Here Katie Ives from On The Button shares her top tips for cleaning up your Facebook to make it more streamlined, easier to use and get results. Katie is an Affiliate so you can also access discounts to work with Katie because you are an Insider. Just make sure you let her know. Learn more here – I asked a panel of volunteers what their biggest frustration on Facebook was.
They all had the same reply…
“cutting through all the noise and drama and just seeing what interests me”.
So if you fancy a good ol’ fashioned spring clean, here are 10 things you can do right now!
Interest Lists are a simple organisational tool to keep everyone in a more effective order, giving you speedy access to only the posts you want to see.Set them up by scrolling down the left side of your home page and clicking on “Interests”. Here you can name them and set them to private. When you want to engage with a certain group or person, going to that list gives you access to JUST their posts, saving you the time of scrolling through your busy newsfeed to find them. HERE are some ways we use them on Twitter.
Join groups of like-minded people to get involved and have meaningful discussions that interest you. Groups are a great way to show your expertise and add value but also find people like you.Search for groups by subject in the top search bar and then, to narrow down your search, click the “Group” tab across the top.If you have a group that you don’t like, sucks your energy or nothing happens in, delete it and replace with a new one.
Unfollow people to NOT see their posts in your feed. Why unfollow and not unfriend you ask? Some of these may be your family or close friends. People who would notice if you unfriended them, but whose posts…..well…..let’s just say we all have relatives.
Unfriend people you don’t like or don’t interact with. Every now and then you need a good clear out.
Categorise friends into close friends or acquaintances for neat and tidy lists
You can do all of the above by visiting the person’s profile and clicking the drop down arrow next to the “Friends” button OR click on the drop-down arrow in the top right corner of someone’s post and click “Unfollow”.
Yes, it’s an actual thing!
Click the teeny tiny arrow in the top-right corner of your Facebook.
Click “News Feed Preferences”
Here you can “Prioritise who to see first” and “Unfollow people to hide their posts” and more.
Facebook uses an algorithm to learn your likes, dislikes and behaviours. They then use this to tailor the content they show you and present it to you in the format of “Top Stories”. To change this newsfeed default setting, find the “News Feed” drop down arrow in the top left corner of your home page and click “Most Recent”.
As well as weeding out the bad you can also fill your newsfeed with all of your favourite positive peeps. To do this go to their profile and click the “Follow” button. Then click “Show in newsfeed first”. This person’s posts will now be at the top of your feed when you log in.
Facebook are always tailoring your experience for you. Don’t resist it, give them a helping hand. When you see a post you don’t like simply click the drop down arrow in the top right and click “Hide post”. Facebook will now show you fewer posts like this. Be careful not to click “Report” though. Unless it is offensive or against Facebook terms you may just start upsetting people unnecessarily.
Hate the super annoying game and event requests? Have a friend that constantly adds you to groups or group messages? Simply go to your settings, click “Blocking” and you can block pretty much anything you want from whomever you want.
See point 5. Use the power of the Facebook algorithm to fill your feed with people you like and not the rest.Do not interact with the annoying people, only click Like, Share and Comment on the uplifting and interesting posts.
If after all this you find newsfeeds are just too annoying in general, and you have a very select few you follow, then simply ask for a notification from Facebook when that person posts. To do this go the person’s profile and from the drop-down arrow next to “Friends” click “Get Notifications”. Facebook will now tell you when your favourite people post.
So, there you have it. Ten different ways to get that newsfeed cleaned up and tailored to your taste. Go ahead and have a good spring clean, I’m off to do mine.