TGIF
I'm trying to make a decision and looking to you all for input and advice.
A few years back I set up a personal Facebook page. My motivation was simple - that's where my sons were posting pictures of my grandkids. I used my whole name, Linda Masterson Leszczuk, so friends from high school could find me.
Next I started hearing/reading about social media for authors - we needed an "author" Facebook page, separate from our personal pages. At the name I was still vacilating about an author name - should I go with my own or something a little easier to spell/pronounce/remember? So I set up a second FB account under Linda Leszczuk and created a professional/author page with "aka LD Masterson" in the title.
That worked fine for a while. I had Friends on my personal page and was getting Likes on my author page and there was a fair amount of overlap on the two pages. Then I goofed up somehow and FB spun off a personal page under the Linda Leszczuk account. So now I have a personal page as Linda Masterson Leszczuk, which I use; a personal page as Linda Leszczuk, which I don't use but keeping getting friend requests on; and a professional page as Linda Leszczuk aka LD Masterson, which I've sort of given up on while I decide what to do.
Since I've made the move to LD Masterson for all things author related, I think my best option here is to close the Linda Leszczuk account and open one as LD Masterson.
Now here's my question: Should the new page be a personal page with "Friends" or a professional page with "Likes"? I have a lot of authors as friends on my LML personal page and their pages seem to be pretty evenly divided between the two types.
If you're a writer (pubbed or not-yet-pubbed), do you have a Facebook page? Is it a personal or a professional page? Why did you choose that one (pros and cons)? If you're not a writer, do you visit writers' Facebook pages? Do you like visiting one kind of page over the other? Why?
I'd really appreciate your input on this. You know what a pain setting up anything in Facebook can be. I'd like to get it right this time.
Have a great weekend.
Funny for the Day:
My Living Will -
Last night, my kids stopped by and were sitting in the living room when I said to them, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."
They got up, unplugged the Computer, and threw out my beer.
They are SO on my poopee list ...
25 comments:
The funny is good!
I'm not even on Facebook, so sorry, can't help you there.
I'm not on FB either (me and alex are ahead of the curve).
And my god that was actually a funny joke!
mood
Moody Writing
Linda, I have a personal page but chose not to do a Fan page. There's too much overlap and I don't like the idea of hounding people to "Like" my page. When (or if) I ever hit 5000 FB friends, I'll deal with creating a fan page then.
P.S. Thanks also for signing up for my author newsletter! xo
I only have a personal page. I RARELY like a fan page (unless I'm actually a fan). Somehow that seems all one-sided and I'm about give and take, you know?
I'm hoping that if I should EVER reach 5000 "friends", by then Facebook would have changed their rules to allow more. And like Liz says, I'll deal with it then.
This sounds ridiculous, but I have THREE Facebook pages: one personal; one for my blog where I interact and friend people; and a fan page. It's hard to keep up with them all, so it's really your decision - would you be able to keep up? How much time would you be willing to dedicate to your FB page(s)?
I used to have a 'group' for my YA series, but they did away with groups. I still have my personal account but I've not bothered to set up a professional account yet.
Alex - Glad you like the funny.
Mood - Are you trying to tell me some of my jokes aren't funny?
Liz - I'm not worried about the 5000 friends limit. The only reason I want a second page is to have something in both names. But I agree with not wanting to bother people about Liking me.
And you're welcome.
Stacy - Good point. I've traded Likes with other authors but it does feel a little artificial.
Julie - Absolutely do not want three. I mentioned earlier, I wouldn't even care about having two but I want something out there for people who may only know me as LD Masterson and would never find me as Leszczuk.
How do you keep up with three?
Diane - I'm a bit confused about "they did away with groups". What kind of groups are you referring to? I'm in a couple and they're still very active.
I have sort of the same dilemma, except that I use one pen name (C.A. Masterson) for one FB page to friend other writers, and a fan page under Cate Masters for writer-type news, etc. I never post anything truly personal, and no photos except of landscapes or my dog.
Others create FB pages for their characters or books, but that seems redundant - and too much work!
First off, I love the funny - and nobody better touch my beer :)
Now to business. As if I know what I'm doing - LOL. I don't.
I have a friend who is a real techie web person. She loves social media. She set up my FB profile (friends) and said I absolutely needed an author page, too (likes). I've only been on FB for a little over a year.
My intent was to have the personal one for friends and family ONLY. And the page for writers and readers.
Whell. That didn't work.
I can't LIKE or FRIEND anyone from my author page. Boo-Hiss.
So I have a mix of everyone everywhere. Every once in a while I hit people up to please like my page. I don't like doing it, but if I don't it stagnates.
I try to post something cute, funny, or inspiring to each one every day M-F. Sometimes I miss a day or two. Things on my LIKE page will maybe be a little more professional and/or current book related than things on my FRIEND profile.
Or not :)
Basically, I have a mess.
Good luck with yours :)
Cate - My LML personal page is a mishmosh of everything. Lots of family stuff but I have writer friends on there, too. I think I still want a page in each name but I'm leaning away from the fan page. Heck, I'm not even published yet. I want friends more than fans.
Carol - I thought it was hysterical and I don't even drink beer. *wrinkles nose*
You've hit on one of my concerns about a fan page. I'd like both pages to be friendly and personal but with a little more writing focus on the author one and less 'cute thing one of my grandkids did'.
Thanks.
Loved today's funny. And actually got to love those kids :-)
As for FB, I have my personal page for Angela Brown and I have the Partners in ParanormYA page that I share with Gwen. The PIP page was more or less needed so she and I could have a common FB page since we're doing the marketing thing together. However, I've chosen not to go with an author page for the moment. Anybody that I'd want liking my author page is already on my personal page and I treat my FB page with as much professionalism as possible so that it's a friendly page at any time.
I've never been fond of pages. For some reason, I rarely see updates on my timeline for author pages. I don't know why that is, but I've heard Facebook is moving toward charging people if they want all their fans to see their updates.
As Carol mentioned, you can't friend anyone else if you have a page. You are at the mercy of whoever likes you.
I guess it depends on how you want to use your page. If it's strictly for book selling you might be happy with it, but if it's true about what FB is doing, it might be self-defeating if you created it to reach a wider audience.
I've been thinking about this lately. Like you, I set up my personal page for family - all our kids and a lot of our grandkids are on it. I then found a lot of RVing (we live/travel in a 41' 5th wheel trailer) friends as well as motorcycle friends (we both ride).
Fast forward from 2009 to 2012 and I'm starting fiction writing. I created my fan page and thought I was set. Then I started friending and being friended by other writers. I like being able to see their posts and like/share things (both to my personal page and my writing page).
So what's the issue? More and more I worry about writing friends dealing with all my personal posts. So I've been thinking about setting up another personal page, just for writing and moving my writing friends over there. Crazy, huh?
I have two pages, one more personal than the other. They are both in my name, though, so it does get confusing. LOL
I have not randomly liked author pages, nor have I done a lot of inviting. That whole process seems to work best if it just happens. For instance, I had an author Friend me on my page, so I went to check out his books and page. I liked what I saw, so I friended back. Then later I noticed that he put up a status update with a mention of one of my books.
So my point is that slow and steady works as opposed to the sometimes frantic "like me" posts that we might get in a group we belong to. Which doesn't mean that I don't help out authors who ask for it on those loops, but I have to at least honestly like what they write.
My advice, after writing this epistle LOL, is to have one professional page and one personal.
And I loved the joke. Keep your hands off my beer.
Angela - Makes sense. Thanks.
Maria - I hadn't heard about FB charging for that. Not good at all.
Donna - Not crazy at all. That's sort of what I'm looking at. I like the "friendliness" of a regular personal page but I need something for LD Masterson that's separate from Linda Leszczuk.
Maryann - I don't think I'd do two personal pages if they weren't going to be in separate names. Too confusing for my, much less whoever "Friends" me.
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