September issue of Savvy Book Marketer Newsletter, I discuss seven common mistakes that authors make in online networking, along with tips on how to avoid them. If you're already a subscriber, check your email box to read this month's in-depth feature article, "The 7 Deadly Sins of Online Networking."

If you aren't already receiving the newsletter, subscribe today and you'll get a free copy of my ebook, Top Book Marketing Tips, along with exclusive access to my archive of newsletter articles, packed with strategies and tips to help you sell more books. Here are just a few recent topics:

• How to Create Custom Content on Your Facebook Page

• Sell More Books by Giving Away Free Samples

• The Role of Retailers, Distributors and Wholesalers in the Book Trade

• How to Sell Books to Gift Shops and Specialty Retailers

• Book Publicity - How to Create an Online Media Kit

• Making Time to Promote Your Book

• Boost Your Profit Margin with Amazon Associates

• Who Should You be Marketing Your Book To?

 

Choosing the Best Photo or Image for Your Social Networks

In my article, Your Author Photo – How to Project the Right Image, I included a discussion of choosing images to use on social networks.

Some authors use their book cover as their networking image, but I think that the author's photo gives a more positive impression. People are there to network with other people, not products. If you can include your book and yourself in your author photo, it brands you as an author, without being overly commercial.

In my original article, I featured a photo of author Scott Butcher at a book signing. Recently I met another author on Facebook with a terrific photo, which she has graciously allowed me to share. This shot of Rosalie Marsh was taken at the London Book Fair, where her book, Just Us Two: Ned and Rosie's Gold Wing Discovery, was in the New Title Showcase. She added the International Book Awards Winner seal to cover up the other books in the photo. The result is an image that, at a glance, brands Rosalie as an award-winning author.

While you will need a square image for Twitter, Facebook does allow vertical images. I've seen several authors create a tall vertical image with their photo on top and their book cover below it. What about you – how could you create a photo that says "author"?

7 Reasons You Need a Facebook Fan Page

Facebook Pages (also known as Fan Pages) look similar to personal Profiles, but they are designed for business use and they are a terrific way to promote yourself and your business. You can create a Page for your business, book, or even a character in a book. People join your Page by clicking the "like" button at the top of the page. (That button used to say "become a fan.")

Facebook Pages have several advantages over personal Profiles:

1.  You're limited to 5,000 friends on your Profile, but there's no limit on the number of people who can "like" your Page.

2.  Pages are designed for business use, so it's more acceptable to be promotional on a Page than on a Profile.

3.  You can create multiple Pages to promote different products or businesses.

4.  You can send a message to everyone who has joined your page. Your message will show up in the Update section of each fan's Inbox.

5.  You can create customized "tabs" or screens on your Page. For example, you can create a tab to promote your book and include your cover image, book video trailer and other content on that tab.

Promote Your Book with a Twitter World Tour

In today's guest post, novelist Graham Storrs shares the details of his amazing 24-hour around the world Twitter tour to launch his new book, and offers some practical tips for authors who want to plan their own Twitter world tour. If you don't have Twitter followers across the globe (or don't think you can stay awake for 24 hours) you could modify your tour to cover a more limited area.

Between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. your time, on February 15, 2010, I visited your time zone and tweeted. I did it as part of the TimeSplash Non-Stop 24-hour Round-the-World Twitter Tour, which I did to help launch my début novel, TimeSplash. It went like this:

I began in New York at 7 p.m. on the 15th. That time zone includes much of the Eastern Seaboard, eastern Canada, and a chunk of South America. I tweeted a hello to everybody in the whole time zone, told them about my book, chatted to anybody who was around, and, at 8 p.m. exactly, moved west by one time zone. That meant it was 7 p.m. again, but now I was in the central U.S. states, central Canada, and Mexico. I did it all again, said hello, mentioned my book, and chatted to anyone who replied.

Every hour, I moved west again by one time zone, jumping back each time to 7 p.m. Appropriate for a book about time traveling. In just a few hours, I had crossed the Americas. Leaving Alaska behind, I crossed the dateline, and entered Russia.

Tweeting for 24 hours solid was pretty tiring, but it didn't kill me (and, considering how I felt when I reached Europe and still had nine hours to go, surviving felt like a small miracle at the time.) In fact, I had a lot of fun. Most places I went, there were people to talk to and, to my surprise, there was a crowd of people who (while they were awake!) were following me and cheering me on.

I had feared that my regular followers would get bored with my constant tweeting but people seemed to enjoy it. I picked up dozens of followers during the tour and several people tweeted to say they'd bought the book and were enjoying it. One guy bought it, read the whole thing, and blogged a very nice review before the tour was even over!

This is how I prepared myself:

Top 10 Ways Authors Can Use Twitter

Twitter is a great tool for building an author platform and promoting books. Here are some of the top ways authors can benefit from Twittering:

1. Help others by sharing information, while you gain a reputation as an expert. Nonfiction authors can post links to helpful articles, recommend resources, and teach mini-lessons. Novelists can talk about their genre. Children's authors can promote literacy, share information about the benefits of reading for children and young adults, and offer tips on how to select age-appropriate reading material.

2. Meet potential customers and stay in touch with existing customers. Promote your Twitter URL everywhere you're listed online, and include keywords in your tweets to attract followers who are interested in your topic or genre.

3. Stay on top of news and trends in your field or genre and get ideas for your articles and blog by reading the tweets of the people you follow.

4. Promote live and virtual events such as book signings, podcasts, virtual book tours, book fairs, teleseminars, and book launches.

5. Gain visibility and new followers by hosting a Twitter contest where you give away a prize to a randomly chosen winner, or give a free gift to everyone who follows you and re-tweets your contest message.

6. Ask for help and get instant responses. When you request product recommendations, referrals to experts, or help with a technical issue, it's amazing how helpful folks are.

7. Spread good will by helping your peers. Introduce other people in your field or genre, or recommend other related books or products.  Re-tweet interesting posts from people that you follow.

8. Promote your book and other products and services. The key is to be subtle and make promotional tweets a small percentage of your overall communications, so people feel like they gain value from following you, not just a stream of sales pitches.

9. Meet other authors, experts, publishers, marketers, and vendors. Twitter is ideal for networking and it's a great place to meet potential joint venture partners.

10. Keep in touch when you're on the road. There are a number of applications that facilitate twittering from mobile devices.

Have fun! It's fascinating to meet people from all over the world, gain a glimpse into their lives, and develop a cyber-relationship.

Learn More About Using Twitter for Book Promotion

To learn more about how authors can use Twitter to promote themselves and their books, check out the Twitter Guide for Authors ebook and the Boost Your Book Sales With Twitter audio program.