Two Facebook Features Every Author Should Be Using

The number of titles available on Amazon has increased at an unfathomable rate. For example, when I first published through McGraw-Hill in 2008, there were two million books on Amazon. Kindle wasn't a contender at the time, so this number represented paperback and hardcovers. Today, there are over 24 million paperbacks, over 8.5 million hardcovers, and almost 1.3 million Kindle titles. At the time of writing this post: in the last 30 days, 104,606 new Kindle titles were released. That's a lot of authors.

With the need to make their book stand out against tens of millions of others, an author needs every tool in their toolbox. So, image my surprise when many of them weren't taking advantage of two critical Facebook features.

Works At

I continued to be amazed by the number of times I went to a Facebook friend's "About" section on their timeline only to discover they didn't have their Facebook author fan page linked as their "Works At." Worse yet, many times it simply gave the generic term of "Writer at Author" and when clicked, it went through to a generic "Author" page.

I realized rather quickly that too any authors simply didn't know about the Facebook feature that allows them to link their fan page as their "Works At" on their personal profile. When I posted both on my timeline and in one of my writing groups asking if authors knew about this option, the responses in the comments confirmed that many of my friends and fellow writers hadn't known about this option, and they quickly went and added it.

Michelle Miles, a romance author of A Knight to Remember: 3 (Realm of Honor), and well over a dozen other novels, was one of those authors who took the tip to heart and quickly updated her "Works At" to lead her friends to her fan page. Miles is the perfect example of the point I was making. She has nearly 3,000 personal Facebook friends and just over 800 Likes on her author fan page (rather than the other way around). Now that her "Works At" reads "Michelle Miles, Romance Author," rather than "Author," the expectation is to drive those few thousand friends who haven't already Liked her fan page over to her page as new Likes.


I'm focusing on authors here because they are the ones I interact with the most on Facebook. However, any self-employed individual who has a Facebook fan page should consider doing this.

It's easy to update the "Works At" section. Simply follow these steps to update your profile:

• In the "About" section, click on Edit
• In the box that says, "Where have you worked?" start typing the name of your fan page.
• Click on it when it pops up as an option.
• Be sure to also remove any titles that click through to a generic page.
It's that simple.

Cover Photos


While we are on the subject of fan pages, I should point out that one of the features Michelle Miles was already taking advantage of was optimizing her cover photo. While Miles has over a dozen books in publication, her fan page's cover photo strictly features her Realm of Honor series. Had she used more, let alone all 15 book covers, she would have overwhelmed visitors with visual overload. Reducing it to the Realm of Honor series attracts readers to that series who will likely go on to find and read her other books as well.

For best results, your cover photo should be sized at 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. Any smaller and the image will be stretched. Any larger and part of the image will be hidden. Your cover photo essentially works as a billboard for your books (or service/product). As a professional author, your cover photo should be professional in design and branding.


Author and public speaker, Valerie Ramsey, utilizes her cover photo with images of her book cover and two of her modeling images with a few keywords laid in to describe her. In this cover photo, her brand is represented and visitors instantly establish a feel for who she is when they visit her fan page.



All photographers should be utilizing both of these Facebook features as well. One example is my own Heather Hummel Photography fan page, which has this image as my cover photo. The four images used in the cover photo showcase a sample of my work that is represented by Agora Gallery in New York City. I intentionally chose four images that shows both the diversity of my subjects as well as the continuity.

These are two simple features that should be used by every author, public, speaker, photographer, and anyone else with a business they are promoting. If you aren't sure how to create a cover photo and have a limited budget, go on www.Fiverr.com and hire someone. It's not that difficult with the right tools, and as an author, you already have the graphics -- your book cover and author photo.

Note: Speaking of author photos, be sure to read my article on the Relevance of a Professional Author Photo.

Follow Heather Hummel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HeatherHummel
This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post. 

Facebook's New Timeline and Why I Love It!

As of December 22nd, everyone's Facebook page will look a lot like a blog. It's the new Timeline layout and it's quite a big change compared to the last round we endured.

My Reaction
I will say right off that I LOVE the new layout. The "Cover" image at the top and the scrolling Timeline is much like the banner images and blog posts we see on people's blogs. As a photographer, I'm especially excited about this new design. As a writer, the new layout also comes in quite handy for promotional purposes.

So many people use Facebook for posting images and videos. I've been on people's walls where that's all they have - shared images and videos from other people's walls. There are days when it seems that the News Feed is filled with them. This new layout is conducive to a very visual environment, which is why I think it works so well. Posts are now side-by-side one another, unless you make a certain post a Highlighted one (see below), much like a column in a newspaper or a magazine. If you want to see a great example, check out Ann Curry's.

Here are my three top fav features for the new Timeline.

Cool Features: 

Cover Image
The new cover image, as I said above, is much like a banner picture. SO much better than the 5 thumbnails across the top that were there before and that we had no control over. With the new banner size image, there are limitless possibilities. As you can see with mine, I PhotoShopped in three pictures and added text in the upper left corner to my website...it's subtle. When visitors click on the image, I've added a short bio and a link to my website. This is just one way authors, photographers, and many other people can utilize the new features to their advantage. By the way, the perfect dimensions for a cover photo are 850x315 pixels. If your image is that size, there will be no cropping or adjusting it. Remember that your profile picture will take up a portion of the bottom left corner, too.

 

This image is the Cover for my photography buddy, Marcel Pepin. He and I have been chatting quite a bit about the advantages of a landscaped image at the top of your page and all the different things you can do with it. From making it a collage of pictures as I did (easy to do in a program like Photoshop), to including a directional link in your photo description as both Marcel and I have done, there can be subtle and even not-so-subtle uses for the banner image. Choosing your image is a personal statement, and we all know a picture says a thousand words...sometimes even more.

Life Events
I chose to update and publish my own page before the December 22nd deadline so that I'd have time to be sure the posts from 2009 that I didn't want to be reminded of were deleted. The new Timeline goes back to the beginning of your Facebook time...including highlighted posts. You can add your own "Life Events" to years going back to when you were born. Most people might add their wedding day, when they had their children, etc. but there are great possibilities for authors, too. For example, I added when both WHISPERS FROM THE HEART and WRITE FROM THE HEART were published to my Life Events (as "Other"). One thing I noticed is that the default for Life Events seemed to be "Public" so I changed mine to "Friends."

Highlight Feature
One feature I really like is the "Highlight" feature. The "Highlight" feature is the Star next to the Edit (pencil) icon in the upper right corner of a post. When you click on the Star, it makes the post spread across both sides of the Timeline - looks cool for pictures and photo albums.

Fewer Ads
Another thing I noticed that's a big plus, is that with the Timeline layout, you actually have a Timeline bar on the right side of the screen - that's where ads use to be! So, now there are fewer ads on the right.

Birthday Wishes
We all love getting Birthday Wishes, but with the new Timeline, the hundreds or thousands of Birthday Wishes you get will now be contained in one Timeline box that lets you scroll through to read them. No more will all those posts dominate your entire page!

When people start posting Happy Birthday Wishes on your wall, Facebook's Timeline bulks them all together into one Timeline box. You'll get to see the first several, and can scroll through them until you get a notice to view additional comments...As you click on, for example "78 Additional Comments" (or close to that!), it will display the next bunch - you'll have to scroll down within that box until you reach yet another notice to click to view more additional comments (however many that may be). Keep clicking and scrolling through until you eventually hit the end of all your wishes. Note that you will see the gray bar on the right side of the box (within the window) and it will scroll down as you go through the list of comments until you reach the end.
Happy Birthday!


My Christmas Wish
My only wish for Facebook is that they do the same type of layout for Fan Pages, which they seem to never change.

Ready to change your Facebook layout? Click Here to learn how.


*****
Heather Hummel is a celebrity ghostwriter and an award-winning, best-selling author. Her published works include:

Journals from the Heart Series:
Whispers from the Heart (2011)
Write from the Heart (2011)
Nonfiction
GO BIKE & Other Signs from the Universe (2011)
Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw-Hill, 2008),
 Essays:
Messages of Hope and Healing ( Sunpiper Media, 2006)
Blue Ridge Anthology (Cedar Creek, 2007) with David Baldacci and Rita Mae Brown
Awards:
2009 Mature Media Awards, Merit Award
2009 New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention

Visit Heather’s website at http://www.heatherhummel.net/
Follow Heather on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/HeatherHummel
"Like" Heather's Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/HeatherHummelFanPage

Visit Marcel's Photography at RedBubble