Blog    Tutorials    Old Articles    About Me

ALAN ZISMAN ON TECHNOLOGY

Three Facebook tips    
 
By Alan Zisman © 15 September 2014


Facebook doesn't necessarily make it easy - by default, everything you post is 'public' and (may) appear on the news feeds of every one of your friends, even if it's really of interest to only a few of them.

(An aside - a little while back I tried an experiment to see how many of my FB friends actually saw something I posted - my best estimate is about 30%. Unless you pay, don't expect your personal or organization's page postings to show up on all your friends' newsfeeds).

And if you decide to limit your Facebook friends to your real world friends, you risk offending everyone you 'unfriend'.

Three tips:

#1: See more messages

- Click on the little triangle beside Newsfeed (on the left) and when the menu drops-down, pick Most Recent rather than the default Top Stories... you'll have to do it again every couple of days, since FB really doesn't seem to want you to do this.

Change your newsfeed setting

#2: Unfollow without Unfriending

- If you go to a person's page (or even hover your mouse pointer over their name over something they've posted) you'll see the option Following has a checkmark beside it. Click to uncheck it. You won't see their messages - but (unlike unfriending) they won't receive any notification of this. (Question - does anyone know whether or not they will continue to receive your posts?)

Following?

#3: Create lists

Scroll down the left-hand column until you see Friends. Click on it.... you should see an option +Create List... Give the list a name and add 'members'.

Then, if you want, when you post a message, click the button labelled Public to change the option of who can see it... initially it gives you the option of making your post 'public' or limiting it to 'friends' - click More Options to see your list(s)...

Doing this allows you to send messages to only, say: Family members, high-school buddies, bowling team members, or any other special interest groups that you define.

Older blog postings....


About This Blog...

I've been writing about computers, software, Internet and the rest of technology since 1992, including a 17 year (1995-2012) stint as 'High Tech Office' columnist for Business in Vancouver. This blog includes thoughts on technology, society, and anything else that might interest me. Comments, emailed to alan@zisman.ca are welcome - and may be published in whole or part. You can follow me on Twitter or Google + for notice of new blog postings.
AZ Dog Baby