Facebook has gone through so many changes over the last couple of years that it’s no wonder no one really knows what they’re doing with it any more. One of the things I see a lot of authors doing “wrong” is how they post links. Fortunately, this is also one of the easiest things to correct.
What makes one way of posting a link better than another? Real estate, which is the marketing way of saying you want to grab the biggest chunk of space on your followers’ profiles that you possibly can. Why? Because the more noticeable you are, the more notice you’ll get, which brings more interaction with your followers (likes, comments, shares), which makes you more ‘popular’ in the Facebook algorithms, which means they’ll push your post (and possibly subsequent ones) to more viewers. Yes, really.
A while back, it seems that many authors were told that to claim this kind of real estate, they should post links in a comment below their post, rather than in the actual post itself. Whether or not this was a valid practice at the time, I don’t know…but it is not the current best one.
What is? I’m glad you asked, because I love helping authors clear up simple little misconceptions such as this. And I’ve also put together a step-by-step tutorial to show you just how to go about it. (Aren’t you glad you’re following my blog by subscribing via the big red space on the side bar so you can get all these great tips? 😉 )
Let’s get started:
1. Write your post as you normally would.
2. Now add the hyperlink.
3. Facebook will automatically make your post look like this:
4. Now click on the +Upload Image button and do just that…upload an image.
5. Your post will change to show your image as part of the link. Notice the increased size.
6. Tidy up your post by removing the link in the body of the text.
7. Hit post and — this is important! — don’t panic when your post suddenly reverts to looking like this…
8. …because when it’s seen by your followers on their profiles, it will look like this (and once you refresh your page, it should also look this way again):
And that’s it. It’s that easy. Now you can go forth and stake a claim to your own share of Facebook real estate, thereby improving the odds of your links being seen, shared, commented on, and liked.
Oh, and one other tip: if you want to share multiple links in a single post (perhaps if your book goes on sale at more than one retailer), upload an image first (such as a book cover) and then include the links in the text of your post. In this instance, it’s a good idea to use a link shortener such as Bitly in order to reduce visual clutter.
Questions? Comments? Let me know in the space below. And do share this blog post widely with your author friends!
P.S. In case you missed them, you might also want to check out my other posts on topics specific to Facebook: The Great Facebook Debate: Page or Profile?; Building Your Facebook Community: A Crash Course for Authors; and New! A Facebook App for Authors.
Leave a Reply