Why Facebook is the Wrong Place to Start as a Writer

When asking other writers for advice where to start building an online presence a lot of them will suggest Facebook. But if you are completely new to social media and don’t own a personal profile on Facebook it is the wrong place to start, you might consider starting on Twitter instead.

Pros and Cons of Facebook

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If you are not familiar with the mechanic of Facebook it was created with the purpose to stay connected with real live friends (and probably stalking your crush without them knowing…). Over the years brands have discovered Facebook which changed the personal feel of it to just another platform where users are flooded with ads and “useless” content. The reputation of Facebook also definitely nose-dived after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and it is therefore no longer considered a trusted brand or company.

But there are still some pros of Facebook for experienced users:

1. You are already familiar with the platform and know how to use it.
2. After creating a business page as an author you can invite all your friends to like to page, creating a small audience just in a few days.
3. The like of your friends should generate a snowball effect that brings your page to other people’s timelines generating more likes.
4. Other the years of posting on Facebook most people get a feeling what their friends like and can repurpose the content for their business page.
5. With a small amount of money, you can reach a bigger audience with targeted ads (credit card is needed). You can even experiment with different ad designs to find out what your target audience likes (which can also be helpful when deciding on a cover for your book).

The cons on the other hand:

1. If you do not already have a Facebook account you’ll have to create a personal account and a business account, meaning you have to administrate two pages at the same time.
2. Without a pre-existing account you will not gain the snowball effect of your friends or their friends liking your content.
3. Most of your Facebook friends are not your (paying) audience and will like your page out of politeness but will most likely not interact with your content.
4. The interaction rate and time spend of Facebook has significantly decreased. Therefore gaining followers will be based on networking in groups or spending money on ads.
5. If you are looking for a young audience (e.g. as an YA author), you will not find it on Facebook because teenagers are turning to platforms like Instagram or TikTok.

Your Brand Determines the Platform

A lot of writers who are not familiar with social media tend to think they have to own a page on every social media platform there is just to get noticed. In most cases three are more than enough because maintaining a good quality profile is a lot of work otherwise you will feel like you are spending more time on social media than actually writing.

Before starting to build an audience on a new social media platform, you should check if your audience is actually using it. Therefore your brand or genre determines the platform.

Tweet

You should also check whether you like to spend time on it – because trust me, you will.

For Facebook the content is easy going, even polarising or click-baity: visuals and not too much text, articles and photos also work out. If you’re writing something like thrillers, detective novels, historical romance novel or anything where your audience is probably a middle-aged person who likes to read a lot, Facebook is the place for you.

Otherwise get in line with your brand based on your genre. Research your audience – you can do this via statistics (age and media use will be most helpful here) or by simply comparing different author pages form the same genre to try your own approach.