Author Tech Tips » Facebook

How to Pick The Right Facebook Page Title

Thomas Umstattd — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:41:52 +0000

Facebook page titles are like a tattoos. They stay with you forever.

Facebook is generally forgiving. They let you change your page if you make a mistake or change your mind. Except for one thing: the title of your fan page. So, this is the most important decision you make on Facebook because there is no going back.

The only way to change your page title is to start a new page and try to get your fans to move from one page to the other. You may have noticed that we had to do this with the Author Tech Tips Facebook page a few weeks back.

Here are some tips so you can avoid our mistake.

What is a Facebook Page Title?

The page title is the first thing people see when they see your page. It is also all they see when someone suggests the page to them.

Tip 1 Keep it timeless

There is a chance that you will have your Facebook page for 20 years. Will it still be cool then? Don’t pick something too trendy. I would recommend picking a fan page that is the title of your book. You can also setup a fan page in your own name.

Tip 2 Keep it short

If your title is to long then people won’t take the time to read it. The general rule of thumb online is that shorter is better.

The exception to this rule is if your title helps explain the page. For example, Claire Culwell’s Facebook page does not just say “Claire Culwell” like I would normally recommend. It says, “Claire’s Story; Abortion Survivor“. The fact that Claire survived an abortion is remarkable and it has caused her page to spread organically. The title makes people want to know more.

The best name would have been Claire Culwell: Abortion Survivor. But now she has over 5,000 fans so changing the name would not be worth the effort. This is why picking the right name at first is so important. Know of a well named Facebook page? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Tip 3 Keep it ad friendly

Several months ago we started a Facebook page called PracticalCourtship.com. The page was meant to go along with the Practical Courtship website. The page got great attention but with one problem. PracticalCourtship.com is to long of a title to fit on a Facebook ad.

Do you see how the title wraps around the ad like that? This is very bad and there is no way to fix this without starting the page over again. Or not placing Facebook ads.

See how much cleaner this is? Make sure your Facebook page title will look good in an ad even if you never expect to advertise on Facebook. You may be surprised down the road and you don’t want to be bound by a bad page title. Know a poorly named title? Let us know in the comments.

Suggestions & Examples

Here are some do’s and don’t of Facebook page titles using the recommendations from above.

Do: Mary DeMuth

Don’t: Mary DeMuth author of Thin Places (to long)

Do: Rick Green

Don’t: Rick Green for Texas Supreme Court (Not timeless. What if he wants to run for something else?)

Do: Author Tech Tips

Don’t: AuthorTechTips.com (does not fit on an ad)

What are some good Facebook titles that you have noticed? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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7 Ways to Integrate Facebook into your Online Platform

Thomas Umstattd — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:15:09 +0000

So your publisher says you need to grow your platform. You need to be able to communicate with and listen to more people in order to promote your book.

Here are 7 great ways that Facebook can help you do that.

1) Add Your Blog to Facebook

Connecting your blog to Facebook is a great way to boost traffic to your blog. I have more doubled blog traffic through effective Facebook integration.

Check out our guide on How to integrate your blog to Facebook.

2) Create a Page for Your Book

You want to start building your Fanpage as soon as possible. Fan pages allow you to send out location specific messages. Are you giving a talk in Dallas? Send an invitation only to your Dallas fans.

Check out our guide: How to Create a Facebook Page in 3 Easy Steps

3) Get a Facebook Shortname

Facebook usernames make it much easier for people to find you on Facebook. It also makes it easier to link to your Facebook profile or page. For instance our shortname is www.facebook.com/AuthorTechTips simple, easy to remember. No random numbers.

You want to get a short name for both you and your page.

To get a shortname visit facebook.com/username

4) Sync Twitter & Facebook’s Status Updates

Connecting Twitter to Facebook can be a big time saver. It will allow you to either post to Facebook or Twitter and your update will automatically go to the other site. This can double your platform with little extra work for you.

Check out our guide for how to connect Twitter to Facebook.

5) Share on Facebook

You want to get into the habit of sharing cool links and videos on Facebook. This will help you build a reputation for sharing cool stuff so that people pay attention when you share links to your own stuff.

Check out our guide on how to share something on Facebook in one click.

6) Add a Link to Your Facebook Page to Your Website

You want to add links to your Facebook pages/profile to your sites around the web.

Here is how to do it:

Grab a Facebook icon.
Add that icon to your website. (ask your webmaster if you need help)
Turn that icon into a link to your Facebook username Facebook.com/YourName

7) Learn to Listen (Most Important!)

Being effective on Facebook, or any online social network, is more about listening than talking. Listening effectively is the key to success. Here are some posts we have to help you:

Facebook.com/AuthorTechTips goes to our Facebook page. It’s easy to share and easy to use.
Scale. Pages handle lots of people better than pages. If you plan on having 100,000 fans you will want a page for sure.

Step #1 Register the Page

To register the page visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and pick a category and a name for your group.

Step #2 Customize the Page

Once you have your page up you need to add a photo and a description etc. This is fairly straight forward. If you get stuck leave a comment below and we will get you unstuck.

Step #3 Suggest the Page to Friends

Once you get your page ready to go click the “suggest to friends” link underneath your page’s image.

Generally, you only want to suggest your page to friends you think would get some benefit from the page. Why would someone join your Facebook group? What benefit is there to them? The benefits of joining the Author Tech Tips page is that you get notified of events in your area and get updates when new tips come out.

What do you think?

Do you dislike pages because they are sometimes called “Fan Pages?”
Did these tips work for you?
Do you have any questions or need any help?

If this was helpful to you would you consider suggesting the Author Tech Tips page to your friends?

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How Connect Your Blog to Facebook

Thomas Umstattd — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:43:58 +0000

So you want to promote your blog on Facebook?

Learn how to update your friends when you have new posts and make it easy for them to spread the word about your blog.

In this post you will learn how to make this happen automatically.

The Hard Way

The hard way to promote your blog on Facebook is not really all that hard. You just have to manually click “share” for each post. If you are not sure how to do that check out our guide to sharing links on Facebook.

The Easy Way

The easy way is actually a bit more work at first. It involves connecting your blog to Facebook. But, once connected everything runs in the background. Automatically. That’s the AuthorTech way… minimum work in the long run.

So here is how to do it:

Step #1 Sign up For NetworkedBlogs

NetworkedBlogs is a Facebook app that connects your blog to Facebook. It will also let you follow other blogs like Author Tech Tips.

Once you visit the NetworkedBlogs app page on Facebook you will need to click “allow” shown above.

Step #2 Pick Popular Blogs to Follow (optional)

Network blogs will now show you a list of popular blogs and suggest that you follow five. You can easily unfollow a blog and you may find one you like. When you are done look for the big next button at the bottom of the page. You won’t find Author Tech Tips featured as a popular blog but you can still follow it.

Step #3 Follow Blogs Your Friends Follow (optional)

NetworkedBlogs will now show you a list of blogs your friends follow. Like in step #2 you don’t need to follow any of these blogs if you don’t want to. When you are done browsing look for this link at the bottom of the page.

Once you click on it you will go to the NetworkedBlogs homepage which is where the real magic happens.

Step #4 Add Your Blog to Facebook

Once at the NetworkedBlogs Homepage you will want to add your blog. It is as easy as clicking on the button shown below.

Once you add your blog you you need to type up your blog’s information.

This is fairly straight forward. Try to pick topics people will search for. This will help boost your blogs visitors.

Fill out all in info underlined in red. You will then get an offer to join Trackle. You probably want to decline this offer. Trackle will email you every day if you accept.

Step #5 Verify Your Blog

Once you add your blog to Facebook you need to prove it is actually your blog.

There are two ways to do this:

You can add a widget to your blog
- Benefit: The advantage to using the widget is that it can help you turn blog visitors into blog subscribers. Not everyone has an RSS Reader but most everyone is on Facebook. You can see what the widget looks like by looking at our sidebar. –>
You can get 10 friends to vouch for you.
- Benefit: Getting your friends to vouch for you is that they will likely become your first 10 blog followers.)

The Author Tech Tips recommendation is to do both. Ask you friends to verify you and then while you are waiting go ahead and add the widget.

Was This Helpful?

If you get stuck leave a comment and we will help you get unstuck.
If it worked leave a comment and let us know. Or better yet rating for Author Tech Tips on Networked Blogs.
Feel free to leave a link to your blog and show off your NetworkedBlogs widget in the comments.

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Is Facebook A Fad?

Thomas Umstattd — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:56:43 +0000

Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo… Are they a passing fad or are they changing everything? If you have not seen this video you must. It will rock your world.

Everytime this video uses the word “product” or “company” just think “book.” It will help you see where the future of book marketing is headed.

Michael Hyatt the CEO of Thomas Nelson wants to delete his Facebook account. He brings up several valid points. Is this the beginning of the end or just the calm before the storm?

The following video has some startling statistics about Facebook and Twitter. I’m curious to hear what you think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What do you think?

Now that you have seen the video what do you think? Do you agree? What did you think about the statistics?

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Author Interview: Mary DeMuth

Thomas Umstattd — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:18:39 +0000

Mary DeMuth is an author, writing coach, and sought after speaker who speaks at writers conferences all over the country.

In this interview she shares how she uses social media (Blogging, Twitter & Facebook) to sell books and connect with readers.

What is your blogging story? When did you start blogging and when/why did you start your other blogs?

I initially started blogging when we moved to France as church planters. I thought it would be a great way to keep in touch with folks back home. I enjoyed it so much, and started creating a following immediately. That was the fall of 2004 with RelevantBlog.

How much traffic do your blogs get?

Combined, about 30,000-50,000 visitors a month.

How did you promote your blog at first? Has that changed now?

It was just my own networks plus our email distribution list that first drove people to my blog. Now I promote primarily by writing comments elsewhere, adding Feedblitz, and advertising through my updates on Twitter and Facebook. I’d say the latter is what drives the most significant traffic these days.

You have a robust online presence (Twitter, Facebook, etc). What role does your blog play in connection with those other sites?

An intrinsic one. I promote my blogs through Twitter. I have three blogs: Wanna Be Published, My Family Secrets, and RelevantBlog. Whenever I post to the blog, I write an intriguing teaser and a link on Twitter. I also promote other people’s blogs so I’m not a me-monster.

Does your blog help you connect to readers or sell more books? If so how?

Yes, absolutely. I’ve met plenty of new readers through social networking. They say it takes about 5-7 touches before a consumer will make a purchase of your product. Blogging, facebooking and twittering provide several touches at once. One time, a guy with my last name bought a novel for his mother, simply because he found me on Twitter (because of our name). So, you just never know!

What would you recommend to hopeful authors who want to start a blog?

Have a purpose for your blog.
Be interesting.
Be consistent in posting. Don’t orphan your fan base by being gung ho a few weeks and then dribbling off to nowhere.
Advertise through your social media networks.
Write inviting posts that aren’t too long.

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How to Sync Your Address Book With Facebook

Thomas Umstattd — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:49:35 +0000

Have you ever got a Facebook group invitation saying something like “I lost my cell phone. Please give me your number.” Or “I just moved here is my new address.” What if there were a way to get Facebook to update your address book automatically. You can and best of all its free.

Plaxo is a tool that can connect your address book with Facebook. But it does a lot more than that. It can also purge duplicate addresses and sync your address book with your iPhone or Blackberry.

Here is how to sync Plaxo with Facebook:

Step #1 Sign Up For Plaxo

Go to Plaxo.com and click “sign up now“. Follow the instructions. It’s pretty straight forward.

Step #2 Sync Plaxo & Facebook

You can do this by going to settings -> Facebook or click here.

Step #3 Connect Plaxo With Your Address Book

The true magic comes when you connect Plaxo with your address book. Whether you use Mac’s address book, Yahoo, or Outlook, Plaxo can keep your address book up to date automatically. To sync the address books click here and then click “add sync point” at the bottom of the screen.

Other cool things Plaxo can do:

Purge your address book from duplicate entries.
Keep your address book up to date. When you connect with someone, Plaxo will keep both of your contacts for each other up to date.
Synchronizing your address books. Do you have more than one computer? Plaxo can keep all those computer adress books synced. It even works with the iPhone, Palm and BlackBerry.
Blog re-syndication: Plaxo can re-syndicate your blog and podcast which is great for search engine rankings and helping grow traffic.

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How to Get Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status

Thomas Umstattd — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:45:18 +0000

In this step-by-step guide you will learn how to sync Twitter and Facebook. This will save you a ton of time by allowing you to update only one site and stay current on both sites.

In this guide we assume you are already on both Twitter and Facebook.

Big Picture

To get Twitter to update Facebook, you need to setup Facebook to grab your most recent Tweets. Once you get that setup, Facebook and Twitter will update each other automatically. Facebook will not grab @replies, only regular tweets.

Step #1

Visit the Twitter app page on Facebook, or search for Twitter in Facebook, click on the app, and then click on “go to this application.”

Step #2 Click Allow

Clicking allow will let Facebook update Twitter.

Step #3 Twitter Username & Password

Facebook" src="http://www.authortechtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/screen-capture-2.png" alt="Step 2 Twitter -> Facebook" width="600" height="300" />

Type your TWITTER username and password here. If you type your Facebook login info you will get a fail page.

Step #4 Test

Congratulations now when you update Facebook it will also update twitter.

You should now be able to see Tweets in Facebook. Go ahead and type what you are doing to test that everything is working. You get bonus points if you link to this post when you do it.

Step #5 Allow Twitter to Update Your Facebook Status

You are not done yet. Your tweets won’t update Facebook yet. You need to find the following button on the top right side of the page.

Click it the button. It won’t bite I promise :-)

Step #6 Click Allow Again

Facebook likes to get your permission for stuff.

Once you click allow you should be good to go.

Step #7 Test Again

Now you want to go to www.twitter.com and post a tweet and see if it updates Facebook. If it does then you are good to go. If it doesn’t leave a comment and let us know what went wrong.

Step #8 Edit Your Settings (optional)

Chances are the default settings are what you want. But in case they are not, Facebook has conveniently hidden the setting page so that you need to read this guide to find it. To edit your twitter settings:

Visit the facebook app settings page.
Click Edit settings next to Twitter
Select the options you want and then click okay.

This is what the twitter settings look like in Facebook.

That’s it! Did this work for you? Let us know by leaving a comment.

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