All About Facebook Interest Lists

As the non-self-proclaimed ‘social media guru’ in TRIO’s office, I often hear complaints from clients and friends that Facebook makes their life too complicated. To that, I jokingly respond that indeed, keeping up with the changes to Facebook and other social channels is a full-time job. In fact – it’s my job. Facebook is constantly changing the formulaic algorithm that determines which posts show up in your friends’ and fans’ news feeds. You may have noticed – especially if you manage a business page – that your posts are not garnering the level of interaction or views as they may have at the start of the year. Many people still believe that every post they make as an admin on a page is viewed by 100% of their fans. Oh, if only the Facebook world were so simple. There are a lot of tutorials and studies floating around the web on the best ways to boost your posts’ visibility to your fans. The most important element of this “magical formula” that Facebook uses is interaction. It’s crucial that pages share relevant, interesting and timely information for their fans. Keep your audience in mind and share posts that will be useful to them in some way and ultimately cause interaction – in the form of a ‘like’, a comment or a share.

The latest important piece to this algorithm is wrapped up in the form of ‘interest lists’. These lists put the power of post views in the hands of the fans. Your pages’ fans can now choose if they want to see our posts or not in their news feed. If they value your content, they can now add you or your page to an interest list. These lists, as Facebook describes, “are an optional way to organize the content you’re interested in on Facebook. You can create your own interest lists based on the things you care about, or subscribe to other people’s lists.”

Not only is this important to pay attention to as a page admin, but it’s a powerful tool for individuals to utilize both personally and professionally. For example, I have created an interest list that contains Charleston media outlets’ pages as well as reporter’s professional fan pages. This way, if I want a quick glance at the latest news for Charleston, I can click on this interest list and only see the most recent posts from these outlets. I can continue to edit and add to this list. And for fun, I’ve created lists for such things as live music in the area and biking in Charleston. Lists can be set as private, for friends-only or viewable by the entire public. If the list is open to friends or the public, they can be subscribed to and shared. If you or your business page is added to your fan’s interest list(s), your posts will show up in their news feed.

So, where do you find said lists? And how do you get started? You can create or search for lists from the bottom section of the left-hand column on your home page on Facebook. And if you’re still confused, you can give me a call (843-216-0442), send me an email, message me on Facebook or tweet to me.