What Facebook Interest Lists Mean For Your NPO

You may have noticed the some of your Facebook friends have either created or subscribed to a new feature called Interest Lists.

What are Interest Lists?

In short, Interest Lists are user-curated topical lists comprised of People and/or Pages. For example, Mari Smith created a list called FACEBOOK Experts & Resources that includes 76 Profiles (people) and Pages (orgs, brands, companies) that Mari has hand-picked.

Facebook users can subscribe to this list of Profiles and Pages and view their latest updates in their personal News Feeds.

When Mari created this list, she chose to make the list public to that she could share this valuable resource with her Facebook friends (lists can also be private or shared with select friends).

Facebook users can subscribe to Interest Lists from a number of places:

• From the list of recommended Interest Lists that Facebook suggests (see your list here)
• From their News Feed (both Pages and People can share lists with their connections)
• From a Profile or Page (as shown below)

What This Means for Facebook Users

You can create and/or subscribe to lists as a way of turning Facebook into “your own personalized newspaper, with special sections—or feeds—for topics that matter to you.”

Right now, the lists that have been created are pretty generic, like the one created by Ryan Seacrest. But as users become more familiar with Interest Lists, you’ll see more specific lists, like “Dunnys” (above) or “Magic Markers and Pens”.

And this is where it will get very interesting for your nonprofit (pun intended).

What This Means for Your Nonprofit

If your nonprofits gets added to multiple Interests Lists, you will naturally extend your reach way beyond your Facebook fanbase.

This means more Facebook fans, more engagement with your content, more traffic to your website and more volunteers and donations (eventually).

But if Pages can’t create Interest Lists, how can take advantage of them?

9 Things You Need To Do Now To Benefit From Interest Lists

1. See if your organization or people has been added to any Interest Lists. You can do this by searching Interest Lists based on keywords related to your cause. Look to see if your organization is already on one of the suggested lists created by Facebook. For example, Animal Causes or Cancer Causes.
2. Optimize your Facebook Page for search. Edit your About section and make sure that the prevalent keywords are related to how people might search for your organization. No jargon here please.
3. Make sure your Page is in the right category. Facebook users will filter by Page category when looking for lists.
   
4. Focus the topic of your content strategy. Go back to your organization’s messaging strategy and ask yourself if your Facebook stories are on topic. Try not to be all things to all people. If you’re a breast cancer organization, talking about research, advocacy, sexuality, and cancer news is way too broad. People won’t know what list to put you on. Instead become known as the organization that has honest conversations about intimacy after a mastectomy (this is also a topic that will get people talking!).
5. Share lists with your fans. Interest Lists are useful! Why not share them with your fans?!
6. Promote Interest Lists you’ve been added to. Use email marketing, Facebook, and even your blog (if you have one) to promote the lists you’ve been added to.
7. Pin lists you’ve been added to at the top of your Page.
8. Make friends with curators. Go back and read Dale Carnagie. You’ll need good old-fashion people skills to influence list curators.
9. Post your list on the Mightycause Facebook Page so others can subscribe to it.

What do you think of Interest Lists?