How to Create a Facebook Interest List

This is probably something that has been done numerous times and a quick search tells me that I am not alone in writing a post like this.  It's certainly not my usual stuff about my kids, or anything that involves Legos either.  As a blogger I try to create content and try to get it out to as many people that I possibly can.  That obviously means I have to use the wonderful world of social media to accomplish that task.

Grr. Lego Mark Zuckerberg

I have grown to love Twitter as I have met a bunch of great people who all share similar interests as me.  It's fun, and the instantaneous interaction can't be beat.  Then there is Facebook.  I've been told to never rely on Facebook because as long as they are in charge of what people see (which will always be the case) not everyone is going to see my posts.  Unless of course I want to pay for the privilege, which unless I write something so profound like War and Peace is never going to happen.

I won't get into the boring details about algorithms and how Facebook decides who sees your posts.  I don't understand it myself.  What I do know is that everyone is NOT seeing every one of my posts, and that is annoying.  You spend a lot of time trying to cultivate new followers and people that will eventually turn into blog readers.  Blog readers means more page views, more page views eventually means book deals, books become movies, movies make me rich, my kids go to Ivy League schools, and I am sipping margaritas on a beach in the Caribbean.

 So how do we get people to make sure that all of our posts are being seen on Facebook?  You create an interest list.  It's almost like making your own customized news feed with everything that you actually care about.  If I happen to be in it that's awesome.

The first step is to find the page that you want to follow.  Where it says "Like" or "Liked" you hover your mouse over that spot and a drop down screen shows the line "Add to Interest Lists."  You then click on that where you will see the following:

In my case I have already created a list called "Blogs."  This is where I follow certain blogs and other pages from my personal Facebook page.  If you don't have one created, just click on "New List" where you are given the option to title your new list.  If you do enjoy reading certain pages I suggest that you lump them all in one.  You can obviously create different interests, for example if you followed a bunch of comedians as well you could create a comedy list.

So now that we created the list, where does it appear?  On the left hand side of your news feed is a list of everything that you are a member of or all of the apps that you have allowed Facebook to gather all of your personal information.  You can now see the little "Interests" title with our new list of blogs underneath.  If you click on that list you can now see your very own customized newsfeed with everything that you really care about (namely me.)

So, even if I am not included in your new Interest List (boo hoo) hopefully this will make your Facebook experience a little more enjoyable.  I know that I am constantly frustrated by their ever changing website and their ability to control our information and more so by their ability to control who sees what.  I understand Facebook's need to make money but it should not be a little guys like me who are just trying to entertain people.  I am not a huge company like Exxon Mobil or Johnson & Johnson, at least not yet anyway.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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