Gavin Bennett's Blog: Join Facebook: Day 5 of the 2015 October Platform Challenge

After years of running various challenges, I’ve learned one thing: The weekend is a common place for folks to get distracted and lose track of tasks. If you find yourself in this boat, no problem. Get caught up on Monday. The weekend was focused on blogs and websites.

Join Facebook

For today’s platform-building task, join Facebook. If you have an account already, great! Read some of my tips below on how to optimize your Facebook account. If you don’t already have an account, go to Facebook.com, sign up (it’s free), and complete your profile.

Once you’ve accomplished this, check back here for tips below on how to optimize your Facebook account. You’ll start out ahead of the curve.

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Social Media for Writers

Find Success With Social Media!

Do you want to build a following and sell more books? Learn how in the 60-minute Social Media for Writers webinar, led by social media gurus Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine.

Beginning with set up and ending with best practices and online etiquette, writers will learn:

A friendly, accessible approach to mastering the various social media platforms
Strategies for drawing the attention of prospective readers
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How to create an effective social media persona
And more!

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Tips for Optimizing Facebook

There are any number of things a writer can do to optimize Facebook, and there are creative uses introduced all the time. That said, there are some proven principles that will immediately set you ahead of the average user.

Here are some tips for optimizing Facebook:

Complete your profile (completely). Include your byline name, your education, your interests, etc., especially as it relates to your writing platform.
Set your profile to public. If you want to grow your audience, you need to make it easy for folks to find you. And since you’ll have a public profile, remember that it IS, indeed, public. Don’t do or say anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable doing in front of a room packed with a thousand or more people.
Include a profile image of you. Not your pet. Or your child (or grandchildren). Or an animated character. Or whatever. The image should be of you for a couple reasons: One, it makes it easier for people hunting for you to know that they’ve got the right person. Two, it looks more professional.
Post regularly. That may be once a day–or once every couple days. Try to at least post or share something once a week, because that’s a good way to let people know that you’re actively using your account. Some people “stalk” or “people watch” without posting anything, but the average user just considers such accounts “abandoned.” Plus, it’s hard to make connections and/or grow your audience if you’re not sharing.

Connect with friends and family, sure, but also look to connect with other writers and readers. Follow publishers and publications in which you’d like to be published. And search for groups that appeal to your target audience.

By the way, I can be found on Facebook at http://facebook.com/robertleebrewer.

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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community, which includes editing Writer’s Market and Poet’s Market. He regularly blogs at the Poetic Asides blog and writes a poetry column for Writer’s Digest magazine. He also leads online education, speaks on writing and publishing at events around the country, and does other fun writing-related stuff.