Promoting Yourself with Facebook

Today I came across Cassandra Clare’s Facebook page and decided to take a gander.  She has an appealing photo at the top of the page which immediately lets the reader know that her page is going to be about her works (The Infernal Devices, The Mortal Instruments, The Dark Artifices which I assume is yet to come).  The page features artwork from the covers of her published books to give the reader a sense of familiarity.

I also noticed that with her books being made into movies, she is taking the time to post official results of casting the characters.  This is something that readers would appreciate and allows them to envision the characters in the roles before they see the movies.  There is a section which lists a few things that Cassandra Clare likes, which gives the reader a sense of her personality.  She also makes a few personal posts and refers readers to some other sites to gain more information as well.

She is also not ashamed to tout some of her own successes.  For example a post of hers reads, “…#Clockwork Princess was the #1 trending topic on Twitter worldwide…wow!” and appears right above the newly-released design for the book cover.  Great promoting.  What is even better though, is that while I was reading the site, I noticed she helped drive her own traffic by running a promotion to get enough Tweets to “reveal” the cover.  Genius way to promote her book, while allowing readers to feel they are a part of the process. 

I would not consider the page to be as personal as I might (as a reader) like to see, however, it works for the intended purpose.  This is built for people who are already fans of her books and is therefore meant mostly to inform readers of upcoming events, books, movies, etc.   She was extremely easy to locate when searching by name.  It appears that Clare posts approximately once per week to create a consistent schedule and keep the content current for the readers.   The posts are successful, including many “likes” and comments.  Overall, I would say that Clare utilizes her Facebook page in a way that will draw in her readers and keep them interested in current and future works.   In fact, I will probably be following her now on Facebook to keep up with the new announcements. Kudos to Cassandra Clare and thank you for the great ideas!  Hopefully this has some great examples that anyone can try to follow when trying to promote themselves via social media.

Happy Ninjawriting everyone!