Facebook can be a big tool for weblit writers: it can help draw in readers and allow you to interact with the readers you already have. The primary venue for this interaction is through the Fan Page. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't make it incredibly easy to use fan pages, so I hope this article will help.

Standard Profile, Group, or Fan Page?
There's been some debate over which style of Facebook to use for interacting with readers: a standard profile, a user group, or a fan page. I'll take a moment to quickly compare them.

Why The Fan Page Is the Ideal Choice For Weblit Writers
Fan pages offer a good balance between easy-of-use and customization, but they're the ideal choice for weblit writers for two reasons: first, they allow the fan page admin to view statistics of the fan page's usage through Facebook's Insights interface. These Insights provide information on the demographics of your fan base, including gender, age, location, and language. Insights also statistics on interactions, showing how often your fans comment or write on your page's wall or how often they "like" something you've posted.

Second, anything you post on your fan page shows up in the News Feed of every fan you have, right along the updates from their friends and family members. This is a huge boost to the weblit writer's visibility, as it allows you to keep your content in front of the eyes of your readers and remind them that you are living, active writer.

Setting Up Your Fan Page
To set up a fan page for your weblit, go to Facebook.com. If you already have a Facebook account, log out: this will take you to the raw Facebook page. Underneath the Sign Up block, you should see a link that says "Create a Page for a celebrity, band, or business." Click that (or click here for a direct link) and you'll be taken to a page where you can categorize and name your fan page.

You'll be asked to log into your Facebook account (or register, if you don't have one already), then you'll be taken to your fan page. From here, you can start adding content to it.

I'd highly suggest you start by adding at least one photo or logo to serve your fan page, and add some basic content under the Info tab, like your website's url, a short bio, and some contact information. Don't forget the little info box beneath the photo: this is another good place to drop your URL.

The Wall
Now hop over to the Wall tab. This serves as your main source of interaction with your fans. From this tab, you can update your status, share a link, upload photos, share a video, or create an event.

Anything you post on your Wall will show up in the feeds of all of your fans, and you'll see any comments they make. Your fans can also write directly on your wall. You can filter the Wall feed to show everything, only things posted by you, or only things posted by your fans.

Editing Your Page
Underneath your photo, you'll see a link called Edit Page. Hit that, and you'll be taken to an admin panel with a handful of settings and options you can tweak around with.

Settings
The first category (simply called Settings) allows you to restrict your fan page by Country or Age, if, for some reason, you wanted to limit your fans to only people from Paraguay that are 18 or older. From this category, you can also take your fan page offline (make it so only admins can view it) and set your gender (used in feeds; i.e., "Gabriel Gadfly updated his information).

Wall Settings
The second category, called Wall Settings, lets you control the Wall's default view -- your posts only, or everyone's -- and a default landing tab. I suggest leaving the default landing tab to Info, unless you've built a custom bio tab (more on that later). Finally, you can decide whether or not to allow fans to write on your wall and whether or not to allow them to post photos, videos, and links.

Mobile Settings
You can use this to set things up so that you can post to your fan page from your cell phone.

Applications
Under the major settings, you'll find a list of Applications. By default, Events, Links, Notes, Photos, Videos, and Discussions are all enabled.

Events
Events are a great way to draw in new readers. Here's how: when you create an event and invite your fans, all their friends see that they're attending the event. Depending on how you set up your event, your fans can even invite their friends to attend. Are you attending a convention somewhere? Create an event for it and invite your fans to come out to see you. Your event doesn't even have to have a physical location. Host a "Chat With the Author" Event using the chat client of your choice, and invite people to come and talk to you during a specified time.

Edit: valeriec80 over at the Weblit.us forums pointed something out to me. Facebook doesn't allow you to invite fans to an event. This is, in my opinion, a design flaw on Facebook's part (though some people think it may be a spam-control issue). Here's a workaround: create an open Event so that anyone can list themselves as attending, and send a link to the Event to all your fans using the Send Update To Fans feature (see below).

Links
The obvious use of the Links application is to share links to your latest content with your readers, but let's think about that for a second: most of your fans are probably already checking your site religiously, so do you really need to remind them of new content on Facebook as well? Instead, consider dropping links to things like events you're attending, places on the internet where you or your work is mentioned, or causes you want to rally behind.

Notes
Notes are a big help to weblit authors, because they allow you to provide your fans with special fan-only content. Post special bonus chapters available only on your fan page -- this is a great way to encourage readers from your website to migrate over and fan you on Facebook, by the way. You can format notes with some basic HTML, and you can add photos to them.

Photos
Photos can add a lot of life to your fan page. Throw up photos of your pets. Attend a convention? Throw up photos of your booth. Put up photos of your fans (with their permission, of course) wearing a t-shirt with your logo. Remember, too, that "photo" doesn't necessarily mean photographs. Put up character art, or feature pieces of fan art. Put up pictures of your latest promotional flyer.

Videos
Using Facebook's built-in video application, you can record a video directly off your webcam, or you can upload a video from your hard-drive. (To embed a video from Youtube or another source, use the Links application.) These are great for personal announcements, because it allows you to actually talk to your fans like they're real people (and they are!). Are you holding a public reading of your work somewhere? Grab a fan and give them a video camera to record the event so you can share it with other fans that couldn't attend.

Breaking Out the Big Guns: Static FBML
So you know how to use Events, Notes, Links, Photos, and Videos, but your Facebook fan page is still lacking something and you want to spruce it up. If only you had more control! Enter Static FBML, a Facebook application for fan pages -- you can find it on your Edit Page interface, at the bottom of the Applications category. Go ahead and enable Static FBML for your page.

FBML stands for FaceBook Markup Language, a sort of analog of HTML. FBML is the language used to code pretty much every application used on Facebook, and with the Static FBML application, you can use FBML (and by proxy, most HTML) to create custom tabs and boxes that you can modify to your heart's content.

When you enable Static FBML, one instance of the FBML application will appear under your Applications category. Click edit, and you'll be taken to a simplistic page where you can insert a title for your FBML box and the code you want to render. Beneath that code box is a small link that will allow you to add another FBML box -- you can add as many as you like.

Using Static FBML - What Can It Do?
What Code Works?
FBML isn't quite the same as HTML -- it allows most HTML tags, but disallows others, and FBML has a number of proprietary tags that emulate certain minor bits of scripting. Two pages of the Facebook Developer's Wiki are useful here: Allowed FBML and HTML Tags and this page listing several proprietary FBML tags.

Boxes and Tabs -- What's the Difference?
By default, when you save your first Static FBML box, a new tab will appear on your fan page labeled Boxes and your Static FBML code will be rendered inside a small box (apt, huh?) on that page. The Boxes tab is good if you have multiple small pieces of code you want to render, but I don't like the name Boxes, as it doesn't really tell users what it contains.

To move your Static FBML box out of the Boxes tab and to somewhere more useful, view your fan page, go to the Boxes tab, and click the small pencil icon on the box you want to move. You'll have two choices: Move to Wall Tab or Remove Box.

If you click Move to Wall Tab, the box will be rendered in the left column on your Wall Tab, somewhere under the box listing your fans. This is useful for content you want to be made readily available to your fans -- at the moment, I'm using it to show a Paypal Donation widget so they can support my writing without ever leaving Facebook. Other uses: highlight a piece of merchandise or a reminder for a seasonal event.

If you click Remove Box, the Static FBML box will be removed from the Boxes tab. From there, you can make it into its own tab by clicking the little Plus sign on the Tabs bar (see example below) and selecting the box you want to make into a tab.

Finally, once you've added a new Tab, you can change the order of your Tabs by click-and-holding on the tab and dragging it into the spot you want it.

When To Use Tabs
Making your Static FBML box into a Tab gives you a wealth of real estate to use, as the left sidebar is completely removed when the user is viewing a Static FBML tab. This is a good place to play around: add a background, format text or images, embed audio or video (more on this later), and more. Possible uses: draw in new readers with the first chapter of your weblit project in a tab, with a link to the main site at the bottom. Add a bio tab with a video introduction to you and your work. Use a tab to highlight notable fans that contribute a lot to your success.

FBML Proprietary Tags -- What's Useful?
Many of the proprietary FBML tags aren't really useful to fan pages, as they're meant to be used in applications. That said, there's a few gems that pop out.

Fb:comments
The Fb:comments tag allows you to create a comment box withing your Static FBML box. This is useful for Tabs where you want to allow users to comment directly on the tab.

Fb:if-is-group-member
Checks if the fan is a member of Group X (where X is a specified group). If they are, show them the content contained in this tag; otherwise, show them something else. Useful concept: provide hidden content available only to users who join a (as-yet theoretical) Weblit Bookclub on Facebook.

Fb:restricted-to
Show certain content only to fans from a specified location or of a specific age.

Fb:is-it-april-fools
Show certain content only on April 1st.

Fb:mp3
Provide an audio box that streams an mp3 file you specify. Very useful for offering audio recordings of you reading your work.

Fb:random & Fb:random-option
Display one random-option's content. Options can be weighted so some show up more often than others.

Fb:swf
Embed a shockwave flash file into your Static FBML box. Can be used to display videos.

Send Updates To Fans
Facebook allows you to send a mass message to some or all of your fans. This is particularly useful since you can narrow your update to target only users within a specific demographic based on location (drilling down as far as city), gender, or age. Are you taking an impromptu trip to Chicago next week? Fire off a quick update to fans in that area inviting them to meet you for a cup of coffee.

How To Get Fans
Of course, now that you've got a Fan Page, how do you get people to become your fan?

Ask Friends and Family
Sometimes, it may be as simple as that: ask your friends and family who read your site to become your fan on Facebook. Hell, even if they don't read your site, ask them to become your fan anyway -- it pads your numbers. I picked up my first 25 fans just by inviting people to look at my Fan Page.

Add a Fan Box To Your Website
Facebook offers a widget called a Fan Box that can be shown on your website. It has a few settings, but it's shows viewers of your site how many fans you have and provides them with an easy-to-use link that will allow them to become your fan directly from your site.

Promote With an Ad
Facebook allows you to pitch your fan page to any of its 300 million users by purchasing ads from them. You can specify an image and some text and target your ad to a certain demographic. This is where the Insights statistic-gathering comes in: if you see that your fan page is popular with females 18-25, then pitch your ad to females 18-25 and you'll probably attract a number of new followers. You can set a daily spending limit for your ad campaign, and choose to run your ad based on number of impressions or on number of clicks.

Conclusions
Facebook fan pages allow weblit writers to find new sources of readers and to better interact with the readers they already have, but a fan page needs to be more than just another collection of links and redundant information. The content on the fan page needs to be largely exclusive to the fan page in order to give fans a reason to interact with it: if you're just reposting the same stuff you put on your website or on Twitter, you aren't using your fan page effectively.

I hope this article has been helpful to weblit authors who want to use Facebook fan pages to supplement their work. I am by no means an expert on FBML or fan pages, but if you have any questions, drop them in the comments and I'll see what I can do to help.