You just reached 700 Page likes. Nice work!
Create a post thanking the people who like your Page.
Facebook bosses me around every day. The site regularly reminds me that I haven’t posted in a while, a prompt that recently inspired me to write something lest I disappoint my fans! (If you’re a FB member, you can read it by clicking this line). It also tells me how many people “like” my page and whether they “engaged” with it.
Technology has continually broadened our possibilities for engagement. We call them followers and connections and friends, and hope that they will “engage” with us. But…while online engagement has the potential to invite millions of outsiders into our lives, it’s not that simple.
Ten years ago, when Consequential Strangers came out, my publisher urged me to “engage with potential readers. Twitter was new, and book tours were becoming rarer. I could reach so many more readers — hundreds of thousands more, they promised, if I was successful.
I tried and would later write about this confusing and ultimately disappointing time in a short piece for Publisher’s Weekly, entitled, “The Audacity of Hype.” In the piece, I admitted I’d hear about an author “unexpectedly” touching the hearts of millions in an obscure YouTube video and think that I could do that, too. BUT…
The old guys in Miami who comb the beaches probably felt that way when the amateur “metal detectorist” discovered a million-dollar treasure trove under the sand.
My publicist warned me that it might be hard. But PR agents always issue disclaimers after quoting their monthly fees: They will try to make you stand out from the crowd but can’t “promise” anything, becasue, as this one put it, “It’s a noisy world out there!”
To beat the system, I called Dr. Bernie Hogan, a social network analyst I’d interviewed for Consequential Strangers and naively said, “So you understand how all this works. How do I get my new book to go viral?”
Did I expect a list of ten top tips? Not really; in those days, researchers were just beginning to delve into the (then fairly new) social media explosion. But Bernie knew more than I:
“You have about as much chance of having your book go viral,” he said, “as you once did of being on Oprah.”
In 1994, I was on Oprah. (I have the mug and the videotape to prove it.) But Bernie was right and, by today’s standard, even more so. Oprah’s potentially fame-building show has been off the air since 2011, the world is even noisier now, and, thanks to tech giants who know how to divert us, our collective attention span is shorter.
Still, I watch with curiosity — and, thankfully, without bitterness — as Facebook and other “metrics” tell me how I’m doing as an author who’d like to interact with her readers in 2019.
My last post on Facebook reached 82 people. Not 820 or 82,000 — but way more than I’d invite to my birthday party.
I also still try to encourage, if not potential readers, at least conversationalists. I don’t do it for the numbers, but because I love to hear from people. I value consequential strangers! So when Facebook recently urged me to contact everyone I know, I said, “why not?”
Now, FB tells me, a total of 714 people have “liked” my page to date.
I refuse to play the numbers game. 714 is 100 more followers than I had last month — and way, way, way more than I’d invite to my birthday party. It might be more people than I actually know. But hey! 714 people like me. Some are real friends, some almost strangers, but they really really like me, as Sally Field famously said.
In the old days, if you reach 714 people, your book tour was a success. I’ll take it.
Mmm….better start working on that thank-you note!
Always nice to be in touch!