Juliana Haygert

You are here: Home / Promoting / To Facebook or not to Facebook?
Categories: Promoting, Social Media

To Facebook or not to Facebook?

I caved in and created a Facebook Fan Page for me. Actually, I had promised myself I would do it once I signed a book contract. Since I already signed a contract, I did what I said I would do.

Honestly, so far I have seen no advantage to this, but there it is. I’m still learning how to use the Fan Page, since it’s a bit different than the personal profile.

Shameless self-promotion time: I would appreciate a few “likes” ;)

I guess that the Facebook Fan Page will become more useful once I have more news about my novels? Not sure.

Do you guys have a Facebook Fan Page? Do you like it? How do you use it?

***

I also have a personal profile on Facebook (with my married name), from where I like other authors/writers Fan pages and where only add real-life friends. That profile was created way before I decided to pursue this career of writer and author and I have tons of photos from me and my real-life friends there, from when we were babies to today … I don’t think my real-life friends wouldw ant the whole internet being able to see those photos.

I say this because I had a few authors/writers/readers who I don’t know in real-life add me as a friend through my personal profile. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing personal, but I won’t add you there. I’ll like your fan page, yes, but I won’t befriend you with my Facebook personal profile. Only if you become a real-life friend too, then the game changes.

I love all my online friends and the writing community, I love chatting and tweeting and blog commenting, but there are parts of my life that will remain private to me and my family and my close friends, and my personal profile on Facebook is one of them.

 

Cheers,

Comments

  1. I think I’ve pretty much decided that if there’s anything about my life and my family I don’t want online, I won’t post it online anywhere. I have a Facebook page, but I rarely visit it. In fact, my status on Facebook points people to my blog and Twitter. That (oh, and Goodreads) is my online presence. This is only partly out of a sense of privacy. It’s more because I have no need for more than a couple of online outlets. Facebook really doesn’t serve a purpose that’s not already covered by my blog, Twitter, and email. I maintain the FB account for others for whom that’s their primary means of communication–it keeps me informed… when it crosses my mind to check it! Otherwise it’s all I can do to keep up with everything else.

    That’s my take on Facebook, anyway. I hope you find it useful, Juliana! :)

  4. I *completely* agree with you. My personal facebook profile is a way for me to keep in touch with real-life friends, not a place for me to promote my writing, not a professional space. The fact that it’s not professional doesn’t mean there’s inappropriate stuff there (Seriously, I’m the most tame person ever.)–it just means that it’s not packaged and designed to market my writing. I don’t have a fan-page yet–I think the idea of waiting for a book contract is a good one–but I did like yours! Best of luck with it!

  5. Oh my flippin’… what!?!?! How did I NOT KNOW you got a contract!!! I’m a horrible, horrible person. I must have been… I don’t know, under a rock. Congrats girl!!!

    I’m gonna start a fan page too I think… I’ll learn from you :)

  6. Hey!!! Headed over to your page now. My page hasn’t done much, but it seems like people are starting to interact over there :)

  7. Facebook is such a tricky thing. I think you’re wise to keep these two things separate right now until some of your writer friends become friends in real life. Your reasons are totally valid too. I closed my original FB page awhile back out of frustration with the pseudo friends on there, but recently reopened it. Right now I’m seriously restricting who I accept friend requests from: if you’re not family and I don’t actually talk to you on a regular basis, then we’re not going to be FB friends. It sounds harsh, but you have to draw the line somewhere, right?