How to create a list (of Friends) in Facebook based on location (i.e., in my local town)?

Question

There are lots of times I only want to post updates to certain groups (especially to folks that are in my local city).

Is there a way to create an automatic list based on where those people are? (Or manually create a filtered list based on location?)

Answer 1

If you go to the Lists page you should see a list with an icon like this:

This is an automatically created list by Facebook based on your address that you provide in your Contact Information that you can edit here https://www.facebook.com/<yourUsernameOrID>/info

You can get your ID by going to http://graph.facebook.com/<yourCustomUsername> or snagging it from the url of your profile page (if you haven't gotten a custom username yet).

If you want to constantly see that list you can mark it as a favorite by clicking on the pencil icon and it will appear in your left navigation area.

Once you have that and you want to set a status update for only that list you can do one of the following:

1. Click on the list in the left nav and then click Update Status. Since you're already looking at the list, Facebook assumes you only want to post an update to that list. Be careful, as this selection will now be your default selection for status updates until you change it back.
2. you can also go to Facebook Home, click Update Status, and then select the area list from the dropdown to the immediate left of the post button:

Answer 2

This is a bit of a hack, but this was the only way I could figure out how to create multiple smart lists based on geography.

1. Edit Profile
2. Edit Living, Current City Field to Community you want to create list for > Save
3. Hit the upper left Facebook Icon to get back to your home screen
4. Click "More" under the Friends Category in the left column
5. You should now see a Smart List for the new Current City you selected, plus your original Current City.
6. Click on the list > then Manage List button on top right > select Rename List (I'm not 100% sure you have to actually change the name, but I found that FB wouldn't remember my multiple smart lists if I did not do this step.)
7. Repeat as needed to create multiple lists based on multiple communities
8. Edit your Profile back to your actual Current City

Once you have a smart list, you can target posts, shares, and event invites just individuals within those communities.