In this day and age, social media is the vehicle that can help you connect to your audience. From a tweet to a share and everything in between, it’s yours to control!

Did you know that in 2014, there were 1.35 billion monthly active Facebook users? Although you won’t reach all of them, Facebook presents a huge opportunity for you to target your audience and increase your presence.

Back in 2013, we briefly touched on the subject of Facebook with our DIY Social Media: Promote Your Book on Facebook post. We want to expand on that topic with our first installment of a two-part series offering more tips on how you can use Facebook to your promotional advantage.

Today, we’ll discuss the subjects of maximizing your presence on this social medium, as well as engaging your audience through a Facebook fan page.

Let’s get down to business.

1. Build an audience –Unlike a personal Facebook page where you can actively “Friend” people, a fan page requires people to take action to “like” your page. Spreading the word about your fan page on your personal account is one great way to garner awareness. Another route that you can take is by using your blog or website to link out to your Facebook fan page.Both will help attract readers to your page to learn more about you as an author, your book, and any upcoming projects you have in the works.

2. Update and engage – Consider your Facebook fan page as an extension of your day job. What we mean by this is that at some point during each day, you should tend to your page. Whether you’re adding a new post or responding to a message or comment, being actively engaged with your page will help your content stay fresh and current, and continue populating in your fans’ newsfeeds.

Speaking of engagement, make sure that some of your posts encourage interaction from users who have liked your page. A way to do so is to end your posts with a question. Not only will this allow your followers to voice their opinions, it might also spark a conversation between followers. And don’t hesitate to jump into the conversation as well! Remember, as a rule of thumb, don’t end every post with a question. Rather, mix in some posts about upcoming events and news about your book(s), too.

3. Check the index –Have you ever wondered how the results appear when you hit “search” on Google? The answer to that question is that those pages are indexed. Indexing means that your page will be added to Google’s database to be queried when a user enters a keyword or phrase into the search engine. It’s useful to know that fan pages are indexed just like other websites, and depending on a user’s search criteria, there is a possibility that your page will show up in the results. This can be a great way for people to learn more about you and your book!

4. It’s all about insight –Promoting yourself and your book can often be a numbers game. When you create a fan page, Facebook will allow you to tap into analytics, will allow you to see how many people have viewed your posts within a week. But, perhaps the most important function of analytics is that it will allow you to see what posts received the most attention. This will help you to deliver the correct content to your followers.

From possibly showing up in Google search results to spurring audience engagement, a fan page is a great way to spread the word about you and your book!

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for the second part of this series where we will discuss the idea of how it “pays” to use Facebook!