If you have read some of my other articles, you know that I am a believer in the importance of using Facebook to attract fans, particularly when you are early in your platform-building program. But how do you make that successful? Here are my 5 most important requirements:
1. Great content – If you don’t have great content, none of the rest matters. Not only does your content have to be compelling, it must be compelling in only a short excerpt. You only have a couple of paragraphs to impress someone.
2. Consistency – You must be consistent so that your fans can count on you and who you are. As my friend Jonathan Merritt has said “Set expectations, then meet those expectations.” Consistency builds trust, engagement, relationship, and authenticity, which in turn lead to loyalty and book sales!
3. Strategically select your format types – You want so use a mix of book excerpts, new thoughts, memes, videos, etc. We have consistently found that memes (an image with a brief quote) are the most sharable format.
4. Advertising – As everyone knows, social media has become very “noisy.” Since everyone is on Facebook, everyone posts on Facebook! Without advertising, your fans will see only a small percentage of your posts.
5. Engagement – The earlier you are in platform building, the more important this is. My friend Rachel Held Evans used engagement (along with her great content!) to build an online following that has led to several great book deals.
In subsequent articles I will go into each of these areas in greater detail – so stay tuned!
