I admit it. I am slightly addicted to Facebook. And that’s just personally; I’m highly addicted professionally. Indeed I joined Facebook to create my Professional page (now over 3000 fans!), but as a self-employed artist working from home, I have been truly delighted to reconnect with old friends, follow peers’ careers, and keep up with politics, technology, arts, and fun through all the pages I like.  Until this past summer that is. *Dun, Dun, Duuuuuun!*

The messages and articles (two good ones here and here) about Facebook’s new ‘bait n’ switch’ visibility policy are now making their way around the interwebs, as well as on Facebook itself (which you’ll understand is ironic in a minute). Basically, as fans of pages, we are only seeing some (possibly none) of the posts of the people, businesses, artists, and more that we clicked “Like” to follow. As someone who is trying to post content for fans, I am only reaching about 15% of the 3000 folks who like my page. In summary, now that FB has shareholders they need to ramp up their income, so in an unannounced move as far back as May, they began to limit what we all see in our newsfeeds in an effort to push pages to ‘pay to promote’ their content. To be even more clear: you can’t always see what you want to see on Facebook, and I and other people who post content can’t always show you what you want to see on FB…but there’s a fix.

For the pages you like and want to keep up with on Facebook, you can create Interest Lists. It takes maybe a minute, so it’s fast and you’ll be able to check in EASILY on all the content for your favorite pages, and even friends. I did this about three months ago when I noticed I wasn’t seeing all, or any, content from the pages I enjoy, and can now just easily click my interest lists to review and don’t miss anything. Here’s how to create yours:

Go to a FB page like Kieffer Ceramics, and click the ‘gear’ icon in the upper right, which pulls down an option menu, then click ‘Add to Interest Lists’ (image 1). Next, click ‘+New List’ (image 2). If you’ve already created a list(s), they’ll be filed here for you to easily add to.

The page you want to add to your new list will be highlighted with a check mark, then click ‘Next’ (image 3). Now you can name your list (I chose ‘Fave Pages’) and decide who can see your lists (I chose ‘Only Me’) (image 4). And you’re done!

So now you can go through and do this with all your favorite pages and friends who’s posts you don’t want to miss. You will find your Interest Lists as you’ve named them at the top left of your FB newsfeed home page under ‘Interests’ (image 5). As you get more savvy, you can move, re-name, and add to your lists (image 6 are all categories of interests lists I’ve created which house pages and friends I love).

I’m sharing this guide and info as both a FB page ‘poster’ and page ‘liker.’ I want to SEE posts for the pages I ‘like,’ as well as have folks who LIKE my page see what I post. I understand (though don’t agree) with FB’s reasoning to “cause a problem and then market the fix.” But since most people are unaware of the change, they are also unaware they are missing content they wanted to see by liking a page in the first place! I hope this helps and that you will share this info with your friends and fans…and because FB limits what’s seen, it’s helpful to post elsewhere than just FB (the irony I mentioned earlier), like Twitter, Pinterest, your blog, etc.

FB has become my and many artists’ primary point of contact with our fan base to announce new work, events, promotions, plus fun news, so I hope you will create your Lists as a way to continue your much-appreciated support and to follow what you enjoy.