Hello Soup-Mates,
I have recently created a Facebook Page where I have started to post many of my poems. My hope is to reach more than just other poets - although I do not have many followers at this time.
I notice a number of you who I have befriended on FB post your poems directly to your wall, but I thought I would share with you some of my experiences with a Page. The Facebook Page features comes with tracking statistics that show you how many people have viewed each posting. You can also see where your followers and page viewers come from with other profile information. I think this is a neat way to see the exposure that your poems are getting.
Also, by posting to your wall, your poems get mixed in with other status posts and other things from other people. By putting your poems on a Page, you group all the poems together and people can easily scan through your entire portfolio - or as many as they choose. When other people post to your page - it appears in a side window. You can approve the post to appear on the Wall or keep it in the "Posts by Others" box to keep clutter off of your page.
And, everytime someone "likes", "shares", or posts a comment on you poem, their friends can see the link as well which can also help give more exposure to your poems. I have had my page up for a little over one month. Of the 58 people that follow me, 48 are friends of mine and 10 are complete strangers that found my page on their own. I would like more, but I am trying to be patient and understand that poetry isn't for everybody.
If you want to take a look at my Page as an example of what you can do - although you will not be able to see the tracking statistics - you can follow this link:
https://www.facebook.com/poemsbyjoe (If the link does not take you to the Page, you can do a search on "Poems, Lyrics and Stuff by an Average Joe" - open the one under "Pages" - this is also a Group - but the Group feature is not as flexible as the Page feature.)
If you "Like" the page, that would be great - but, no pressure. Just check it out so see if it is something you might want to do.
Joe