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Facebook has changed how you manage your News Feed since I wrote this post, so I shall add the updates, but in the meantime, here's an article which tells you everything, via Social Media Today (13 July 2015).
A couple of clients, and attendees on my course in April have asked how to control what they see in their Facebook News Feed, without unfriending anyone. Is there a way of hiding those updates they don’t want to see? I.e. from those who post perhaps too much political stuff, or too many ‘what I had for breakfast' pictures. Personally, I don’t mind photos of food, although posts around the UK General Election did get a bit much, and I raced through my News Feed that week. Clients have asked, 'What is the Facebook equivalent of muting someone you follow on Twitter?' (see this article in The Guardian for more info on that).
Hiding updates from my News Feed isn't something I worry about too much, as I don't accept Friend requests from someone I haven't seen online before. There are a few dodgy Facebook Friends floating around, and I do hear stories about them, so be careful. If you're an author, and worry that you're rejecting a reader, set up a Facebook Author Page so readers can Like that page for your updates instead. My next post will explain how to set up lists for your Facebook Friends, which can help you manage which posts your Friends see.
Facebook has changed how you manage your News Feed since I wrote this post, so I shall add the updates, but in the meantime, here's an article which tells you everything, via Social Media Today (13 July 2015).
A couple of clients, and attendees on my course in April have asked how to control what they see in their Facebook News Feed, without unfriending anyone. Is there a way of hiding those updates they don’t want to see? I.e. from those who post perhaps too much political stuff, or too many ‘what I had for breakfast' pictures. Personally, I don’t mind photos of food, although posts around the UK General Election did get a bit much, and I raced through my News Feed that week. Clients have asked, 'What is the Facebook equivalent of muting someone you follow on Twitter?' (see this article in The Guardian for more info on that).
Hiding updates from my News Feed isn't something I worry about too much, as I don't accept Friend requests from someone I haven't seen online before. There are a few dodgy Facebook Friends floating around, and I do hear stories about them, so be careful. If you're an author, and worry that you're rejecting a reader, set up a Facebook Author Page so readers can Like that page for your updates instead. My next post will explain how to set up lists for your Facebook Friends, which can help you manage which posts your Friends see.
Here’s how you control what you see in your Facebook News
Feed.
When I recently checked this for myself, I noticed that Facebook had unfollowed Friends/Author Pages without asking me, many of them good Friends, and Authors whose updates I wish to see. So I re-followed those Friends and Pages. It’s worth checking you’re seeing what you want to see.
Click in the top right corner of your Facebook page, on the triangle, then select News Feed Preferences:
You will then have the option to go through People, Pages and
Groups. If you wish to unfollow, then click on the box which says Following,
which will then become +Follow. I don't want to unfollow any of these lovely people:
For those Friends and Pages which Facebook had unfollowed for me, I clicked on +Follow to change them to Following.
How to unfollow an advert:
I recently bought a pair of shoes online, when I couldn't get my size in the shop. For a week or two afterwards, Facebook displayed regular adverts of this exact shoe in my News Feed, in the exact colour I'd ordered, which was a bit of a cheek, I thought (and slightly Big Brother-ish). So I unfollowed that advert.
Of course, as a writer, you wouldn't want to unfollow Amazon, but here's how you would unfollow an advert, by clicking on the 'v' in the top right corner:
How to unfollow a Friend or Page, when checking your News
Feed:
I wouldn’t want to unfollow the Social Media Examiner
Facebook Page, as their posts are useful, but here’s what you’d do if you
wanted to unfollow updates from a Friend (perhaps a request you accepted in haste) or Page, by clicking on the 'v' in the top right corner again:
Selecting Most Recent or Top Stories:
You can also select the order in which posts are posted
from: Top Stories or Most Recent, when clicking on News Feed on the left. This is handy if you want to find a post from your own Facebook Page, to see what it looks like in a News Feed (perhaps if you've just boosted it):
There’s more detail on all of the above, and other stuff here, from
Facebook
Added on 9 September 2015: My follow up post is now ready, Managing What Your Friends See on Facebook. This is useful for learning how to separate writing acquaintances and readers from family and friends on Facebook.
Another Post on Facebook: Is it Worth Paying to Promote a Facebook Page?
Another Post on Facebook: Is it Worth Paying to Promote a Facebook Page?
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