Is it necessary to have a Facebook account? When you have a creative hobby or profession and want to share your work with others, you need to be on social media.
So on which social media do you have to be and how do you make your presence successful?
In this article, I talk about Facebook and in another one, I gave a review of 365 Days of Facebook Success, which is a helpful tool.
If you are starting out building a social media presence, my recommendation is not to start on all the platforms you can find. It’s too overwhelming, trust me. Start with one, and once you get the hang of it, build from there by adding one other social medium at a time.
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Table of Contents
Is it necessary to have a Facebook account?
Facebook is not for everyone. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing or are a very private person, Facebook is probably not suitable for you. But if you want to show your creative work and build a fanbase, or even want to do business, you should have a Facebook account.
For years, I have maintained blogs about my various pursuits. And since I always wanted to try any new medium, I have been on Facebook for a really long time.
All social media have the disadvantage they can suck you into their timeline. If you don’t discipline yourself, you can spend hours on either one.
Keep in mind that you should have another objective to be on a social platform as an individual or professional.
As a business or to promote your work, your goal is to build on your presence and brand awareness. Strange as it may sound, as a consequence of that goal, you should spend as little time as possible on social media.
Your ultimate goal should be to get people to your website or email list.
Related: How to Make a Successful Facebook Page and Get More Likes
There are several social media that might be interesting for you. I have been or still am on most of them.
Despite the difficulties that Facebook and its CEO sometimes face, the platform has proven its worth. It’s been around for a while.
Later in the article, I will go into more detail about the possibilities and disadvantages.
LinkedIn is great if you are very serious about your business or professional job. I am not up-to-date anymore in my knowledge of LinkedIn because I quit when I retired as a graphic designer.
It is less suitable to show hobby products or other creative works.
Instagram is great for any visual hobby or profession. The main difference between Instagram and Facebook is the interaction. Instagram is mainly in one direction, from sender to viewer. Facebook can be more interactive if you use groups and pages.
The advantage of Instagram is the extensive use of hashtags, making it easy to get people to look at your images.
Pinterest is a visual search machine. Like Instagram, it is mainly one-way traffic, yet it can give you exposure from the start. There is no need to have a lot of followers to get a lot of traffic to your Pins. On the other platforms, you won’t have a lot of exposure at the beginning. You’ll have to build a fanbase first.
Twitter, Tumblr, TikTok, and others
There are more social media than Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Pinterest.
- For visual presence, a social platform like Twitter is less important;
- Tumblr is not well-known and probably will not generate a lot of visitors;
- TikTok might be interesting but has to prove its value in time. For me, it has too many privacy issues.
To post, I recommend using a scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Tailwind. You can spend a dedicated amount of time a week scheduling posts for a whole week, which is very time-saving.
Another aspect to consider is, that social media come and go. Does anybody remember Google+? In the Netherlands, we had a platform called Hyves. That’s gone as well.
Keep that in mind and don’t make your success completely dependent on a chosen social medium. Have a website of your own and preferably also an email list. A social media presence helps you promote that.
What are the steps to being on Facebook?
Maybe you already have a Facebook account. Consequently, you have liked pages of other people or businesses, and joined groups.
In the past, Facebook’s algorithm focused on pages, but now it prioritizes groups. It changes the algorithm almost every year, so it’s best not to react to every whim but set your own path.
Personal profile
Your personal profile is the heart of your Facebook presence. This is where you stay in touch with family and friends.
In order to make a page or a group, you’ll need a personal account. If you don’t want to use it, just put all filters to maximum security. You can limit who sees your posts and who can ask to be your friend.
Try to consider what you want to use your personal profile for. Are you going to use it to expand your contacts who can like your page or join your group? Do you want it solely for family and friends? Different goals ask for different behaviour.
Remember though that the internet is the public domain. Even if you have set all your filters to the severest restrictions, you are putting your messages somewhere over which you have no control.
This is not to scare you off, just to urge you to be acting mindfully when posting. My recommendation is to only post what you don’t mind others seeing, even when you only post them for your friends.
I still see businesses that have a personal profile. One of Facebook’s rules is that only individuals can have a personal account and they can change your profile to a page if they think you didn’t comply with their rule.
The maximum number of friends you can have is 5,000.
As a person you make friends, a page gathers likes, and a group has participants.
Pages
Where personal profiles are maximised to 5.000 friends, the number of likes you can collect on a page is unlimited. A page can be for both a business and a person.
At the moment, there are 6 different page types you have to choose from. You can change it later, so no need to fuss too much about whether you are making the right choice.
- Local Business or Place;
- Company, Organization or Institution;
- Brand or Product;
- Artist, Band or Public Figure;
- Entertainment;
- Cause or Community.
There is no limit to how many pages you can create. It’s tempting to make several, yet you have to give each one time. Time can also be used to create something. 🙂
Meta Business Suite is a dashboard to use when you can control several pages and Instagram accounts in one go. It’s useful to schedule posts on both Facebook and Instagram. Unfortunately, you can’t schedule posts on your personal profile.
Related: Profitable Selling Pictures Online? Which Problems and Possibilities Exist?
Groups
You can make your Facebook group public or private. Private groups tend to be more exclusive, which makes contacts feel appreciated. A group differs from a page mainly in the way people can post.
A page has more distance from the likers than a group has from the participants. If you like discussion and interaction, a group is better suited than a page.
The message a liker sends to a page is not seen by the other likers. Group members can post on the timeline of the group and the posts are seen by the other members.
Related: 2019 012 Catching up on Facebook
How to be successful on Facebook?
- Preferences. Start by looking at all the preferences and setting the desired options and restrictions. Remember that you can always change them;
- Personal details. You are not obliged to share all the data that is asked for, only your name. One of Facebook’s rules is that you should be a real person;
- Privacy. Whenever you feel uncomfortable with sharing your data, don’t blame Facebook. If you join a social network, you comply with its rules;
- Automate. You can’t automate messages on your personal profile. You can schedule on pages and in groups;
- Organize. Set goals on the desired targets and make lists of possible posts. Make it easy on yourself;
- What you can see. Profiles, groups and pages you visit a lot will pop up higher in your timeline;
- Who can see you. Spam can be reported and if someone is annoying you, block them.
Keep an eye on people whose Facebook presence you admire. Why do certain posts appeal to you? What kind of photos or texts do they use? Model what they do in your own posts.
What do you think, is it necessary to have a Facebook account? Tell me in the comment box below.
No!!! That was my initial reaction. Not that I principally object to Facebook or having a Facebook account. I have several myself.
But I have no creative hobby or profession. Nevertheless, you do give some powerful tips I can use.
And yes, I admit, I started with all social media at once and added every new one I could find. Not smart.
In the end, I lost track of what I shared with whom and who shared what with me. Not smart.
Thank you for sharing. Good article. And you have another one about Facebook, I saw. I am going to read that as well.
Thanks for the compliment, Daisy!
Don’t be too hard on yourself. We all made a lot of mistakes when we started and probably we still do. That’s how we learn and when we adjust we can better our way of working.
You surely don’t need to be an artist to promote yourself on Facebook. We can all benefit from social media, as long as we take care to not let ourselves sucked into the algorithms!
Thanks for your comment and have fun.