Facebook, lists and journalists
Facebook has borrowed a good idea from Twitter — lists. A Poynter Institute article gives some tips on how journalists can use them. The caveats, however, are the most useful tips.
From the Poynter Institute, first posted on March 8:
A few caveats:
- Facebook Pages cannot create interest lists, so a social media editor or other individual will have to build them from his or her own Facebook account.
- Be sure to set these lists as public so others can find them.
- Be sure your journalists know that any posts they want list subscribers to see must be set to “public” visibility. And you can reassure them that their private posts will still only be seen by friends.
There’s really no downside to building lists for your readers to subscribe to. All it costs is some time. But it does remain to be seen whether Facebook users will actually embrace interest lists. Twitter lists, which serve the same purpose, have been used only minimally and were de-emphasized in the latest Twitter website and apps redesign.
While lists might not be embraced by casual FB and Twitter users, they are great for power users such as journalists, the article said.