Why You Need a Facebook Page

2012/July by Marji Laine 1 Comment

I met a few folks today who don’t do Facebook. I can totally understand their avoidance since they’ve never tried it out. But I’m so glad to have the connections that Facebook provides for me. School friends, former neighbors, folks I used to know from my old church. For me, it gives connections to folks with whom I no longer get to personally interact.

It also keeps me up-to-date with my family that are in various places, helps me build relationships with new acquantances, and allows me to support other businesses and author friends.

When I began my new writing career, my needs changed. I needed to promote my new focus, my stories, and my new pen name.

Unfortunately, I had few mentors when I first started. The advice I did get included always using my pen name in every URL and web title. Good advice, and logical. It stems from the fact that when people do buy my books, they will know my name. It’s my website, my blog, my twitter ID. But it wasn’t my Facebook profile.

No problem. I’d just make a new profile for my new name. Except that duplicate profiles aren’t allowed in Facebook. One person, one profile. And Facebook can actually ban people who don’t follow the rule. Okay that’s a problem.

Then I learned about pages. 🙂 What a dream. I set one up but left it unpublished for months because I thought I needed something to sell before I could use it. Balderdash.

Now I know better and have linked my blog to it, posting both announcements and full articles at a tab. I usually share an idea there a couple of times a day. Usually writing related, I post comments about things I’ve read or experiences I’ve had as they relate to my stories or writing in general, too. I share pictures of my critique buds and their books along with writing inspiration. And I follow a lot of other writing buds using my page voice to hopefully show up on their feeds as well.

Essentially, my profile gets posts of a personal nature. Check-ins, family items, random inspiration or goofiness. I send birthday wishes and share snatches of songs or sermons that hit me just right.

I think both are essential. I don’t have a problem being myself on my page, even if I’m not always incredibly professional. But I do want to keep my profile limited to folks I feel like I know. Separating the two allows me to make my page public while keeping my profile circled around friends and family only.