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Social Media Phobic? Facebook is (Still) Your Friend

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The news about Facebook’s embroilment in a data-harvesting-cum-political scandal kind of makes us all want to unfriend the platform for good.

For sure, our collective conscience would be cleaner and we’d all be a lot less distracted without it. Some of us would probably even feel a vengeful twinge of self-righteousness seeing Zuckerberg and his cohorts caught at last with the smoking gun that proves their invention is not only bad for us, but just downright bad.

While a breakup with Facebook might inflict some short-term suffering on most folks — pain from the loss of online friendships and a hollow void in that space between minutes that status updates used to fill — for writers and authors, it would pose a nearly existential dilemma.

For better or for worse, Facebook is still the platform for authors from a community-building and visibility perspective, with its unsurpassed power to spread the word, engage readers, and generate promotional opportunities. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat combined could never pack the same punch that Facebook schmoozing can.

Throughout all my years as a writer and a publicist helping writers, a few constants about Facebook have reinforced this belief:

Friends

Yep, Facebook connects friends. Meaning, generally, you have an actual, organic connection with most of the people in your Facebook network–especially on your personal page, and even on your author page if you don’t use boosted posts (advertising). Even as your network grows, there is typically a common thread among the people who join it: friends from high school, from college, from your first job way back when. People your older sister knew when you were kids who you kind of remember drinking your first beer with. Even old love interests.

Most other social platforms bring a lot more total strangers into the mix.  But when real friends are involved–or friends of friends, or ex colleagues and ex lovers–the interest in what you’re doing and what you’re writing is a lot more real. Authors have told me time and again that Facebook has had an incredible ability to interest people in their books. That people were actually listening. And that they cared enough to comment, shared, make introductions and, yes, to buy books.

Think about it. If someone you used to tease or have a crush on in high school wrote a book, wouldn’t you be the least bit tempted to read it?

Book club invitations

This is something else I’ve seen time and again: with all those friends come invitations. When they see you’ve published a book, people you know or once knew magically crawl out of the woodwork and open their doors. Neighbors, teachers in town, your kids’ friends’ parents….Invitations suddenly pop up in your message box.  Beyond your own network, book clubs have Facebook groups. Joining them, or “friending” the organizers is a great way to get a foot in the door.

Speaking and writing invitations

You never know where connections forged on Facebook may lead — especially when you start connecting with fellow writers. Many authors I’ve worked with have been invited to guest post on blogs and online outlets by simply interacting with like-minded authors and bloggers on Facebook. I’ve seen speaking opportunities beyond book clubs materialize too, such as at Rotary clubs or schools. All of which brings more connections, and more visibility…

Encouragement of sales

Although it’s nice to fantasize that your author event at a brick-and-mortar bookstore will drive significant sales, it’s (almost definitely) not going to happen.

That’s because most sales happen in one place these days: online.

Facebook gives you the venue to link to your book’s Amazon page, converting regular people in their pajamas into paying customers if you’ve come up with something clever or interesting to say. Make sure your posts are genuine, and only post about your book once every five or six posts. You don’t want to be “pushy”, but you do want to celebrate your book and make sure others know it’s out there!

Exposure to new opportunities

Facebook is the place to soak up knowledge about all sorts of new opportunities you can seize. Facebook’s “events” feature — one if its most popular features — allows you to find author readings, get-togethers and conferences that you can attend to foster connections with the writerly community in your area. (Keep in mind, this will also be a great place to create an event about your upcoming launch party or reading).

Aside from events, Facebook can also reveal new contests or outlets to submit your writing to.

User Friendliness – Even for Social Media-phobics

Even in this uber-connected world there are plenty of social media phobics — especially in the writing community, surprising though it may sound. Some feel, understandably, that something as precious and well-thought-out as a novel shouldn’t be touted around in a noisy, careless echo chamber filled with Trump memes and live videos of the Kardashians. Others simply can’t get their minds around all the likes and retweets and hashtags and feeds.

But while it’s far from perfect, Facebook is relatively simple to use. And once you’ve gotten the basics down, there’s no need to learn too much more.

So if Cambridge Analytica-gate has brought you to the brink of unfriending Facebook, my advice is: let it go. Friends do have flaws.  And if you’re resistant to jumping into the social media fray but are hungry for community, conversation and some exposure, I’d say: give it a try.  While you’re at it, join the Writer Unboxed Facebook Group if you haven’t already. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised – and rewarded.

What’s your experience with Facebook as a writer? Are you considering unfriending it?

About Sharon Bially

Sharon Bially (@SharonBially) is the founder and president of BookSavvy PR, a public relations firm devoted to authors and books. Author of the novel Veronica’s Nap, she’s a member of the Director's Circle at Grub Street, Inc., the nation’s largest independent writing center, and writes occasionally for the Grub Street Daily.

Comments

  1. Great post, Sharon.

    I try not to take social media, including Facebook, too seriously. I am only online as an author (nothing personal) and allocate small blocks of time to connect online, keeping the bulk of my focus on family, work, and writing. For me, this keeps my priorities straight.

    That said, Facebook (and the internet in general) has smashed walls and removed borders. It’s allowed people from all different walks of life to connect in a way they might never have before. It’s also a bit scary. There are dangers lurking, and our generation is the first to enter the unfamiliar waters.

    For me, the key is using Facebook to connect while keeping a part of me private.

    Thanks for the thought provoking post, Sharon!

    Dee Willson
    Award winning author of A Keeper’s Truth and GOT (Gift of Travel)

  2. I find Twitter far more writer-friendly, easy to use, informative (always being wary of false news, of course), and a great way to connect with readers and authors. As much as I love Twitter (and other social media platforms), however, I remain wary when asked for personal data, and usually I simply refuse to share it. Facebook is by far the most intrusive of the social media apps, and it’s heyday may be coming to a close as it becomes clearer its administrators see us NOT as customers, but as sources of data that can be and is sold . . . and not to our benefit. This is a popular, hot topic among the writer groups I’m part of here in FL, and I’m among those who have closed my Facebook account. I won’t be using that platform again unless and until I am given explicit, verifiable power over my data. Connection with readers and other authors is not worth the cost of the bigger picture: Ruthless data exploitation.

    • As my mother told me, if you’re not paying anything, it’s because you’re the product – in this case, the eyeballs to advertize to.

      I gave up on having a Facebook account when I started my blog five years ago. True, I don’t get to hear distant friends’ news so often these days – but then, as often as not Facebook didn’t see fit to show me those things anyway. News of an engagement? Boring! Someone just did something in Farmville? She must know at once!

      I can’t help feeling that if I did start an author page, the costs would inexorably rise. When you’re dependent, you don’t have the power to draw a line and say “thus far and no further.” Best, in my mind, not to start that dependency.

  3. I’ve been using Facebook for ten years. The privacy issues don’t really bother me because I’ve used Facebook as my soapbox to gripe about politics and talk about my past relationship.

    I’ve been lucky to have made friends online who are now friends in the real world; I belong to groups that help me with my research and so on. As a part-time marketing consultant I use it for clients.

    BUT, during these past ten years I’ve been on Facebook, I’ve also abused it. I’ve used it hand-in-hand with stress eating. I’ve gained pounds and lost gray matter. I’ve experienced the same addiction with Facebook as with too much sugar. You feel that dopamine rushing through your bloodstream to later realize you spent the entire day doing NOTHING at all. And I’ve seen how Facebook feeds into social isolation. Prior to FB, although not the most social person, I went out either for a walk, to write at a coffee house, to meet a friend for lunch or dinner. Facebook makes you isolated, and that’s not healthy.

    Although I still need to use the platform for my clients and to market blog posts, I decided, along with a friend, to minimize my use. I do my social media work, on occasion respond to a comment, check in to see if a question was answered and then the blocking app is turned on for up to 12 hours. And you know what the result is? I get my work done. My brain doesn’t ache with the amounts of useless noise that’s generated out there.

    If my friends want to reach out to me, the can call, email, FaceTime, or Skype with me. As I stated above, the recent debacle over privacy doesn’t faze me, but what concerns me is how I’ve seen Facebook rewire my brain. I don’t want it to be on crack, sugar, white flour, or social media, and that’s why I’ve decided to limit my use as much as I can. It’s not about being phobic, but getting back to what matters, living in the real world and not behind a screen. And yes, I see the irony by just commenting on this venue.

    • What a poignant story, Rebeca: thanks for sharing. It’s a good reminder that social media CAN be addictive, especially for those whose personality types lend themselves to that. Good for you for having limited your FB time.

  4. Sharon, what a great topic. You give voice here to something I’ve thought a lot about over the last few years. I think that as a species, we are not yet emotionally mature enough to handle the technology that has been placed at our fingertips. Like a fourteen-year old boy who’s been given the keys to the Ferrari, we go too fast, get addicted to the speed, the rush, the dopamine hit at every wild turn. A reckoning was due, and maybe going forward, we’ll think more soberly about how we use this stuff. Your examples are great. They point to the idea of using the technology rather than letting it use us. We can’t go backwards (sometimes I lament this!) so we have to learn how to live with some kind of balance in all the madness. And I think parents especially need to be totally pro-active with regard to their kids’ access, not just to social media but to the internet at large. I see technology robbing people of common sense, real-time connections, and the ability to commit things to memory. I see a deterioration in peoples’ ability to suffer and struggle. I see a lack of wisdom. Your article today gave me a chance to stop and look at all this in myself. Thank you so much!!

  5. I have the same reservations about social media as those already expressed here–and I may be one of the last individuals around not to have an FB account. I signed up several years ago, heard from various people who crawled out of the woodwork after several years of absence but were not likely to be real friends, then after a couple of sessions tried to log in, got my PW garbled, got locked out, and said to myself that the attempt to continue just wasn’t worth it.

    I joined LinkedIn back when it seemed like a good idea, dropped it when I found myself being stalked, and rejoined when a good friend was going through major life changes and asked for a recommendation. I was more than happy to do that, but haven’t made use of LI since then except to look at the email updates and be mildly amused at the furious rate at which some people make connections. When do they sleep?

    My family members and real friends know how to reach me, and I can always call or email them and have an actual one-to-one conversation. With reciprocity!

    Meanwhile, I’m well aware of the seductive powers of online activity and the ease of becoming addicted to web-surfing and online games, even when I know perfectly well that reading, music, writing, volunteering in my community, outdoor pursuits, and face-to-face interactions are more personally rewarding and conducive to good health. Does this make me a dinosaur? Should I have more Fear of Missing Out?

    All this rant notwithstanding, I remain open to using Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms when I can see that the benefits–for me–are truly likely to be there.

    Thank you, Sharon, for describing some of the advantages to writers. I’ll definitely keep them in mind during this prolonged deliberation.

  6. I’ve been hesitant to go on Facebook because it’s so invasive. Now with these latest developments I am even more hesitant. I am looking for other options down the road. NYT’s had something on Mastodon, a block-chain website that works like Facebook but is not so intrusive. It’s young and doesn’t come close to the number of FB users but this is a look-to-the-future plan. It also depends on your audience. If you want the YA to NA group Mastodon might be the way to go (at least in tandem with FB, if you’re on that too).

    If your audience skews older then FB reigns for now and probably will with the growing (grand)parent generation who want something more user friendly and not as “techie.”

    • Hi! This is so interesting: I just heard about block chain for the first time last week and am intrigued. What exactly is a block chain website? What makes it different from other sites? And is this the new trend writers — or all of us — should be keeping an eye on going forward?

      Thanks!

  7. I left Facebook about a month ago and can finally feel myself focus and think more deeply again ~ instead of compulsively translating my experiences into status updates or sharing interesting articles rather than actually finishing reading them.

    I’m reading a whole lot more too (books, that is), and it seems like there are way more hours in the day.

    This isn’t the case for everyone, of course, but many artists fall more easily prey to addiction and I am one of them (and as we all know by now, we can thank Silicon Valley’s “attention engineers” for consciously designing social media platforms to be addictive).

    I realize, however, that social media is a necessary evil for promotion (sigh), so am resigned to the fact that I will need to return next year as I’ve got two books coming out. But, honestly, I sincerely wish I didn’t have to and that I could delete my account (because, apart from addiction and horrifying democracy-meddling, I truly, deeply hate the fact that our lives have basically become products for Big Data to utilize for their capitalist means).

    • Congrats on your books, Lauren! Confession: even as I tout the promo benefits of Facebook, I rarely use it anymore myself and also enjoy being freed from the urge to “compulsively translating my experiences into status updates or sharing interesting articles.” This has helped me learn to find balance between using it to network and build community, and using it because I simply can’t help it and have forgotten what else to do when an interesting thought or question crosses my mind. I bet you’ll be able to strike that balance when the time is right.

  8. Facebook isn’t a huge time-suck for me. And I only read/pay attention to that which I want to. As for the “tracking” stuff, welp, we are being tracked in so many different ways I’d drive myself nuts trying to figure out how to isolate myself from it all. Does that mean I like it? No, but I do realize it’s a price we pay for all the things we do and how we live our lives.

    FB allows me to stay in touch with friends and family who live too far away from me for regular visits. And I don’t have to make so many phone calls – ha! YAY!

  9. Hi, I am another one of those strange few without a Facebook account! :-) Never had one, so far not missing it at all.
    But I do see the point of the advantages for writers you mention. As I am still writing the first draft of my first “proper” novel (as opposed to all the stuff I started but never finished), I guess I have never thought about if/how I could use Facebook to promote my writing. Mmmmm. You have got me thinking. Not 100% convinced, but thinking. – Maybe if I use it strictly for the writing side of me…

  10. I have a facebook account only to see pictures occasionally that my family posts. I’m tempted to delete both accounts and by delete, I mean totally delete them so they can’t follow me.

    I’ve been fed up with their agenda promoting crap for a long time. Why no, I am not interested in this candidate, whyever would you think I was?

    I’m fed up to the gills with these people thinking they have a captive audience so they are free to use it to promote what is near and dear to their hearts.

  11. I deleted my FB account a year ago due to their failure to address moral and ethical issues.
    In my opinion, there are better ways of promoting whatever it is you do.
    Turn yourself into a media company. Blogs offer an alternative to newspapers. Podcast has replaced radio and YouTube has replaced T.V.
    You’re in control of the content and the distribution.
    It doesn’t have the global reach, but it does have the power of community.
    In my opinion, FB is a drug and whilst it may not kill, it will harm.

 

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