Facebook interest lists is a great feature that Facebook introduced earlier this year. However, it's a bit of a hidden feature, so you may not have taken advantage of its genius when it first came out.
The Facebook interest list feature allows you to create lists of people and pages that you like so that you can check their updates whenever YOU want to, not whenever Facebook feels like throwing them into your newsfeed.
Likewise, you can join public lists that have already been created in an area of interest.
If you want step by step instructions on how to create Facebook interest lists, check out this article I posted earlier in the year: https://kimgarst.com/how-to-create-facebook-interest-lists
So, Why Use Interest Lists on Facebook to Take Back Control of Your Facebook Feed?
Check out these 5 Reasons –
1. You Can Promote Your Blog Using FB Interest List:
When you create a public Interest List on Facebook other people can choose to follow your list. Or, as Facebook calls it, "Subscribe" to your list. When someone subscribes to your list, they receive notifications any time anyone on the list (which includes yourself) updates their status.
Therefore, when you update your status with your latest blog post, all of your Interest lists subscribers are notified. This can then generate more traffic to your blog and get your website in front of a bigger audience.
2. You Can Rename, Remove people and Decide Which Updates Show –
When you create your own interest list, you control the content! You can manage what and who shows up on each list that you create. You can rename the list if your original name doesn't work for you. You can remove people from the list if you don’t like their content (or find it too spammy.) You can even decide which updates will show from the list and which will not.
To make these changes, you will need to edit your list.
3. You can Create Public Lists and Private Lists
As mentioned in Reason #1, public lists are a great way to gain subscribers and promote your blog posts. However, you don't have to make all of your lists public. Instead, you also have the option to keep some of your lists private.
Why make a list private?
You may want to keep a list of your best friends and family private. This way you are NOT publically sharing your friends and family's status updates with unknown subscribers.
4. You Can Add Them to Your List of Favorites!
At the top of the left hand side column on your Facebook homepage, is your "Favorites" column. Under this column you will find a link to your Facebook messages, events and photos. Below that you will find a link to the groups that you frequently visit.
However, you can also choose what is displayed in your favorites column. For example, if you make a private Friends & Family List, you can have a link to that newsfeed displayed under your Favorites column.
How?
a. Put your curser over the list name under "interest".
b. With your curser over the list name, you will see a pencil icon to the left of the list name. Click on the pencil icon.
c. There, the option to "add to favorites" will appear.
d. Click on it and check your favorites section. It should appear there.
e. Once your interest list is in your favorites section, you can repeat steps 1 &2 and move the list up or down the Favorites column, depending on where you want it. For example, when you click on the pencil icon, it will give you the option to "rearrange".
5. Subscribe to Other Lists
If you are an entrepreneur, this is extremely helpful. For instance, if there is a topic within business that you want help, but you don't know who to turn to for expert advice, you can subscribe to a list.
There are lists on Business Leaders, Motivational Speakers, Innovative Brands, Design, Top Photographers, Art Auctions, Great Fiction Authors, Animal Causes, Child Causes, Human Rights, Movie Comedians and so on.
Joining a great list in your niche or a parallel niche cuts out all of the time you would have spent finding these people yourself! Woohoo! Who doesn't like saving time?!
Are you using interest lists?
What do you like about them? How do you use them?
How are they giving you control back of your Facebook Newsfeed?
Please comment and share below!
About Author
Glad you found us 🙂