Never before have we had such a direct and convenient way to monitor the infinite discussions that take place on the biggest and most used social media platform out there today! With 850 million users chatting, posting, sharing, commenting and potentially complaining, Facebook has upped their game and granted us non-restricted access to monitoring these convos in the convenience of our much-loved mini feed.
Through the new Facebook Interest Lists, you now have the opportunity to monitor pages and industry leaders alike, without the need to be subscribed, friends, or even fans of these pages. For all of you social media monitors out there, Facebook has given us a gift that grants us exclusive access to a pool of engagement and conversations that has never before been able to be monitored in this direct way.
Let’s take a look at who stands to gain from this new lists feature:
Duh! Facebook: The lists give users a reason to stay on the platform longer, since they can now use their mini feed as a news feed for both their personal and business interests.
The marketer: Interest lists give marketers a new opportunity to reach a broader audience.
The most important one of all, YOU! Facebook interest lists provides you with a new and profound opportunity to strengthen your social media monitoring tactics.
As I explained in the post What Type of Social Media Listening Should You Be Doing?, there are three main discussion categories that your company should be monitoring online:
- Discussions about your brand
- Discussions about your competitors
- Industry discussions
The new Facebook interest lists give you a new and very targeted opportunity to monitor the two latter discussions, straight from your mini feed.
Check out how simple it is to start benefiting from this new feature pronto!
Step 1: Create your interest lists
You can choose to either create your own interest lists, or subscribe to lists already created. Either way, the first step is to determine what you want to monitor, and who you need to add to your lists in order to achieve these monitoring goals. Let’s take a look:
To monitor your competition you’ll want to add the following to your lists:
- Competitors’ fan pages
- Authority figures within their organizations
- Brand advocates whom you know mention the brands regularly
- Media relations whom you know publish about the brands regularly
If it’s industry discussions you want to monitor, you’ll want to add:
- Competitors’ fan pages
- Your own fan pages
- Authority figures and thought-leaders within the industry (including yourself)
- Competitor advocates as well as your own
- News channels and blogs that regularly publish content about the industry, your own brand and your competitors’
Step 2: Start monitoring!
Once you’ve created your lists, you’ll continue to interact and use Facebook as you always have, only now you’ll find the stories and content you’ve requested all nicely bundled within your mini feed. Over time you’ll be able to continue to work these lists to your advantage by getting creative and narrowing in on the top content you absolutely don’t want to miss out on.
An added bonus that I bet you didn’t think of!
Sure you can subscribe to already existing lists. If there’s something already created out there that you want to pay attention to, by all means, that’s what they’re there for! But there is a unique angle to finding gaps in existing lists and creating your own public lists. If you’re creating lists that monitor the discussions and news related to your industry, odds are that these lists will be highly beneficial and intriguing to other key players within the same industry. Being the creator of these lists will help you position yourself as a thought-leader within your industry, which has a substantial power all to itself!
Don’t forget that the opportunity to achieve this is now! Lists are just starting to roll out, so there’s no time better than the present to get a head start and begin monitoring and creating lists that will put you ahead of the game!
Social media monitoring plays a crucial role in both your social media crisis plan and your social media marketing strategy. These new Facebook interest lists offer you a unique opportunity to target the discussions and content that gets shared on Facebook, like you’ve never been able to do before.
How will you maximize on your social media monitoring skills with the help of the new Facebook interest lists? Share your comments with me below!
P.S. Facebook has just started rolling out these interest lists, so if you don’t see the button to create a list on the left of your mini feed, hold tight, it’ll be there shortly!
P.P.S. If you’re looking for a quick and easy tutorial of how to get started with creating your interest lists, check out Amy Porterfield’s 10 minute tutorial that takes you through each step of setting up and using your lists. Click here to watch Amy’s quick tutorial.
Author of Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, Melissa Agnes is a leading authority on crisis preparedness, reputation management, and brand protection. Agnes is a coveted keynote speaker, commentator, and advisor to some of today’s leading organizations faced with the greatest risks. Learn more about Melissa and her work here.
Great post! And great explanation on the benefits of the FB list feature!
Thanks Mona! Glad you enjoyed it! 😉
Thanks for reading it and taking the time to leave a comment!
Hi Melissa, on one hand I'm sitting here asking myself, I just created a Twitter, list, finally reaching 100 users, no I'm told I have to create a Facebook list, but how do I manage all of this? I'm going to do as you say, I'm creating the list today and in fact will feature this article in my Tag Along Tuesday. But I'm worried sometimes that I'm stretching myself to this. Would I benefit more simply not doing this and focusing more detail to one or two specific things? I think not… I have to do this list if not I'm failing my self as an online marketer!
Hi Brian,
Your ambition is inspiring! Normally I would say to keep your monitoring and marketing tactics to a few great strategies, so as not to stretch yourself too thin. However, the great thing with Facebook Interest Lists is that you create them once and then they'll show up in your mini feed every once in a while (or you could go directly to that specific feed, like in Twitter lists), but my point is that maintenance is quite scarce with these FB lists, and they have so many benefits, especially for a great community like BlogEngage!
Be sure to come back and post the name of your list and a brief description so that others reading this post in the future will know about it and have the opportunity to subscribe to it if they so desire!
BTW, thanks for the mention in your Tag Along Tuesday! 😉 You make Tuesdays an exciting read!!
Hi Melissa,
I was not aware of FB lists before this. Thank you for explaining it! It sounds like it could be a very useful feature, though like Brian I don't want to spread myself too thin. It's a balance, especially for the part time entrepreneur.
Stacy
Hi Stacy,
Glad I could introduce you to something new! I agree, you have to find the right balance that works for you. However, like I explained to Brian, FB Interest Lists are quite simple with minimum maintenance. It's the best strategy that FB could have come up with. It's basically a new way to customize and organize your mini feed. Plus, I think they may have some advantageous for the FB search later on (but this is just my own speculation!)
Either way, you'll figure out if it's right for you. If you do create a new list, be sure to come back and let me know – Im sure it would be something interesting that Id want to subscribe to 😉
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment Stacy!
I hadn't even considered lists as a viable option for any of the above. But that I see the way you explain it, I can definitely see the value in 'em. I'll be playing with them through out the week and letting you know how it goes. Thanks for the info! 🙂
Awesome! Definitely let me know, I'll want to subscribe 😉
Thanks for leaving your comment, Morgan! Glad I could shine a new perspective on lists for you 🙂
Hi Melissa! Great post 🙂 This is an excellent introduction and overview for anyone getting started with Facebook Interest Lists. I especially appreciate your point about creating public lists to provide value and position your brand as a thought leader. Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Zoe Geddes-Soltess
Community Engagement, Radian6
Hi Zoe,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment! 🙂
What's fun about the interest lists is that they're so new that we have all the advantages when it comes to being the first to create the lists and positioning ourselves as a thought-leader. I'm excited to see what people do and how beneficial these lists end up being for our social media monitoring – as I'm sure you are!
Thanks for the comment Zoe! Have a great weekend!