In the olden days, a snake oil salesmen would stand on a homemade wooden platform in the town center, gather a crowd, and pitch his product. If the product worked, the townspeople would let the guy hang around. If it didn’t work, he took his platform, his product, the people’s money, and ran to the next town.
Today, writers and entrepreneurs still stand on a platform, gather a crowd and pitch their product. But, the platform isn’t made of wood, it’s built of the material of today’s universe, social media.
A Facebook Page is a good place to start to draw traffic to your website/blog and eventually to your product. But posts get lost in the algorithm of Facebook, and NO I am not paying Facebook to show my post to all the people who already LIKED me and obviously wanted to read every single word I write…..or at least every other word.
Have you ever clicked on the Boost Post button?
This is what you get. It will be great when you have something ready for market, like a published a book or a new Etsy store, but for everyday platform building, Facebook provides a free Cool Tool to draw consistent traffic to your page, the ability to schedule posts. We all know Facebook is addicting, give people consistent content worth the addiction.
My goal is to post at least twice daily on my Facebook Author Page. On days I blog, the posts usually relate to the content theme. On days I don’t blog, I provide information or encouragement for other writers.
Like all my Cool Tools, scheduling posts is free and easy to use. Yes, I know Facebook started this a year ago, but at my age, it’s hard to see the Bandwagon, let alone jump on it right away.
Once you drop your text in the box, a little clock pops up. See the bunny nose?
Yes, I used Snipping Tool, how could you tell? Oh, because you read my tutorial and now the online scissors all the time?
Working from left to right, you use the drop down boxes to set day and time, then click Schedule.
Done.
You can view your Activity Log in case you forgot what you scheduled or wanted to make sure you did it correctly.
Advantages to scheduling Facebook posts:
- Can post up to 6 months ahead of time.
- Facebook uses your current time zone, so you don’t have to remember that elementary school lesson.
- You have a consistent FB presence even if your life is inconsistent.
- Increases organization and intention in your writing/business life.
- You can sleep in instead of being on Facebook early in the morning.
Of course, keeping with the whole scheduling idea, tomorrow on my 
Author Page, I’m posting two great articles about Facebook by smart people.
Feel free to drop by and 
and read more about building your platform using Facebook.
Just don’t try to sell any of my LIKERS any snake oil, OK?
uffda.
That would take a bit of the joy out of it for me. I rather agree with sinecostan (above), if what I write is noticed by someone – yay!! but if not, I’ll just keep writing for my own enjoyment and anyone who truly knows me and wants to enjoy what I write. I’m not super techy so… I’ll just blog plain and simple.
Yep, this is definately NOT a tool for someone who is blogging for enjoyment, fellowship, outreach. But, now you can understand a bit more of the pressure authors feel because they HAVE to be marketers as well as writers. Tandis, your blog is perfect for where you are at in life! Love it!
I’ve never been able to get into self-promotion. I realize this is a necessary evil of the publishing world, which is one reason I will never be in the publishing world. “But you have to sell yourself,” the tech-savvy world insists. What pops into my head is a picture of women I’ve seen hanging around on the Strip in Vegas. I suppose self-promotion is the only hope of ever making money in the writing game. This tags me squarely as not-a-professional. I am more a blog-when-I-feel-like-it kind of guy. Thus, I never cease to be amazed when I receive notice that someone has, without being at gunpoint, actually elected of his or her own free will to follow me.
Ultimately, if forced to choose between being anonymous and being published, I will choose anonymous any day of the week. I respect those who feel the need to be noticed, but I exclude myself from their ranks. Perhaps I had a warped childhood or something, but something about people who say “look at me” embarrasses me and makes me want to go hide somewhere.
I tried Facebook for a little over a year and then got out when I realized that the posts that were showing up on my page, many from friends and family, were just making me angry. Close family members making sexist and racist comments pushed me close to going off the deep end. It was unhealthy for me and I am glad that I had the courage to take the off-ramp four years ago. I cannot argue with those who say that I am burying my head in the sand. I cannot control what others say or post, but I came to the realization that I can choose not to see it. My poor wife loves Facebook and spends half her life blocking and unblocking, friending and unfriending people. I just can’t take the drama, and if that means I end up whispering in a well rather than climbing a tree to holler, so be it. I do so enjoy WordPress, where I have much more control over what will assault my eyeballs when I log on.
May your publishing tools bring you blessings and enrichment. For myself, however, that will remain a road not taken.
Thank you so much for your great comment. I appreciated your willingness to share your heart and show the path you’ve taken with your writing. Readers will see both sides, those that are writing for the pure enjoyment of writing and those that feel called to publish, therefore need to market.
You bring up good points about self-promotion and it is something I shied away from for years. What I have learned is that real “promotion” is not putting yourself out there, but offering something to readers. On my FB Page, the posts are rarely about me, I point them to great posts they should read, inspiring quotes from others, books that will help them learn the craft. It’s more of a servant role, sharing what you know, building others up.
I don’t see life as a ladder to success, I see a life well-lived may bring “success” as the Lord guides and leads.
Thanks again for sharing your side today. May you be blessed in your writing life!