Yesterday we started talking about Facebook and ways to make friends and influence enemies. Just so y?all know, the writer who insulted me is now a peep. We kept talking. I apologized for having the skin of a grape and this person told me I was right and they had NO idea the tone of the message was as insulting as it was.
We chatted about social media and WANA ways and had a blast, and it was awesome to make a new friend. This writer felt super bad. But, I mentioned that it all worked out for the better because, had I not been insulted, we would never have talked and gotten to know how much we had in common (though I do not recommend insulting people to make friends).
See, told you guys sometimes tough love is in order 
.
So What?s the Deal?
I believe most of the problems with writers mishandling Facebook stems from a failure to understand how Facebook?works. Between urban legends and plain dumb social media advice, writers are inadvertently making social media WAY harder than it has to be because they are fracturing their focus and diffusing all their efforts.
Thus, today we are going to start doing a little myth busting.
My Friends and Family Don?t Care About Writing Stuff
Okay, friends and family,?regular people? That is code for ?READER.? Writers all create one big happy writer party and talk to each other, but writers can only buy so many books. And frankly?
We are oversold and worn out.
If we only include writers, our platforms can easily become inbred and then all they do is drink cheap beer and listen to Tammy Wynette?.then start firing a shotgun in the air.?Keep it up and your platform will bring home a bass boat.
Moving on?
It?s estimated that as much as 75% of the population believes they would one day love to write a book. This means THREE-FOURTHS of the population believes they are writers?.even though they aren?t writing. So if we cut out regular people, we are actually just cutting out people fascinated by writers and writing. They LOVE writers, even if it is to be a fly on the wall and maybe catch on to how we create the magic.
Sure friends and family might give us a hard time about deciding to write, but often this is birthed by jealousy. They believe they have stories to tell, they just haven?t found the bravery to do it. They will often be the best salespeople we have, even if they don?t read what we write.
Okay, Even If They Don?t Care
Humans are a helpful bunch. How do we show love? We give unsolicited advice, provide solutions, and answer questions. If Aunt Lola doesn?t like vampire books, but a lady in her sewing circle complains that she needs to get a gift for her granddaughter who is slap-happy in LOVE with vampires? Who will Aunt Lola INSTANTLY think of?
This is called ?word of mouth.?
But I Will Fill Up Their Feed With Stuff They Don?t Care About
Remember I said you need to understand how Facebook works? Facebook wants you to have as pleasant of an experience as possible because?um, then you show up and get addicted and let dinner burn because you?re too busy quoting Bruce Campbell on an Army of Darkness thread on Kristen?s wall.
Newsfeeds will only show content from people we have engaged with. So if your family or coworkers could give a flying patooty about writing? Odds are they are never ?Liking? or commenting on those threads, so guess what? Your stuff eventually won?t appear in their news feeds (and never underestimate the modern human?s ability to ignore stuff that doesn?t interest them).
This is why fan pages can be a serious sticky wicket. We can?t engage with a monument to someone?s ego.
If all I am posting on my fan page is information about my book or signing events or promotions, it?s more of the advertising we are all scrambling to escape. Modern humans are BOMBARDED with ads and can?t even go to the BATHROOM without an ad shoved up our nose. For more on this, read my post:
Why Settle for Your Reader?s Wallet When You Can Get in Her PANTS?
We don?t like ads. We don?t share them and we cannot connect with them. We are also in an age of information GLUT. How many of you woke up this morning and thought, ?You know what I need? More crap to READ!? I hear social media experts tell writers to provide information. Be experts. Post links to articles.
For the love of chocolate, NO!
No offense, but novelists are not experts, you are?storytellers.?
The blunt truth is that if we need to know something we will google it. But aside from that, I want to point out something VERY IMPORTANT. Information connects on the LEFT side of the brain, the analytical side. FICTION, however, is emotional.
***This works for NF writers, too, btw.
HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT TO SELL A RIGHT-BRAIN PRODUCT WITH A LEFT-BRAIN APPROACH? That makes no sense. Even home insurance commercials try to connect with emotion. They don?t pay for a thirty minute commercial about statistics. They post THIS:
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