Facebook recently launched Interest Lists, which lets members customize their News Feeds by subscribing to their favorite interests. Anyone can create an Interest List, which can consist of both Pages and people who are relevant to a specific topic.

For brands, this is an opportunity increase exposure of your content and potentially expand your Reach beyond your fan base. The overall goal of putting out quality and engaging content hasn’t changed; however, you shouldn’t focus on just being added to a list. Instead you should also demonstrate your knowledge of your industry and create lists that people want to subscribe to.

Creating a list is very easy. Let’s take a look at how you can get started.

Create Versus Subscribe

After logging in, find and click Add Interests one Facebook’s homepage toward the bottom of the left-side menu. In some cases, this option might be hidden; just click More at the bottom and it should appear. On the next screen you’ll have the option to browse and subscribe to lists, or you can create one of your own by clicking Create List.

From here you can add any of the Pages you’ve Liked or friends you’ve added to your list. Additionally you can also browse through a number of topics — ranging from art and business to news and technology — for other brands and public figures related to your list.

Personalization and Privacy

Once you have chosen who will make up your list it’s time to name it. It’s unclear if Interest Lists will carry any SEO weight, but it doesn’t hurt to craft your title with keywords in mind. So instead of naming your list “Coworkers,” try “Company XYZ Team.” You’re also able to control who else sees the list you’ve created. For ideal exposure, it’s best to make your list public. If the list is more for internal or private use, then select Friends or Only Me from the privacy settings.

Edit and Continue Building

Your new list will be available on the left-side menu of the homepage. If you notice that someone has been left off of your Interest List, you can add people by typing names into the field below the thumbnails of those included. You can also add people through suggestions generated by Facebook.

You can manage your list at any time by clicking Manage List in the top right corner of the screen when viewing that specific List. You can adjust the types of updates that appear, limiting it to status updates, comments and Likes, games, and so on. Additionally you’ll be able to control your notification settings — just be careful because these settings apply to all your lists, not just this particular one.

It’s still too early to know how successful Interest Lists will be — adoption is required for engagement to increase. However, Interest Lists are still a great way to focus on topics that are important to you without the other distractions that sometimes sneak into News Feeds.

[Image credit: Andrew Feinberg]