Why do you need a Facebook Fan Page?

Many writers know they need to have a presence on Facebook. (I know I keep telling you that often enough.) However, some are really reluctant to set up a Facebook Fan Page. Do you really need a Facebook Fan Page?

Recently Facebook has shortened the name to simply Facebook Page. That may help some of the folks who were afraid they were being too pretentious by setting up their own “fan” page. Some people are now calling it a Like page, since there is a big button at the top that says “Like”.

Facebook is now the second most visited website on the Internet. Google is still the first, but people spend more time on Facebook. It’s a very important site for creating your presence on the Internet.

A Page gives you several advantages over just having a Facebook profile. Here are 7 reasons you need a Facebook Fan Page.

Pages can have an unlimited number of fans.

Profiles are limited to 5000 friends. Once you’ve hit the 5000 friend mark, people are simply told that you are not accepting friend requests and not told the reason. Make sure the number of friends stays under 5000, so you can put them on a waiting list if necessary. Always direct them to your page.

Promotion is allowed and encouraged on your Page.

You can use your Facebook account for promoting on your profile. When you promote on your profile, you can have your account suspended. Many people have had this happen to them. Facebook suspends the account and often doesn’t give any reason other than violation of the terms of service.

Pages were set up for promotional purposes. You are able to promote your name, your book, and your business.

You can bulk email your fans.

You can only send emails to 20 friends at a time. However, you can send one email to all of your fans. This is handy when you are promoting a book signing, virtual book tour, and especially the release of your latest book.

A Page lets you brand your name.

After you have 25 or more fans, you can choose your own %%%domain name%%%. This gives you another opportunity to brand your name on the Internet.

Pages are indexed by the search engines.

Unlike profiles, the search engines your Facebook Pages will show up when people search for you.

People can view Pages without being logged in to Facebook.

Even non-members can see your Page. People must log in at Facebook and be your friend to view your complete profile.

You can set up other administrators to help you manage your Page.

You need to be an administrator of your own page. Don’t let fans control it for you. You have to take active management of your Internet presence. However, you can set up others as administrators on your Page. This lets you assign maintenance tasks to others to free up more writing time for you.

You really to need a Facebook Fan Page as part of your Internet presence. If you don’t know where to start creating your Fan Page, check out this great Facebook Fan Page training.

Write on,

Lynn