Many authors seem to have a bitter-sweet relationship with Facebook. The reasons are because Facebook is constantly changing, it is complicated to use, and people are always breaking the rules. If you are a writer, unless you are willing to hire someone to manage your Facebook account, you will have your work cut out for you. Unfortunately, many writers decide to manage their own accounts and end up doing more harm than good.

For writers, Facebook is perhaps the slowest social media site to build your platform. Also, it is much harder to build an authentic following on the site. On the plus side, Facebook followers are more loyal and they will more readily buy your book and endorse it to friends. Only well-known authors with solid platforms outside Facebook have an easy time building a following on the site. If you are a new author, you have to be ready to start small. There are several things that writers do on Facebook that sabotage their platforms. Here are four common things authors do wrong on Facebook.

Cross-posting from other social media sites

It is quite tempting to create a single post and distribute it to all social media websites. However, this is a big mistake if you are an author. It will cost you readers and followers and you should avoid it. Also, an author should be well-versed in proper posting etiquette for the various social media sites. For instance it is acceptable to post the same link on your Twitter account several times daily. However, it is bad manners if you repeat your posts on Facebook. You should also not put too many posts on Facebook because you could lose followers. Constant posting is, however, acceptable on Twitter. You should also not use automated posts for Facebook because people will know that you are not around, hence your likes and comments will flop.

Having too many pages

As a writer, you are inevitably linked to all your work, hence you are your own brand. You should therefore have one page for all your works. It is hard enough to build a following when you have one page. Why then would you want to spread yourself thin by having multiple pages?

Using groups improperly

For some authors, groups can be used effectively for interacting with their audiences. If, for example, an author wants to start a group for a popular topic related to his works, it is a good idea because it helps the author to build credibility. However, he should fight off the temptation to use the group as a marketing tool. This is because groups are not designed for marketing. Instead, an author who wants to market his work should use pages which are designed for marketing.

Bad manners

An author should not intrude on other people’s pages to promote his book. This is spamming and it is very rude. It is also not good to post links to your page or book when replying to other people’s comments. You should also not arm-twist people to like or share a post you have made.