Why Go on MeWe? #freespeech #censorship

Why go on MeWe, an alternate and more free-speech-oriented social medium? Imagine this scenario.

You have a new book coming out and you are trying get the word out to your fans. You usually use Facebook. But, surprise! You’ve just got suspended from Facebook.

What did you do? You don’t have to do much. You said an ordinary think that half the people in the country might say, or shared a meme with it, or quoted the wrong Bible verse, or you commented the wrong comment on someone else’s post like the above. I have heard of grandmothers getting suspended or banned, even though Facebook is their main way of staying in touch with grandchildren and other relations.

That’s a good reason not to depend on the pro-censorship social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pintarest) and build up something up off the reservation.

My own chosen alternative media are MeWe and Gab. Both have their problems. And one major thing we writers have as a problem is that it’s hard to get some of our fans to follow us to an alternative social media. But Facebook, for one, seems to be out to chase away its user base with their constant attempts to control the conversation about a stolen election, a vaccine that doesn’t work, and about ‘extremism.’

Since many use their MeWe (or Gab) as a backup, I think we need a greater number of contacts on an alternate than on our pro-censorship media accounts.

I have:

431 Facebook friends.

1404 Twitter followers.

194 MeWe contacts.

172 Gab followers.

To get started on MeWe: open an account, using your real name or pen name— whichever you use for writing. Put up a profile picture and a cover photo like on on other social media.

Join groups. Most groups have the problem that people post stuff— often off-topic spam— and then run away. Don’t be like that. Interact with what other people post in a friendly way. Do that for a few days in each group. And when you make your first post, don’t make it a book spam! Instead, ask a question for other people to respond to. Be a group nurturer, not a group spammer.

Here are some groups I am in:

Heinlein’s Rules for Writers (I’m the admin)

Conservative-Libertarian Fiction Alliance

Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans

Christian Speculative Fiction Writers

Space Opera Writers (no promos)

MilSciFi

And you can always use ME for your first MeWe contact: https://mewe.com/i/nissaannakindt

The biggest hint— use MeWe every single day that you use ANY social media. Use MeWe first. Post links to every blog post you make there. Post a little something every time you visit MeWe. Share memes, but also say stuff for yourself— and not all book spam. Have an ‘author persona’ that’s interesting to follow— or weird, or funny, or angry about crooked politicians or anti-Christian elements of society, or anti-semitism.

OK, as working writers does that mean we have to give up Facebook and Twitter in protest of censorship? Or boycott Kindle Direct Publishing even though it’s a major income source? No. We can still make our money off the pro-censorship forces. My own blog posts get posted automatically to my Twitter through a trick of WordPress. (They promise to do the same for Facebook, but that doesn’t work and I’d have to revive my almost-dead FB author page.)

What about you? Are you on MeWe? Please share your link so I can make a contact request to you. If you have other free-speech social media to recommend, let us know about it.

First steps on MeWe, Parler and Gab

Since Twitter &Facebook have gone into full-fascist mode to influence a US election, many writers, bloggers and influencers have lost trust and sought for backup social media, if only in case of an emergency– like getting banned for no apparent reason when you have a new book out.

Step one is to open an account. MeWe, Parler and Gab are all free. Choose your user name with care. If you have a day job in a sensitive environment, you may not be able to use your real name. A pen name works for writers. A nom du guerre works for others. Something memorable, anyway.

Next, you need a photo of yourself or avatar. I like something with a face for a profile picture. When I joined Parler, I used a picture of my kitten Kos before I figured out how to change it.

I use an old, black & white photo of myself at age 4. I’m weird that way. It doesn’t reveal my current age or weight.

I used to use different profile pictures for different accounts or FB pages, but now I’m unifying to the one picture everywhere. It helps people find me.

Your self description should mention that you are a writer, blogger, Martian ambassador, whatever you are.

Should you hint at things like your political or religious affiliations? It can attract like-minded people, but repel others. If your politics or faith are mentioned a lot in your work, it’s probably best. But if your work is neutral on these controversial things, you may keep your social media neutral as well.

Next, friends/contacts. You need lots. Remember, lots of people don’t check out their alt social media accounts every day.

You might ask on FB or Twitter if your friends there are on the alt medium. Once you find a few, check out your friends’ contact list and send friend requests to anyone you recognize.

Also, post something. Almost anything except naked pictures or death threats. People will check out what you have posted before they accept your contact request.

I participate in #MeWeMondays where I do stuff on MeWe on Mondays and mostly stay off the fascist social media. I may be doing that on Thursdays as well, because of a suggestion from a friend.

Be faithful. It took us years to build up FB and Twitter accounts. Success won’t come on the although social media right away. I’m concentrating on my MeWe at the moment, but intend to build up my Parler and Gab also. Look for me under NissaAnnakindt on MeWe and Parler, and @nissalovescats on Gab.

Please drop a comment with your social media handles— let’s follow each other.

The Great Facebook Exodus

Facebook has done itself in. In September they made a dreadful new Facebook that you can’t get away from, and forced it on everyone. In October, there are rumors that they will retroactively ban people. My guess is that my conservative or libertarian friends are more likely to get banned than my foul-mouthed stalkers. 

I’ve been annoyed by Facebook for a while because they use what I post on Facebook to pick which ads to throw at me. When I mention my diabetes, I get flooded with ads for diabetes gimmicks. When I mention my low-carb, ketogenic diet, I get flooded with keto gimmicks. You don’t want to know what happened when I mentioned I had an appointment with a kidney doctor.

I’ve never been banned by FB even though I’ve expressed opinions I hate. I only had one post taken down, and that was because I mentioned my stalker, asking people to pray for him. FB likes my stalker more than it likes me, I guess.

I’ve had MeWe and Gab accounts for some time now. I did Gab when a lot of people from the Conservative/Libertarian Fiction Alliance recommended it, and I started on MeWe when the CLFA group migrated there from MeWe.

MeWe seems dull, but I have fewer friends there and a lot of the friends I have there are only there part-time. I have found when I do more things, like comment on posts from pages, I get more interactions. Posting on MeWe is important. I try to post my blog posts onto my timeline, or in some cases in an appropriate group.

Gab has strong free speech policies, but it has a minority of troublesome troll users. Many of the trolls are political extremists of one type or another. Others are ‘88s’— they use the code 88 to signal their sympathies with the NeoNazis or KKK. I dislike it when trolls try to bully me. Which is why it is good that you can block people.

For writers and bloggers, I think it’s important to look into Facebook alternatives. What if FB takes down YOUR page or account overnight? It is only prudent to have a backup. Though I think FB is catching wise. Today a number of people posted links to their MeWe profiles or groups. And when I clicked on the links on my cell phone, MeWe wanted me to sign in again. Even though I have the MeWe app and used it earlier in the day. That didn’t used to happen. 

Join me on MeWe: : https://mewe.com/i/nissaannakindt

Be sure and add a link to your own MeWe profile in a comment, if you want more MeWe friends.

Preaching To or At Catholics Online

Jesus. He’s a Friend of mine.

I am a former Protestant (Presbyterian, Lutheran) who is now a convert to the Catholic church. And lately I’ve noticed something that bothers me. There are Protestant/Evangelical preachers or would-be evangelists who troll Catholics in the comments section of various posts on Facebook and MeWe, and I have also noticed at least 2 who have joined Catholic groups under false pretenses, don’t interact with the group, and post long, long sermons, clearly Evangelical, in those forums. In one group a guy was posting sermon-videos at a rate of one a minute for a while. Another fellow posted the exact same sermons in two groups, one Catholic, one about Christians who support Israel. That sermon mentioned neither Catholicism nor Israel.

I am a firm believer in the idea that throwing sermons at the unwilling is not a way to win over hearts and minds. Nor is calling Catholics or other non-you Christians ‘hell-bound’ going to do the trick. Other Christians are mostly as convinced of the truth of their branch of Christianity as the online-preacher is about his.

And being insulting isn’t too convincing. Since I have a controversial, pro-man/woman-marriage page on Facebook, I have a lot of ‘athiests’ calling me a crazy liar and calling my disabled kitten ugly, and somehow those insults never made me doubt my faith. Nor want to become that kind of ‘athiest.’ If I lost my faith I would be an atheist— properly spelled— and I would still be civil to other human beings, because that approach is better. I can’t imagine the beloved writer C. S. Lewis, during his atheist youth, insulting other people’s disabled kittens to spread the atheist nonfaith.

What if these fire-breathing Protestant/Evangelicals had instead joined the Catholic group, made 10 encouraging and denomination-neutral comments for every one that might be perceived as being a bit non-Catholic, and had never posted any long sermons at all but just done a little ‘seed-planting?’

I believe in is seed planting. You can plant seeds of faith, and trust the Lord to bring the harvest. Yes, I know, Jesus preached long sermons like the sermon on the mount. But you are not Jesus. Jesus also spoke in parables— short illustrations— and we don’t know for sure how often He used the one method rather than the other. 

If you honestly think Catholics are ‘hell-bound,’ using an approach that will give the Catholic in question one more story about how Evangelicals/Protestants are hateful of Catholics is not effective. That’s how you get Catholics who question whether Evangelicals/Protestants can even be saved enough to get to heaven.

You want to save some Catholics? Do this: Buy a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a Bible with the Deuterocanonical books (Apocrypha), and get the little leaflet from CHResources on how to read through the whole Bible and Catechism in a year, and do it in a year. Next step: get a good book by a Catholic apologist that explains why Catholics believe the things we do, such as ‘The Catholic Verses’ by former Protestant Dave Armstrong, and read it. 

Then you will be equipped to go out amongst Catholics, knowing what they really believe, and plant seeds of what you think are the essentials of the Christian faith. Be encouraging, kind and loving. You may find after your studies that you no longer believe that getting Catholics to doubt their faith and leave their Church is your goal. Perhaps you will think it’s enough to lovingly encourage Catholics to draw closer to Christ and to the Bible, even if they stay Catholic. 

My personal belief— and I’m just a laywoman not a priest, pastor or bishop— is that God wants us to follow Jesus in the best way we know how, and even if we are in the ‘wrong’ church and believe false doctrines God still wants us in heaven if at all possible. I do believe my Catholic church has the correct and Biblical teachings, but I know there are also people who don’t believe like I do and who love the Lord. Let’s ignore the sad Christian divisions and recognize one another as fellow believers when we can. 

 

Breaking Free with MeWe: Step One

Lately I would like nothing more than to be done with Facebook. It’s not just that they seem to hate all conservative and non-modernist Christians with a passion. They censor: one woman got in trouble with Facebook for posting a Bible verse about homosexuality. I have same-sex attraction myself, but I don’t see why quoting the ‘wrong’ Bible verse should get anyone into trouble. What if I quoted ‘Judas went out and hanged himself?’ 

I stay on Facebook because I have family members there who won’t move elsewhere. It’s actually the only means of communication I have with them because NO ONE CALLS ME. But what really made me hate FB lately is that I shared some news on FB about some recent medical tests I had which included a bad kidney test (and a GREAT A1c because I’m on low-carb/keto.) 

After this I am not only seeing ads on FB for a kidney disease recipe book (which looks high-carb,) I’m seeing it everywhere. So I’ve replaced my Google-based Gmail email address with one from GMX, and I’m (mostly) migrating to MeWe.

MeWe is a Facebook alternative which says it respects your privacy. So far, it seems to. The hard part is that after years of being on Facebook and accumulating Facebook friends, MeWe seems too quiet— because I don’t have enough friends there yet.

I’d ask you-all as my blog readers to friend me there (https://mewe.com/i/nissaannakindt) but many of you don’t have MeWe accounts yet. So, the first step is to start your MeWe account. Go to MeWe’s web site and sign up— it’s not that different than signing up for Facebook or Twitter.

Next, fix up your profile page. You will need a profile picture. I suggest a picture or an avatar of yourself, especially if you are trying to use your social media to promote your blog or writing career. If you are being deep-anonymous for a good reason, make a human-looking avatar that DOESN’T look like you. 

Your page also needs a cover image. You can use the same cover image you have on Facebook, or something similar. It doesn’t have to be the perfect cover image for you at first. You can always change it later.

Your profile picture, as on other social media, is seen next to everything you post. It’s the ‘you’ that your social media ‘peeps’ see. If you use a picture of yourself or an avatar of a human-like face, that makes you more relatable. It makes you a person and not a faceless person-or-thing behind a logo. 

Your cover photo can be all kinds of things. A picture of your family, of something scenic from your local area, if you are an author a collection of your book covers…. Whatever says ‘you’ and your social media persona well. 

You need to make a couple of MeWe friends to get started. You have a friend there already. My profile page is:  https://mewe.com/i/nissaannakindt  Make a friend request and I will accept it— unless your profile pic contains explicit nudity or something. Another way to make friends on MeWe is to encourage your friends from Facebook or Twitter to migrate to MeWe with you. 

Once you are there on MeWe and have a friend or two, post something. It could be a picture of your cat or dog, your opinion on what’s happening on General Hospital, or a rude opinion about your least-favorite political figure. Don’t worry if you don’t get much response yet. You are new to MeWe— it takes a little time to get into the swing of things.

Part 2 of this series will cover how to make new MeWe friends and how to join groups on MeWe.

MeWe-ly yours,

Nissa Annakindt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Traditional-Marriage-Support group on MeWe: https://mewe.com/group/5bca1f9c73a3f14e7c8572e5

My Traditional-Marriage-Support page on FB: https://www.facebook.com/defendtradmarriage/

I’m Learning about Facebook Author Pages

How do you go about using Facebook Author pages these days? When I first started mine, there were a few things I could do to get more ‘likes’ and Facebook kindly showed ALL my posts to ALL my followers for free.

Those days are gone. Every time I write a post on my author page Facebook invites me to spend money to turn it in to an ad. If I had money to spend I could find a better use for it.

I had thought of deleting that page altogether and making my blog posts here syndicate to my personal FB page. But WordPress won’t let you syndicate to a personal page or a group now. So I have to try to revive my FB author page from the Facebook coffin. Anyone know a good Voodoo bokor?

I do know a few things. When I got stray advice not to post on my author blog unless I was announcing a new book coming out (my last was in 2014) I knew that advice was bogus. Facebook pages are like blogs— if you rarely post, you lose all your fans/followers and your Facebook page or blog goes dead.

I am doing some research on FB author pages and will be sharing what I learn on this blog. In addition, I am working on the page on this blog about FB author pages. I am listing the author pages by genre now, and adding a few well-known writers who have active pages.

If you want your FB author pages listed on my page dedicated to that on this blog, go to my Contact Me page, give me your FB author page URL and your primary genre (I don’t list erotica/erotic romance, but otherwise the list is multi-genre.) I will put you up when I can. I do NOT ask for a link to my author page or this blog on your blog, though you can if you care to.

The main thing I know about author FB pages is that like your other author online presence, it should reflect who you are as an author or aspiring author. And it should be active! If you haven’t posted on your author page since 2016, maybe you should post a little something today. Something minor even, a funny graphic about writing, a picture of your cat, something about a good book you are reading. Just so your author page has a breath of life.

Thank you for reading this blog post,

Nissa Annakindt

Would you take a moment to visit & “like” my author page? Thank you!

https://www.facebook.com/nissalovescats

Fixing Your Pathetic Facebook Author Page

Do you have a Facebook author page? Is it totally pathetic like mine? Facebook pages used to be a fun thing and easy enough to gain followers on, for free. I used to ‘like’ as my page a few dozen other pages on the same or similar topics, and I’d interact with those pages as my page and share cool posts from them that were related to the topic of my page and life was good.

Then Facebook changed pages and there was no longer a feed of stuff you liked as your page so you had to relike it as you and since Facebook no longer showed your page posts to most of the people who’d liked your page unless you spent advertising money with them life was not so good.

I had planned to delete my author page. But then I found out that my WordPress . com blog would no longer syndicate my blog posts to a Facebook personal page, nor to a Facebook group (which is probably good.) The only way was to keep syndicating to my author page.

Facebook author pages, like other pages, now suck, but there are ways to make them suck less. They won’t be as popular as they were back in the day, but without spending a dime there are things you can do, right now, today, to make your Facebook author page better.

1. Post something on your page today. Something personal, posted directly on Facebook and not through Buffer or WordPress. Preferably something relatively on topic, or something about your cat. (All authors have cats, right?) And post something tomorrow, and the day after, and so on for the next 7 to 14 days.
2. Syndicate your blog posts to your FB author page. WordPress lets you do that right when you post. With Blogger, you have to do it by hand (which FB likes better, anyway) or do it through your Buffer account. That means your author page will have new content every day you blog. Continue doing this with every blog post you write for the next 7-14 days.
3. Find the author blog list and “like” other author blogs. Share some of the nicer posts to your own FB author page. Try to find a fresh author FB page to “like” every day for the next 7-14 days. Extra credit: Find this blog’s ‘Contact Me’ page and use the email form to let me know the URL of your FB author page so I can add you to the list. Let me know your genre(s) as well— I am going to be adding that to the list in future.
4. Make a FB author page list for your own blog. OK, if you don’t have a blog (yet,) you might make a ‘note’ on your FB author page itself that includes your list. Or some other online place. NOTE: I tried to add FB author pages to a Blogger blogroll and Blogger could not detect a feed for that page, so that’s one idea that won’t work.
5. Do ‘Housecleaning’ on your author page. Is your profile pic for your author page an actual picture of you? People relate to actual people pictures. A relatively current photo is nice unless you are as old and decrepit as me. I use older photos. I had thought of commissioning an artist to do an anime-style me, but haven’t got around to that yet. But make sure you take down any stuff on your author page that no longer belongs there. I have an old picture of a kitten in a boot (cover picture) that needs to be replaced by a new ‘kitten in boot’ picture, but alas I didn’t take one when my current three kittens (Jon-with-Rice, Moira and Declanna) were small enough to fit in boots.

Do these things, or some of these things, right now, today, and for the next 7-14 days. At the end of that time, your author page may not be as epic as FB pages used to be, but it will be better. And more useful to your writing career (or future writing career.)

My Facebook author page: (Please visit & ‘like!’) https://www.facebook.com/nissalovescats

My Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy FB group (author networking) https://www.facebook.com/groups/366357776755069/

Readers Group for Christian SF & Fantasy FB group (book promos allowed if in genre) https://www.facebook.com/groups/620983407928009/

#FixThatBlog – Can Bloggers Do Without Twitter/Facebook?

If you are conservative or moderate in your opinions, or if you have friends who are, you will probably already know that both Twitter and Facebook are wildly hostile ground for conservatives and everyone who is less than progressive/liberal. You can get your page taken down from Facebook for quoting the wrong Bible verse! And I’ve heard of someone who got their Twitter account taken down for having been retweeted by Donald Trump— even though I haven’t heard of them threatening Pres. Trump’s Twitter account— Twitter knows good free advertising for their service when it sees it.

I have had a lot of friends get suspended or banned at Facebook or Twitter. Sometimes they get sick of the whole game and migrate to newer social media like Gab or MeWe. But the problem is that alternative social media are small ponds. If you are trying to get attention for your blog posts or your books, they are not where the eyeballs are. The eyeballs are still over at TwitFace, sadly.

The key to using Facebook and Twitter is to remember that those social media are run by blind progressives who take it as dogma that all Republicans are members of the (Democrat-only) KKK organization— even, presumably, Herman Cain and Ben Carson. Therefore anything you post that isn’t progressive propaganda is suspect.

But a key to using any social media is that bland/generic posts vanish, only things that are a little rough or even shocking get attention. You want your post to go viral, you have to do something to get attention. And if you do something to get attention and are not progressive, you can get banned.

So what should your strategy be? If you don’t currently have a world-famous blog, I’d suggest you go ahead and use Twitter and Facebook, and post what you like (unless you like death threats and pictures of private parts.) Do (civilized) things to get attention. If your account is banned or suspended, you might think of just starting a different account, especially on Twitter.

You might also think of having a targeted Twitter or Facebook account. I did this when I had a separate blog for Keto diet posts, and a Twitter account to go with it. On that Twitter account, I followed only diet-related accounts, and posted only on that topic. Since my political opinions were not a part of that Twitter account, I didn’t post anything political there no matter the temptation.

If political opinion is a main topic of your blog, of course, you won’t use the apolitical-account approach. You will seek accounts that share your opinions, mostly, plus a few high-profile opposition to retweet along with the comment ‘can you believe THIS!’ or similar.

Minor or new social media, especially those that cater to freedom of speech advocates, have their uses, but they won’t replace the Big Boys. If you get banned/suspended from the Big Boys a lot, you may need to cultivate those alternative accounts to stay in touch with some of your True Fans. My Gab and MeWe accounts seemed kind of dead when I was using them a lot, but I realized I had far fewer friends/followers in those places. If I worked those accounts I would probably have a livelier time on those social media. But as I’ve not even been suspended once from Twitter and Facebook, I must admit I haven’t considered it a priority.

If I did have a problem with repeated suspensions or banning at TwitFace, rather than abandoning those sites altogether I would have a bland, non-controversial account that mainly served to share my blog posts and retweet/share the stuff of selected other people, and put a lot more effort into my MeWe account. (In fact, I think I need to start working on my MeWe account right now, at least in the sense of visiting it each time I blog and sharing my blog posts there. I get lazy because my blog posts can be shared to TwitFace as part of the WordPress. com posting experience.)

FTB: Syndicating Your Blog to Facebook or Twitter

#FixThatBlog

If your blog lacks readers in spite of the fact you are regularly posting, one thing you can do is syndicate your blog to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. That means, share each post to Facebook and Twitter as it is made. This gets more traffic to your blog posts. Your blog gets read, and you might gain a few regular readers.

WordPress makes it easy to syndicate to both. It’s right there when you are writing the post! And you can add hashtags and such to make your post onto Twitter and Facebook better and more likely to be read, discovered or shared.

Blogger takes more work— you have to either manually share in both places, or you have to use something like Buffer to do the work.

To share on Twitter, you need a Twitter account, and you need to build up some followers. NEVER buy followers. They won’t do you any good anyway. The best way is to adopt the rule of ‘following back.’ When someone follows you, unless they are clearly ladies in the prostitution industry or other bad apples, follow back. If any of them start posting crap to your feed, you can always unfollow.

Then, check out hashtags related to your blog’s niche or your books’ genre. Follow some of the people who post using the hashtag. Most of the people you follow will follow back, unless they are the Pope or something.

On Twitter, don’t just share your blog post. Retweet other people’s good stuff. And just say stuff. Especially if you can be amusing or witty or weird. Don’t abuse your twitter feed by posting links to your books, one after another, every minute for an hour. If you have to post multiple book links, use a service like Buffer to space them out. And post other stuff too!

On Facebook you have a decision to make. Do you post your content to your personal account? Your author page or author fan group? Some other group? I personally don’t post to my personal page any more. My blood relatives— the ones who still speak to me— are my Facebook friends. I syndicate to my author page (find it in the sidebar) and sometimes to a group of mine. If I post on a man-woman marriage related topic, I post it to my marriage page.

Some authors have more than one Facebook account, so they can freely use one of their accounts as an author page. But Buffer now no longer syndicates to personal pages, so you may need a FB author page or author fan group in order to use Buffer.

On Facebook, you also need to get a following. For a Facebook author page, that means getting people to ‘like’ your page. On Facebook, you don’t always know when someone has ‘liked’ your author page, and you can’t necessarily ‘like’ their page back if they ‘liked’ you with their personal account. And you want everyone, even fellow authors, to ‘like’ you with their personal account so that your page’s postings will show up in their feed.

Like Twitter, you want to share items from other people. You should have ‘liked’ as many author pages as you can— there is a list of Facebook author pages on this blog to get you started— and if an author shares a bit of news or an amusing observation, consider sharing it. Also share amusing memes if they are on topic. And anything related to your niche/genre. Since cats are my thing, I shared it when the famous Grumpy Cat died.

When I look at my stats, I often find I get some of my blog’s visitors through Facebook or Twitter. I think this syndication is worth doing. and so I mean to continue. Even a very few extra visitors add up over time.

Do you syndicate your blog posts to Twitter or Facebook? Has it worked for you? Let me know your experiences! 

Nissa Annakindt’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/nissalovescats

Nissa Annakindt’s Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/nissalovescats/

 

Doing Facebook Author Pages in 2019

I started my Facebook author page many years ago, and when I started, Facebook pages were far easier to do. Facebook wasn’t so selective about showing my page updates to those people who had ‘liked’ my page. These days, every time I post something, Facebook asks me if I want to ‘boost the post’ by turning it in to a Facebook ad. Which is why they show my posts to so few of the page fans.

Also, when I started, you could ‘like’ other, relevant pages as your page, and see a feed of just those pages. So I liked a lot of FB author pages and some genre-related pages and I had an easy time finding stuff to share on my page.

Now it’s different. No feed for the page. So no point, really, in ‘liking’ things as my page. I have to ‘like’ things related to my author page with my personal account and hope things just show up in my feed when I want to share things on my author page.

Some authors have come to the conclusion that a Facebook page is no longer worth the effort. They make ‘fan groups’ under Facebook groups instead. Which is good if you can pull it off. I would be embarrassed to start a ‘fan group’ at this point, though I do have two FB groups I’ve started that I tend to regularly.

If you blog using WordPress (instead of Blogger) you can syndicate your blog posts direct to your Facebook author page (as well as to Twitter.) This may not seem like much, but it’s ever so much more convenient than doing it manually! Your blog posts, syndicated to your author page, may seem to have minimal effect, but at least you are posting SOMETHING there.

Another thing I have found that works is posting an amusing meme or graphic on my author page. FB is willing to show that to a few people, and some of them ‘like’ it, and so my author page gets a little more ‘life’ out of it.

I also like to help author pages out by sharing some of their postings. I’ve started a list on this blog of FB author pages. The pages currently there are from members of the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/366357776755069/.   But the page is open to writers of every genre except porn/erotica. (If you want to add your FB author page, put a note to that effect in a comment and give me the link. You are expected to ‘like’ my author page and/or two other pages from the list to ‘pay’ for your own listing.)

I am still on the learning curve myself as far as Facebook author pages are concerned, and so I’m hoping to write other posts on the topic as I learn more. My FB author page is: Nissa Annakindt, poet, Aspie and cat person:  https://www.facebook.com/nissalovescats/  I hope some of you will consider ‘liking’ it and viewing my posts there.