Do you have members? Then this is a social media tip you can use. Photo by Becky McCray.
Jen Risley spoke on a panel with me at the American Independent Business Alliance Conference, and I want to share one or two smart tricks she uses.
Jen represents Monadnock Buy Local, covering 35 small towns in the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire. Her members are all local businesses. She’s a one-person staff so she has to make the most of every moment.
Jen created a Facebook Interest List with all her member businesses. It only takes her one click to see what members are posting. Then she re-shares those posts to help amplify the businesses’ messages.
Any group or association with members can do this.
- Create your own Facebook interest list of members.
- Check it once a day.
- Share what members are sharing.
You can also make a list of local people and organizations who aren’t members. That way you’ll keep up with other local happenings.
You can read how to create an Interest List on Facebook here.
Bonus Tracking Idea:
Jen tracked mentions of her local hashtag, but she also tracked something I never see mentioned: she tracked questions people were asking. That’s exceptionally smart.
The list of questions people are asking can help you create new content to share on social networks, on your own site, in your emails, and even in traditional media. It also lets you know what people find most interesting about you.
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
I have a Facebook interest list and a Twitter list for influencers like yourself :) to keep up with the latest blog or curated content. However, I’ve never thought of doing this for groups that I’m part of. Will set this up next week.
And yes, I have a list of Twitter search phrases like “[keyword] + help -filter:links” bookmarked so I can reach out to potential followers and individuals who share common interests with me. This has improved my overall experience with Twitter too.
Wayne, you are making lists work for you very well! Thanks for sharing the added tips.
Melissa Waldner sent an update via email about Facebook’s elimination of lists:
“Hey there! I’m late to the party, but wanted to let you know that Facebook Interest Lists have been discontinued. Facebook Help told me today, ‘Interest lists were a way to organize and view content on Facebook. As of November 18, 2016, interest lists were retired from Facebook. You can still see updates from Pages and profiles on Facebook in your News Feed by following them.’ Bummer!”
You can still, apparently, create Friends Lists and even add Pages to those. So that’s one way to get approximately the same features. More in Facebook help here. Until, of course, Facebook decides to change the rules again.