Using a Facebook-page for your blog
Perhaps a bit late, but I’ve read on the internet (so it must be true!) it is perfectly okay to wish people a ‘Happy New Year’ till Valentine’s Day, so: Happy New Year to all of you, and may 2016 be filled with fun, love, happiness and joy!
One of my resolutions, in 3000px!, is to keep writing about how Social Media can be used to help you get your blog out there. My first article this year is about the biggest Social Media Platform, which I have not covered yet in my previous posts: Facebook.
Hate or love!
Hate it or love it, Facebook is the biggest, the largest and most popular of them all. And it is unlikely that this will change anytime soon.
Facebook, however, has a very strict policy about their accounts. One can only create an account when providing real life name and information. It is what keeps them alive; for business purposes Facebook needs to be sure their users are real persons. Yes, they say it is because of the noble purpose of ‘connecting people’ and ‘building real friendships’and while that may be true, the other reason is less samaritan but purely business. They do not want their precious database to be littered with fake accounts, double accounts and so on, as those do not add to the value for marketeers who use Facebook and their database.
Pages instead of an account
All that aside, there is really no reason to not use Facebook for your Second Life blog, Flickr or your avatar in general. For those, Facebook offers you the option to create a page. It will give you the opportunity to promote your blog, your Flickr and you can keep in touch with the SL community when not inworld – without having it displayed on your real life account.
Pages, unlike accounts, cannot friend people, they cannot tag people – only other pages – (to prevent businesses from direct spamming by unwanted tagging) and they depend on ‘likes’ in order to show up on peoples Facebook-walls. The big difference between an account and a page is the way of interacting, you are – as a page – not a person anymore, so things are a tad limited.
There are many categories for creating a page and if you already have a Real Life Facebook account, it is very easy to make a page for your SL Account and so use Facebook to promote your blog.
Worries about people finding out your real life identity via your SL page? No need!
When you do your Page-posts, -comments and -pics you will be posting with the name your page has. Nobody but you (and other admins, if you want to have another administrator on your page – so be cautious about that) will see who the real life account behind the page is.
How to create a page for your Second Life?
You first need a real life account, but as Facebook is so common these days I will assume in this article that you are already somewhat familiar with Facebook in your real life.
Go to ‘create a page’ and then choose: Public Figure (the best category, as your avatar is a persona), see my screenshot below:
The rest of the menu is really dead simple.
Once you have your Page all set up, in about…..5 mins? you are good to go! A nice banner/cover image (the perfect size being: 851px by 315px), a profile picture, the link to your blog in the ‘about’section and tataaa….you can post your blog, your Flickr, your ramblings, your rants…whatever! All you now need is to get people to ‘Like’ your page, so they will get your updates on their wall.
Now the more tricky part may be : how do you ‘like’, ‘comment’ and post on other pages as ‘your page’ and not as your RL you?
That is bit hidden….but not hard! Just remember and keep on checking when you are surfing around on Facebook.
I, for one, have certain moments per day when I want to ‘facebook’ as Caitlin, so I make sure I am logged in as my page, and not with my real me.
How?
See this screenshot on how to switch from being your first-life you, to being your SL page on Facebook:
Going back to your first life-you…the same way, but in reverse! Simples!
Bold and Beautiful
Of course you can be bold and create an account with your SL name, thousands of people do and yes..I have had mine for 5 years, till this week. I got reported for being unreal, and yeah…that is true. Caity was not a real-life account. I took the chance and all those years it went fine and now her account is gone; as I did not wish to provide a copy of my rl passport to Facebook and change the name into my real life name.
I already had a page for Caitlin via my real life account, as I secured the name some years ago, and so I am now only on SL Facebook with my page. Of course I liked having the account as well, but ….it is against the Facebook ToS, so I cannot and will not whine and complain about losing it. A page is good too!
If you have a Facebook page, new or existing, feel free to add them in the comments and I will surely ‘like’ you back with mine, which is: www.facebook.com/caitsworld
Happy Facebooking!
SL Blogger Support 
Reblogged this on Cait's World and commented:
A post I had in mind for ages, but since my SL Facebook account got reported and deleted today – it triggered me to give some tips and tricks on how to use a Facebook page for your SL Blog!
Great article, Caity! About 25% of my post views come from Facebook, so it is a great platform for driving traffic to your blog. My blog is configured so I don’t have to do a thing for my posts to show up on my Facebook page – great news for busy bloggers!
To have your posts added directly to your Facebook page, go to WP Admin – Settings – Sharing – Publicize. Click the Publicize Settings and select the drop down under Facebook. Just follow the prompts to add your Facebook page (or you can add your personal Facebook account, if you prefer).
There is also a specific widget for Facebook pages you can add to your sidebar. This works only with pages – not a personal Facebook account. It is a quick link for your readers to find your Facebook page. It is simple to set up and can contain as little as a title link, or be as complex as showing your header photo, profile pics and even a stream of posts, depending on how much you want to show. You can find this by going to WP Admin – Appearance – Widgets and selecting the Facebook Page PlugIn, completing the information and dragging it to the active section of your sidebar.
There are other Facebook options using WordPress, including adding a Like Box, Sharing or embedding your Facebook profile or page on your site. You can find WP help pages for using these functions by clicking the links on the Publicize page.
Feel free to Like me on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/PicsByPeep/
Thanks for the comments and extra tips for WordPress-bloggers, Peeps (saves me another blogpost, haha :p). I will go like your page now, see you on FB! 🙂
The question about the Facebook Page plug-in has come up a couple of times in group chat (confusion about it having to be a page and not a personal FB account). Hopefully it will be helpful to other bloggers! (Caity’s page liked and thank you!)
Love your article. I used to have problems with my Facebook page. Some people say it doesn’t show up on their timeline. Mines is http://facebook.com/kphoenixlove
Thank you Phoenix! I will make sure you look you up too! 🙂
You’re welcome. And thanks.
I’m going to “like” yours now
I used to be bold and have a facebook account for Biné, but it was taken down years ago. I have been holding back on making a page, as I was worried it would be connected with my account, but your words reassured me, and I now have a FB page. Still brand new, but in time… who knows?
https://www.facebook.com/bine.rodenberger/
Thank you Biné, and good to see your Page on Facebook! Lovely!
And yet another great article and I’ve learned something from you.. I have a Facebook page but actually did NOT know about the FB policy about fake accounts.. I will like your page, it will be so much easier to follow your lovely blog.. (Love the Dog!!) 😀 https://www.facebook.com/Picazzo-729001187165503/?ref=hl
Thanks for your comment and compliment Picazzo! I’ve just liked your page, nice to meet you! And Chuck says hi back too 😛
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