Skip to content

Social Media and Communication

I know there’s been a flurry of concern, information, and rumors going around on Facebook. I’ve seen them, so a lot of you have probably seen them.

This is happening because the Facebook overlords made announcements that they want to change how groups work. Then someone wrote an article. This has happened before, and it will happen again.

It’s highly unlikely that groups will go away. The majority of Facebook users would band together, reach through the internet, and kill Zuck with their metaphorical digital bare hands. And then they would leave the platform. Facebook knows this.

However. There is some stuff happening and there will probably be changes. So let’s talk about it. (If you care. You might not. *shrugs*)

Romance Facebook hasn’t really been talking about this that I’ve seen, but indie polish Facebook has been talking about it for a couple weeks now: Facebook has gotten really enthusiastic about banning people and groups for both perceived and actual slights. So: swearing, sexy photos, and some oddly specific words are currently outlawed. (I guess gardening groups are coming up with creative alternatives to the word hoe? And you might not be able to tell us you bought a new trash can. And people are getting posts with reasonable use of the word “white” removed, but posts that are reported for genuine racism or death threats have been left alone. WTF Facebook?)

If your author groups are asking you not to post photos that aren’t squeaky clean, this nonsense is why.

As for the rest, it has to due with some feared algorithm changes that would mean that group members don’t see group posts. This effectively eliminates one of the main ways authors have been communicating with readers, so I understand why everyone is worried.

We can’t really do anything about it. We can cheat a little bit though. You can go into your group setting and change your notification settings to “all posts”. You can go into your group tab and star your favorite author groups so that you can get to them easily. You can seek out author groups and interact with posts so that they’re more likely to show up on your timeline.

Some people are talking about moving their groups to MeWe. I will not be doing this right now as MeWe is currently the happy home of many of the extreme conservatives, anti-vaxxers, and conspiracy theorists that got booted off Facebook and Twitter. No thanks.

However! I’m already on twitter: https://twitter.com/GenevaVand

And I have an active user profile on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16070675.Geneva_Vand

I also have pages on Queer Romance Ink and BookBub, though you can’t really communicate with me directly there.

And you can always come here to the website for the blog posts and book page updates, and the comments box/contact form/email address. If you follow the blog, in the website sidebar or at the bottom of the page, you can have it sent straight to your email.

So if Facebook groups implode a little bit, I’m still all over the internet. Most authors are. And I would be thrilled to hear from you however you feel like contacting me. (Most authors are.)

In the meantime, here’s the Facebook group, if you want to come hang out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/genevavandsbookwyrms

Published inUncategorizedWriting

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *