What is Facebook Timeline?

Facebook Timeline is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: “Timeline is the story of your life…in a new way to express who you are.”  Your posts (literally all of them) are divided in two and appear on a timeline in chronological order below your profile picture and basic information.  The super cool feature about your Timeline and the most obvious change is the new cover option, which lets you save an image as a banner at the very top of your page. This is your place to shine Lulu author.  I’ve already seen some really fun and innovative uses for this space.  Just check out these cool personal Timelines and these company Timelines for some inspiration.

From Mashable - Note the use of a QR code as the profile pic. You can do this to link to your book's product page on Lulu.

As you can see in the links and images above, the more creative you get with your new cover image, the more likely a potential reader might stop and consider reading your works.  Consider placing illustrations from your books in this space if you’re a children’s book author, or perhaps even a passage from your work if you’re a novelist.  Make it fun and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.  This is a great chance to brand yourself and your work in an interesting and unique way.  To start setting up your Timeline, check out this handy slideshow from our friends at Mashable for step-by-step instructions.

Lifespan of a Post:

Right now, Facebook posts have an average lifespan of about three hours according to research recently done by Bitly. This is likely to decrease with Timeline, but you can ensure the right people are seeing your posts by trying different times throughout the day to pinpoint your highest traffic hours. It’s a good idea to set up your own personal Facebook page for your works too so you can have access to all of Facebook’s great insight tools, which show you which of your posts trend most and to what demographics. The more virality (the amount it will be shared) your posts have increase the likeliness that your fans will like it or share it, which will extend your posts’ lifespan.

Post more and post often:

Given the ever-decreasing life-span above, what you have to say has more potential to be lost in the sea of other frequent posters in your fans’ news feeds.  I still wouldn’t post things back to back, but once every hour to two hours certainly couldn’t hurt. The vast majority of readers are constantly plugged in now, and are always interested in discovering fresh, easy to digest content. But make sure that content is of quality and value or fans will flag you for spam.

Life Events:

You’ll notice you now have a new option next to your status updates on Facebook Timeline called “Life Event.” This is a great new feature specifically for authors because you can include your books, publications, and blog-type posts here and instantly share it with your readers.  You can include cover-photos along with your posts to really help them stand out – like so:

So there you go, you should be well-equipped to brave the new Facebook Timeline and be a cut-above the rest for marketing your titles through this channel.  Sound off on what you think about the new Facebook in the comments below and feel free to offer your own tips for how you’ve used it too.

To play, just visit the Lulu Facebook page and add onto the scary story we post on our wall.  We’ll even help get the ball rolling by providing the first line.  All you have to do is keep the story going.  The comment with the most likes will win! Easy, right?

So thrill us, chill us, and write us your best scary story.  Big savings await the ghoul who wins.  Happy Halloween!

No purchase necessary. The maximum savings for this offer is $100. Sorry, but this offer cannot be applied to previous orders. You can only use this code once, and unfortunately you can’t use this coupon in combination with other coupon codes. This great offer expire on December 31, 2011 at 11:59 PM, so don’t miss out! While very unlikely, we do reserve the right to change or revoke this offer at anytime, and of course we cannot offer this coupon where it is against the law to do so.

Did you know Lulu has a free marketing tool that allows you to share books with your Facebook friends? Did you know that the entire process could be done in less than a minute? Here’s how…

That’s it! You’re now sharing your book with your entire Facebook network.

Promote your books on Facebook.

This year, I imported a bunch of photos from Flickr to make a calendar for my Mom.  Shh…don’t tell my mom.

Get started before it’s too late!

How does having 1000 True Fans sound to you? Nick first posted about that self publishing strategy back in May, and then Dan, John, and Lauren followed up with different ways to use the internet to achieve that goal, whether you Gain an Audience Using Twitter, Use the Power of a Blog to Promote Your Work, or Take it to the Web with Tools for Online Marketing and Promotion.

You’re probably already a member of the Lulu Facebook Group and I’m sure you have checked out our Lulu Fan Page too, but how about using a Facebook Fan Page to promote your own books? After all, if you’re going to find 1000 fans, what better place to start than with your friends and family?

Here’s how to get started. Log in to your Facebook account, and scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the Advertising link in the bottom toolbar. Click that link (don’t worry, creating pages is free), and on the next page click the Create Facebook Page link. This will take you to the initial page of the setup process, where you can choose to promote either your specific book or yourself as a writer. Fill in those options and head to the next page.

You have a lot of different options here, and the main idea is to give your Fans as many ways as possible to connect with you. Do you have a book signing coming up? Post the details in the Events section. Is your new book trailer finished? Show it off in the videos. Finally got that blog going? Pull in your posts with an RSS feed. Think of your page as a hub for keeping your fans up to date on all the recent developments in your writing career.

Once you’ve got those set up, start some conversations. The discussion board is a great place to talk with your fans and solicit feedback on everything from ideas for your next book to reviews of your current one. Let them join in, too! This isn’t just about you after all. Create a community around your work and you’ll be surprised at what can happen.

Take Lulu author Brian Daniel Baker. Brian has published two books of poetry with Lulu, and he uses Facebook to promote them. His Fan page includes recent poems he’s penned, artwork from his second book, and a discussion board where he encourages fans to post their own poetry. In Brian’s own words, “my page has taken online networking to the next level, enabling me to freely share just this one side of me with the public, in a way that’s easy to manage and update. I can even track page traffic with auto-drawn graphs!”

Does that sound like something you might be interested in? Start your own Facebook Fan page here. Once it’s complete, share it with us in the comments below!

Still not sure how it works? Check out Brian’s page here or Lulu’s page here.

Javascript/HTML

Pros: Easy to add to your site, very customizable
Cons: Helps if you know CSS and HTML

Best For: Personal websites, personal weblogs, sidebars

1. Go to the Lulu Mini-Storefront Wizard
2. Click on HTML/Javascript Widget
3. Copy and paste the widget code on your site
4. Use CSS to style the widget any way you want

Flash

Pros: Easy to add to your site, works well on profiles pages
Cons: A little too big for a blog sidebar

Best For: MySpace, other profile pages

1. Go to the Lulu Mini-Storefront Wizard
2. Click on Flash Widget or MySpace Widget
3. Customize your widget
4. Copy and paste the widget code on your site

Facebook

Pros: It works on Facebook!
Cons: It only works on Facebook!

Best For: Facebook!

1. Go to the Lulu Mini-Storefront application on Facebook
2. Click on Add Application

Jackson Fox, Community UX Engineer