Why Indie Authors Should Have A Facebook Interest List

Indie Authors: Use Facebook Interest Lists to Boost the Power of your Fan Page

Are you finding that your Facebook Author Page generates less response than before? ALLi's social media manager, Karen Lotter, knows just why — and how self-publishers can use  Facebook Interest Lists to increase reader engagement with their books.

One of the most frustrating things about social media is how it keeps changing the rules — and nobody is more guilty of this than Facebook.

When Facebook started its Pages, one could post something knowing that all your “fans” received your post.

Now that Facebook is publicly (stock-exchange) listed and has to make more money, things have changed. You can only reach that many people on “your”  Fan Page, if you pay. (They call it sponsored posts).

Now Only 10-16 % of Your Followers Are Seeing Each of Your Posts on Your Facebook Page

And because nobody knows their algorithms, and we don’t want to annoy our subscribers by scheduling 20 posts a day just in case we maybe miss somebody, we never know who is “liking” a page and then getting left out of its stream. This means it make it really hard for self-published authors to use Facebook as a solid platform to market their books.

Happily, I'm here to tell you that there is a fix. It is a bit of a drag, but once you’ve got it set up, it works like a dream. It's called Facebook Interest Lists. The basic concept of the Interest List is similar to creating lists in Twitter, or Circles in Google+.

Interest Lists on Facebook

Interest Lists are a Facebook feature that allows you to sort similar people and brands into separate feeds and easily digest the latest about your favourite topics. It also allows you to put your favourite Pages in a place where you can make sure you will be able to access all the updates.

In the left hand bar under Interests …

There are two ways that Self- published authors can use this Facebook feature – one for themselves; to create lists that will be of interest to others. When you have created a list like this, people will want to subscribe to it. And the second, to persuade those who follow your Page to make a list and put your page on that list in order to ensure that they see every one of your posts.

Setting up your own Interest Lists.

Go to your Home page (on your FB Profile). In the left-side bar, under Interests click Add Interests.

You then have two options: subscribe to any of the pre-populated Interest Lists, or create your own by clicking Create List at the top. (You can also hover over the “Like” on a Page).

• If you choose to create your own list, a window will open, at which point you can add friends, brands, or public figures to your list even if you don't currently subscribe to them.
• Once you've created or subscribed to a number of Interest Lists, they'll appear to the left of the News Feed. When you click one, only the posts from the people on that list will appear.
• If you'd like quicker access to a list, add it to your Favourites by hovering over the name, clicking the pencil, and selecting “Add to favourites.” Clicking the pencil also gives you the option to remove the list entirely.

Interest Lists also provide you with a means of promoting yourself and driving traffic to your own Facebook page or profile.

It looks like getting yourself onto people's Interest Lists is a great strategy for your Facebook Page and even better, it to convince all the people who “Like” you to put you on their list.

For now, anyway.

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