50+ Writer Uses for Facebook

Facebook has done a great job of attracting the masses including those who don’t do much social networking. For goodness sakes, my mother uses Facebook! That gives you a hint of Facebook’s enormous reach, one that you should capitalize on as a writer.
Whether you’re a published author or freelance writer, Facebook offers many opportunities to keep your name out there and connect you with prospective clients, agents, publishers and editors.
If you worry about how much you share online, don’t. If you need tips on this, read How Much Should You Reveal About Yourself Online at Web Worker Daily. Your time on Facebook counts as marketing. Yes, even when you play games. If you score high, your name shows up in the high scores list — which others will notice and remember you.

Now for the tips of what you can do with Facebook…

1. Read the Facebook rules.
2. Create a complete profile. Mention that you’re a writer so it appears in your “Education and Work” section of your profile and link to your web site and portfolio.
3. Set up your notifications. Review email notifications so you don’t miss out on any Facebook action. Facebook can let you know when someone wants to connect, leaves a comment on your wall, leaves a comment on another person’s wall where you also left a comment, etc. You can also receive notifications from Pages and Groups. (Settings are for all Pages and all Groups, rather than per Page or Group.) Some are too active, so you can set the notification to be once a week instead of daily.
4. Add applications to enhance your profile. NetworkedBlogs, for example, feeds your blog entries into your Facebook account. Selective Twitter Status lets you control which tweets you want on your Facebook updates. Remember many people who use Facebook don’t know anything about Twitter and they don’t care to. If you Twitter regularly, you can select which tweets show up in facebook by adding “#fb” to your Tweet.
5. Create a Facebook page related to your platform. I wish Facebook would drop the “fan” references because the connotation bothers many of us. But when you create a page focused on your platform’s topic such as “Technical Writing,” it’s less annoying than “Become a fan of Meryl K. Evans.” (That’s what shows up when you invite someone to join the page. Ick.)
6. Become a fan of writing-related Facebook pages. Search for pages with “writing” and other related keywords. Note that “Groups” and “Pages” are two different things.
7. Become a fan of pages related to your platform and topic.
8. Join writing-related groups. Facebook pages and groups are not the same thing. Search groups for “writing” and similar keywords.  Facebook explains, “Groups are meant to foster group discussion around a particular topic area while Pages allow entities such as public figures and organizations to broadcast information to their fans. Only the authorized representative of the entity can run a Page.”
9. Join groups related to your platform and topic.
10. Join Networks. These tend to connect colleges, schools and workplaces. These are limited and tend to require an email address for the network. For example, my local school district has a network. To join, you need to have an email address with the school district’s domain like john.doe@school.edu.
11. Post requests for experts and sources for a story.
12. Link to your stuff. This includes blog entries, stories, videos, newsletters, podcasts and more. Add a brief description about the story from the readers’ perspective. In other words, tell them what they gain from checking it out.
13. Share an interesting fact related to the topic you cover. Remember the platform!
14. Reply to other people’s status updates. This helps with networking and keeping your name out there. It also makes you accessible. Even just clicking “Like” instead of “Comment” is fine.
15. Link to interesting articles, comics and information related to your topic. That’s right — link to stuff to you didn’t write.
16. Ask for help. Yes, it’s OK to ask for help for things not related to a story. It builds relationships. When my husband got laid off, I mentioned I was helping him find a job. People responded with connections and useful resources.
17. Find guest bloggers.
18. Advertise your services. Facebook has targeted advertising.
19. Help others without expecting anything in return.
20. Discuss books. A friend asked for book recommendations and many of us swooped in with suggestions.
21. Discuss publishers.
22. Discuss agents and agencies.
23. Discuss self-publishing and digital publishing.
24. Discuss copyrights and other legal issues.
25. Discuss the business side of writing.
26. Discuss reputable and not so reputable sites.
27. Discuss grammar usage and language.
28. Discuss writer organizations.
29. Discuss the blurring lines between work and personal lives.
30. Stay connected. When I had surgery to repair a torn ligament in my hand, I couldn’t type much. I stayed connected through status updates. They don’t require much typing.
31. Tag people. If you mention someone in a note, video or a photo, tag ’em. Connections, baby!
32. Report news. Your own or breaking news.
33. Visit connections’ sites and blogs. Facebook provides a good reminder. You see someone’s update and think, “Oh, yeah! I need to visit the web site.”
34. Post urgent queries. Twitter is also good for this, too. Again, not everyone is sold on Twitter.
35. Connect with other writers. We support each other. We meet on Facebook and other social networks for a friendly chat to fill the void.
36. Announce conference plans. This way you can try to set up meetings with others who will be there or live in the city where the conference occurs. Some people worry that posting this is an invitation to thieves. If you control who can see your content with Facebook’s privacy options, strangers won’t see this. Besides, you may not live alone.
37. Receive feedback on writing. Share your writings and people might respond with suggestions on how to make strengthen your piece.
38. Connect on other social networks. Mention your blog, social network IDs, etc. so you can connect with people outside of Facebook.
39. Search for gigs. You can create a new list titled “Gigs” or whatever and add contacts who provide job listings to this list.
40. Find local writers. It’s an opportunity to meet and find out about local writing-related events.
41. Find speakers for local events.
42. Ask about other locations. Planning to attend an event or researching a city for a story? Find people who live and breathe that locale for hot spots, secret places and more.
43. Look for local events. This could be under groups, pages or somewhere on Facebook.
44. Discover inspirational quotes.
45. Have fun! You deserve a break.
46. Play games. I love Bejeweled Blitz (BB) and Word Challenge. Beware, BB is addicting.
47. Post photos. Share your photos from conferences or places and things related a story you wrote.
48. Reach goals. Post your goals in your status updates to pressure yourself to meet them.
49. Kick start your day. Checking in Facebook boosts some folks.
50. Refresh your day. Feeling sluggish? Visit Facebook for a pick me up.

What else can you do with Facebook?
You might also like 40+ Writer Uses for LinkedIn, 50+ writer uses for Twitter and the other Twitter articles.