Social Media Management: Facebook

These last four weeks, I’ve run the majority of my publisher’s social media pages. At first, I spent 10+ hours a day designing posts, responding to comments, and researching different areas to improve our reach.

The most time consuming part? Redesigning all headers and profile images. I’m a big believer in an organization’s main page setting the tone regardless of how great their posts are.

My posts varied. Some days I focused on themes: genres, age categories, sales. Others, I created promotional images or shared ones authors passed on to me. There was some hashtag play, and I discovered how frustrating it can be to get 200+% up one week and negative the next. One good day switches the site’s analytics, and when you’re working for someone else, you need to be able to explain any drops even if a single impossibly amazing day causes it.

Summary:

1. New Releases jump reach / interest (because newly published authors put in more effort)
2. Sharing posts (on pages, in groups, etc) will not increase reach 100% of the time
3. If the owner connects FB and Twitter, make sure the first 140 characters transfer well. It’s very likely that if they did this, they won’t undo it regardless of how the two sites actually require different formats for overall success. It makes it easier for them, so adapt and work with it.
4. Without spamming the page, you can’t get 800+ books promoted in 28 days. Even if you kept it to authors (~300), 10 posts per day is fine. No repeating posts means not much sticks. There’s a reason you see the same ad over and over on YouTube or TV.

If you’re an author, I’d suggest taking a course or interning in marketing. Many new authors have unrealistic expectations. You – new author – have one book to market. The publisher has hundreds if not thousands. Small presses generally don’t have someone on staff to do the job. Even if they do, it’s maybe one person. Don’t expect more of that one person than you do of yourself. Promote your book. Design promos. Your publisher will thank you. Your sales will thank you.
Good Luck.