I just created a Facebook Fan Page for The Digital Handshake and, in doing so, spent a great deal of time seeing how other authors are using the vehicle to market their own books.
Though I did not find that many, I decided to start a list of authors who are either using Fan Pages or Groups. You are welcome to add to the list by leaving a comment with your entry. And it can be any genre or category, not just Web 2.0/tech/marketing books. Fiction, business, history, whatever, are welcome too. Here's the list as of today.
Facebook Fan Pages
The Facebook Era by Clara Shih
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt
Who's Your Gladys? by Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest
Facebook Groups
Content Nation by John Blossom
It's Not What You Sell, But What You Stand For by Roy M. Spence, Jr. with Haley Rushing
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava
Twitter Power by Joel Comm
It's my suspicion that these authors chose Groups over Pages due to the fact that Pages only recently came into vogue as the premiere marketing channel. I could be wrong, of course, as there are reasons for choosing this option. I'd be interested to hear the author's rationale for why they went this route.
The other issue, though, is groups can be started by anyone, not just the author. At least with Pages there is some requirement that the person creating the Page be authorized to do so.
I get the impression that, with the growing prevalence of Pages as the marketing channel of choice, we'll see more authors moving in that direction and less creating Groups. Still, that's not to minimize the effectiveness of Groups as an option.
Other
There are some authors who use neither Pages or Groups, but instead link to their personal profiles. These include:
David Meerman Scott
Pam Slim
Paul Gillin
Finally, I'm a bit surprised that some authors who've written books about Facebook have neither a Page or Group. Facebook Marketing for one; Facebook Marketing Bible for another. And, come to think of it, I don't see Paul Dunay's new book, Facebook Marketing For Dummies represented here either. Eat your own dogfood guys!
