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This is a tricky mistress to use.  I’ve seen many  authors (mostly romance/erotica) use Facebook very successfully.  I’ve also seen many authors get nowhere even when they do the same thing as the successful people.  There’s also a bigger dark side here than other social media sites.  You see a lot more battling for some reason.  It’s strange with Facebook because there’s such a casualness to what people post here that some forget their manners or that other people can see things.  I know that doesn’t create a great pitch for Facebook especially since it’s known for security issues and their ‘pay for advertising’ thing only gets your Author/Book page ‘likes’ and not usually sales.  Still, there are 3 things you can use Facebook for that takes a little more effort than most of the other sites:

Author Page

This can be a key component to your social media network.  Unlike your regular page, this is what you connect your blog to and post about your projects.  You focus on writing here and keep it separate from you personal account, but try to get your friends to help spread the word of your Author Page.  The key to this site is getting ‘likes’ because that’s how people see it.  Personally, I rarely get activity on mine.  I get a few blips whenever I write about my books.  Yet, I’ve seen some authors (mostly romance/erotica) get huge followings and run their Street Teams, Blog Tours, and Cover Reveals through their Author Page.  It helps to make friends with people here and talk shop.

Groups!

Facebook has tons of groups and some of them allow for book promos.  Others are places where authors of the same genre or interest or from every walk of life can discuss their trade.  It might take a little time to find them and you’ll have to put effort into interactions at your own rate.  It is VERY important to know if a group allows for promos or if it’s only for discussions.  You can get banned or reported to FB for doing the wrong thing in the wrong group.

A question here is: How often do you post in these groups?  I used to do a morning and an evening post.  Recently, I’ve been limiting it to an evening post every day and maybe two posts on a Thursday/Friday.  Some people only do it once a week or once every few days.  The problem with these groups is that postings happen very quickly and you’ll get knocked out of the newest 20 within 4-5 minutes.  You could post every hour and become majorly obnoxious, which would do more harm than good.  I’d say once a day and experiment with timing to find what works for you.

One final point with these types of groups and promos is that you shouldn’t make your posts too long.  I use the book blurb of my works from time to time.  Personally, I think you should go for short, clear, exciting, and eye-catching.  If you can show a little humor or throw in foreshadowing then go for it. I use hashtags from time to time even though I don’t know if people use them on Facebook.  Doesn’t hurt.

Sharing!

‘Like’ has become synonymous with Facebook because people hit that damn button for everything.  Yet, there’s a more powerful button on Facebook that authors should try to use and convince others to use.  The ‘SHARE’ button.  It’s right there with ‘like’ and ‘comment’, but it seems to only get used for memes, politics, and anything that even remotely looks like cleavage.  So, if you see an author in a group trying to promote a sale or their new debut and you like the look of it then hit that ‘SHARE’ button.