A Facebook fanpage that's not putting anyone to sleep

If you're thinking of hopping onto Facebook with your book, to reach the growing audience of over 750 million active users, go for it! But before you build your fanpage, you've got to check out the one for Harpercollins' Before I Go To Sleep. This is a fanpage that has been executed brilliantly, and as a result has garnered over 9,038 fans! Here are a few specifics they rocked, that you should apply to your page:

The landing page they created encourages folks to "Like" the page (making incoming viewers into permanent fans so the author's updates will appear in their home feed) and explains what the benefit will be of doing so. Basically the author is revealing the contents of the book, chapter by chapter, and the next portion is only released after reaching a certain number of fans. Because of this, the viewers gain something of value by liking the page. And this sort of contest is a great way to get people talking about your book, and sharing it with their friends.

Another highly functional feature included on the landing page are the links directing readers to places the book can be purchased. Thus they've made it easy to convert the reader from a passive observer to a buyer. Don't make your customers work to buy your book.

(Feeling overwhelmed already? No worries, you can easily create these types of custom pages for your book. I found a useful tool today, called Pagemodo for creating free custom landing page, that might help. And there are companies like HyperArts that will build one for you.)

In addition Before I Go To Sleep made excellent use of custom tabs that you can add onto your fanpage, including an option to listen to the audio book, check out the book trailer, and get a signed bookplate. As I mentioned earlier last week, giving away content is an excellent way to interest people in a book

And finally the fanpage's wall is filled with entertaining and engaging updates from the author. The content ranges from news about the book, to polls, to personal thank-yous.

So there you have it folks- what are you waiting for? Get busy!