Using Facebook and Social Media To Your Benefit

Your customers are those looking for you, or those who find you. I am someone within the romance novel industry who converses daily with authors, cover artists, publishers, readers, etc. I have a business Facebook profile because I have businesses to promote and advertise. My profile is visited by many current customers and potential new customers and I am sent 20 to 40 new friend requests every day. Am I saying this to brag? Not at all, as it is more frustrating for me than impressive, with this being the reason…
Since I don't have time to go through every profile and read all their ‘About’ pages to see if they are an author, cover artist, graphic designer, publishers, reader, etc., I look for the requests that have a lot of mutual friends. Since I’m in the romance novel industry and almost all profiles on my friend list are as well, there should be many requests sent to me with many mutual friends. Well, to the contrary! I look and see that most are only in the two-digits of mutual friends, while a few have two to three hundred mutual friends. Why is that, I wonder? Why don’t the authors within those friend requests have many mutual industry related friends?

 Nonetheless, I will start opening the profiles with the highest number of mutual friends to read their ‘About’ pages, hopefully I’ll quickly find a website or blog link to see what they do, or photo albums titled “My Books” or “My Book Covers”, which will tell me they are in the romance novel industry as well. If I don’t see those things, I just assume they are a friend of a friend just interested in seeing my page one time out of curiosity.

First profile I click on... PRIVATE page, I can't see ANYTHING about that person unless I am a friend. Ok, next profile... PRIVATE page, I can't see ANYTHING about that person unless I am a friend. Ok, next profile... PRIVATE page, I can't see ANYTHING about that person unless I am a friend. Ok, next profile... PRIVATE page, I can't see ANYTHING about that person unless I am a friend... Do I need to say more? I believe I should ;)  Why would someone add random strangers they don't know anything about? Why would someone who doesn’t know you personally, add you as a friend if your page is marked private
Well, this article is not about the people ‘adding’ friends, it's about the people not showing anyone BUT friends what they do, what line of work they are in, etc. On Facebook, you can allow the public to see your ‘About’ page without seeing your wall, your photos or your friends. By doing this, you can list the book(s) you wrote and sell, your website(s), your service(s), etc. If you don’t allow this, you are preventing many people from seeing who you are professionally - so, much like a store without a sign or windows, they just walk on by.

Do stores blacken their windows, lock their doors and only allow those in who have responded to their blank email invite of “Here’s a request to come to my store.” with no other information? If you are an author, a cover artist, a graphic designer, a publisher, etc., you are a store filler.  So why are your store doors locked?  Why are your store windows blackened?  Do you hear the crickets? ;)

Saying that it’s to avoid stalkers, or because your family is in there with photos of your kids and other things you don't want the public to see, is a bit contradicting because  1.) So many accept all friend requests, therefore, they are allowing random strangers to see those things anyway, and  2.) They should all have a separate BUSINESS Facebook page aside from their personal/family page. When you have a business and items to sell, do you sell them from your home, that is hidden to the world, or do you sell them at a free store you have been given unlimited access to and that is open to the general public with big windows to see all your products, in hopes of gaining many customers?

Facebook is your store, because you advertise your products there, which encourages customers to buy them. In a store front door/window, do you hang a photo of yourself, your kids, your pets or landscapes images? Or do you hang a sign with your store's name and the type of store it is to let people know what you can provide for them, and to welcome people/customers in?

If your profile is marked PRIVATE, or doesn’t provide information about you and your business on your public viewable ‘About’ page, you are denying a huge chunk of potential customers. I often see profiles that say “Author” or “Romance Novel Author” yet there are no links to their books, their website, their blog, and no book covers to be seen. The profiles one can assume are affiliated to the romance novel industry, and most likely an author, are those who have one of their romance novel covers as their profile image and/or header banner. They have photo albums of their book covers, their website/blog linked where I can quickly see it, etc., something that instantly says "Romance Novel Author" (or cover designer, etc.) So I only accept those profiles and deny all others, as I am limited to how many I can have – filling my friend list with ‘just curious’ friend of friends or spammers, or not providing a way for people to quickly read about me without having to be on my friend list, is not going to market me on Facebook, or allow industry related people on Facebook know about me and my services.

Ok, so now you've made changes to your privacy settings to allow the public to see what your profession is and some info about your work status, talents, and the services you provide. They send you a friend request that you accept, or they accept yours because they now know who you are and what you do. They are now in your store, they can see who you are, what you do and what you sell/offer, as well as how it relates to them.


You now have the viewer and potential customer right where you want them, piece of cake, right?  All you needed was to get them in your store, since that is where you have all your products, right?  Wait, what?  You do have products in your store to get them to view/buy right?  Huh? You don’t put your book covers on your store shelves because your mother may come in and see them? Isn’t this your business?  Oh, you do show one product, but it’s in the back room where you have to go through many other rooms in order to find it?  You mean to tell me that you have such a large store to display ALL your products for free, yet your shelves are full of images of animals, cartoons, vacations, funny quotes on images, etc.? You "say" you are an author – as in a career profession, but you are not showing it! Facebook is the #2 ranked website in the U.S. and in the world (Google being #1), so you have the LARGEST FREE venue to advertise your work and your products, yet you want to show everyone funny photos instead ?  Do funny photos or pretty landscapes somehow let people know you are an author?  Do those photos sell your books or services?

This is not just referring to Facebook profiles, but ANY and ALL social websites, especially those that have your direct audience. [ Hmmmm, is there another website where you can post a free profile to show/advertise your work, that is targeted to your specific audience and to your profession's industry? ;) Yes, RNC (RomanceNovelCenter.com).] I see so many profiles that are not filled out and/or have only one image of themselves there.  Why?  It takes just minutes to copy-paste your profile from your website, your blog, your Facebook page, your Smashwords, Goodreads or Amazon profile, etc.  Also, post your covers, not just a photo of yourself. A photo of you, and especially with an empty profile, does not sell your books and/or your services.

If you are calling yourself an "author," a “cover designer” etc., which for you is a business profession, show it!  If you want to sell your books, show them!  If you are trying to brand yourself, create a name for yourself and build a fan-base, then show the general public who you are and what you do, the general public is your fan-base, they are your customers!

When I was asked to do a live show on "Indie Authors - Show #20" I was told that I needed a Google Plus account to access the live video feed, which I didn't have, so I had to create one. Once I did, I could have stopped right there just to be able to do the show, but I didn’t. I filled out my entire new profile on there, uploaded videos, links, a long write-up, and the workshops I will be presenting this year and next. Why?  Because that is ANOTHER store for me. EVERY profile is a new store for you... FILL YOUR STORES! ;)