3-22-2012
By Mike Stiles
Have you discovered Facebook Interest Lists yet? There are times when Facebook adds something and your reaction is, "Why would anyone ever need that?" And then there are other times when they add something and you say, "I can't believe it took them so long to do this."
Private users (not brand pages -- yet) can now group brand pages they like into Interest Lists. For instance, if one of your listeners wants to see posts from radio stations together in their news feed, they would create a list called "radio stations," and include your page (yay!) and your competitors' pages (boo!). They can create their own lists, or they can subscribe to lists that other people have constructed. The great news about people subscribing to other users' lists is it exposes them to content in their news feed from brand pages they may not have "liked" yet. That could include you!
Most of the talk so far has been about how journalists, bloggers, anyone who follows a particular beat are using Interest Lists to better organize and keep track of the topics they cover. So here's your takeaway item No. 1: Make sure your jocks and producers know about Interest Lists, because it can be a time-saving show prep godsend. Now they can fly through their Facebook account, list by list, and quickly see headlines for the specific kind of content they're looking for without having to go to individual pages or scroll endlessly through their news feed looking for that content amidst pictures of their friends' puppies.
Takeaway item No. 2: Whether or not you're a news station, whether or not you have a dedicated news person, you're going to want your page's content to show up in the news feeds of potential new fans. You do that by being included in as many Interest Lists as you can, and news/information is one of the most popular kinds of pages users like to add to their lists. Sadly, you can't force or manipulate your way in.
Your fans will only add your page to the Interest Lists they create IF your content is relevant to the list they're making (if it's music news, you should have a better-than- average shot at it), and IF they feel your content has been consistently worthwhile enough to be worthy of inclusion. It keeps going back to the drum I'm always beating on: giving the creation of quality content the level of priority and resources it deserves. It's an awkward time to be beating that drum, because at the same time radio managers are on a crusade to squeak by with as little content as they can get away with on-air, the demand for engaging, original content on the digital side is absolutely exploding.
If you try to make your social presence an automated, effortless, low priority, your odds of showing up on Interest Lists is mighty slim because, well ... you're not interesting.
Mike Stiles is a brand content specialist with the social marketing tech platform Vitrue. Check out his monologue blog, The Stiles Files & follow him @mikestiles
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