Facebook Guidelines & Recommendations

Facebook is the most used social platform in the world, pulling in 2.29 billion daily active users. Part of the Meta network, Facebook shares some functionality and tools with Instagram such as Stories and Reels.

Getting Started on Facebook

For authors who are looking to communicate and grow their readership, knowing the difference between a Facebook Page, a personal profile, and a Facebook group is valuable.

A Facebook Page is a public tool whereas a personal profile is private for family and friends. A Facebook group is a community that Facebook users can join that can be allows direct communication among members.

How to distinguish the difference:
Facebook Pages are “Liked”, personal profiles are “Friended” and Facebook groups are joined.

Facebook Pages vs. Personal Profile vs. Facebook Group

A personal profile is private therefore difficult to reach new readers. This is not the recommended profile type for authors.

A Facebook Page is a primarily one-sided form of communication. The admin of the page posts and those who like the page can see those posts and comment on them. Most effective way to reach new readers.

We recommend creating a business page as you’ll be able to do more effective marketing campaigns for your books with this page. You will also be able to add members of your marketing team to have access to your page to post content, boost posts and assist you with page setup/editing tasks.

A Facebook Group is a community made up of individuals who have joined via their personal profiles. There are varying degrees of private groups that require admittance to join. This is a great way to foster continued readership, but maintaining engagement is key here.

Many authors may have converted their personal profile to a public page. If you made your page before 2013 and made this switch, you may have what Facebook calls a “gray account.” They are removing these gray accounts and are asking users to make changes to how they access their page, and if those changes aren’t made, Facebook will disable those accounts. If you have received notifications about having a “gray account,” please follow these steps to change your page. If you need additional support, reach out to your marketing team so we can help troubleshoot with our Meta team.

How to Create a Facebook Page

To start the process, visit Facebook’s Create a Page page.
Set a personalized URL on the Username page.
Visit Facebook’s FAQ page if you have questions you have about personalized URLs for a Facebook Page.
Fill in your basic profile info, including your profile photo, cover photo, and the “about” and “description” sections of the page.

How to Create a Facebook Group

The process is similar to creating a Page.
Visit Facebook’s Group Getting Started page for more details.

Facebook Basics

Here are some ways in which to interact with your followers on Facebook. If you would like to interact as your Page (and not as yourself), click on the name of your Page in the left-hand column under the “Shortcuts” heading. You will continue to interact on Facebook in Business Manager as your public Page until you switch back to your personal profile.

Posts

Click on the “Write a post…” box and start typing! If you’d like to share a link or a media hit with your followers, you can paste the link in the status update box—preferably with some contextual preamble from you—and a preview box will appear. When you’ve finished writing your post, click “Share now,” and it will appear on your timeline and in the news feeds of people who follow you.

To post a photo or a video, click on the “photo/video” link on the top of the “update” box. Facebook will walk you through the process of uploading a photo or video and adding a caption. You can find recommended image sizing here.

A post on your timeline from one of your followers will be visible to you on your timeline, and to any follower who visits your page, but it will not appear in the news feeds of people who follow you. If you do not want posts from other people to be visible to visitors to your page, you can turn that feature off using the Admin panel (instructions here).

If you are referencing a person, venue, or media outlet in your post, you can mention them by using the @ button and typing in their name. This is called “tagging” someone in your post. If you’re posting under your personal profile, you must be a friend of an individual in order to tag them. If you are posting as a Page, you can only tag other Pages—you cannot tag individuals.

A Facebook post can take many forms—text, photo, video, links, etc. Here are a few things to keep in mind while crafting your posts.

Prioritize Community through engagement: This can be done in several ways by responding to comments from readers, going live and answering questions, providing updates and behind the scenes content that your readers are interested in, use stories. Aim to have conversation rather than posting to a void.
Use Insights to Know Your Audience: Look at the content that was liked most and replicate. You can click here to view your analytics.
Authenticity: Being personal and sincere will always be more effective.
Consistent Posting: Keeping your readers connected through updates will help retain them from book to book. Do not be afraid to post daily if you are sharing a variety of content using the creative tool available on Facebook via polls, gifs, sharing links, videos and more.
Consider the Best Type of Post. What’s the best way to communicate your message? It might be more compelling to pair text with a relevant photo instead of posting just text. Or maybe a link with some context is better. Perhaps a video would do the job. Think about what would work well for each individual post.
Consider Video Content. Videos can be shared in a post (pre-recorded) or using the Facebook Live Video feature. For more info on going Live on Facebook click here. (Note: Facebook Live videos will live on your Page after you are done recording, and normally see more views post-recording.) Videos don’t have to be professional. Short, candid videos from your phone are very engaging for fans. Video performs very well on mobile. You can add a description and thumbnail to help discoverability.
Consider Varying Posts. Mix it up! Experiment with different types of posts. The same book could have some photo posts, some links, and maybe a short video. Variety keeps your page interesting.
Schedule Posts in Advance. Queue up posts to fill the time when you’re not able to be logged in as your page, e.g. nights or weekends. Learn more about scheduling posts on Facebook.
Pin Important Posts to the Top of Your Page. If there’s an important post you’d like people to see when they visit your page, pin it to the top. It won’t get pushed down the page by other posts. Learn more about pinning posts on Facebook

Cross Posting from Instagram to Facebook

Sharing content from Instagram to Facebook is simple if you have your profiles linked in the Accounts Center. For information on enabling this feature, you can check out Instagram’s guide.

Events

If you’d like to create an invitation on Facebook to an event—such as an author appearance or book party—click on “Event” at the top of the status update box. If you are posting the event on a Facebook Page, the event will be public and will be displayed on your timeline and in the news feeds of people who follow that page. If you are posting the event on a personal profile, you can choose whether you want to make the event public, or if you’d like to select your guest invite list from your Facebook friends and make the event private. Fill out all the details and click “create.” You’ll be able to add an image—we recommend using your book jacket—to the event once it’s been created.

Sharing

If you see a status update, photo or any other post you’d like to share on your own page, click “share” at the bottom of the post. A box will pop up asking if you’d like to share it on your timeline. If you have multiple pages, you can select the page where you’d like it to appear. If you’d like, you can write some text explaining why you’re sharing the link. The shared post will appear on your timeline and in the news feeds of people who follow you.

Interacting

If you see a status update, photo, video, or event in your news feed, you can click “like” at the bottom of the post. You can also post a comment under that status update. Posts that you’ve liked or commented on may or may not show up in news feeds of those who follow you, depending on their settings.

Facebook Insights

See helpful analytics including Page performance by posts, comparisons with other pages, and info about your audience and its habits on Facebook. The post reach and engagement metrics reveal which kinds of posts were most successful on your page, and through “Pages to Watch” you’ll see what succeeds on similar Facebook Pages. Through Insights data you can learn what’s effective for your audience and adapt your strategy accordingly.

From your desktop: go to the Timeline of your Page and click “Insights” in the navigation bar. From mobile: download the Facebook Pages app then go to the Timeline of your Page. The Insights button can be found in the navigation bar at the bottom of the Page. It looks like a line graph.

Learn more about Facebook Insights on Facebook.

Facebook Best Practices

Build a Robust Page. Make sure you have an eye-catching cover photo and a strong profile picture. Also, make sure you fill out the about section of your profile. Lead with who you are as an author. If you have your own website, include your URL on your main page.
Keep Your Posts Interesting and Relevant. People choose to like your page because they like what you have to say as an author and want to know more about you. Keep status updates interesting and relevant.
Encourage People to Like Your Page. Let people know that you have a Facebook Page and that it would mean a lot to you if they “liked” it. A simple email can go a long way. Include a link to your page wherever people find you online, such as your email signature, blog or website. We will also add links to your social profiles on your author page on hachettebookgroup.com.
Ask Open-Ended Questions. Facebook is a great place to ask questions of your community and get a conversation going. It’s a great way to get to know your readers. If you ask interesting questions, people will be happy to give you their two-cents. It also makes them feel like they are a part of a group.
Get Connected. Find pages with similar interests, or in the same industry, and “like’” them. Make their page a favorite on your page.
Utilize Your Cover Photo. Highlight your new release or author brand with a cover photo that displays at 820px x 312px on desktops and 640px x 360 px on mobile. You’ll want to keep this fresh and updated as new books publish.

Authors to Follow on Facebook

Abby Jimenez
Kennedy Ryan
Lucy Score

Facebook Sample Content Ideas

Post news/content about your book as they come in (e.g. excerpts, trade reviews, giveaways, etc.).
Consider resharing posts from your publisher regarding your book from their imprint Facebook to your own
Consider sharing what you’re currently reading or other media you’re enjoying
Give behind the scenes content on your writing process or day-to-day life
Ask your readers bookish themed questions like “how many books have you read this year?”