{"id":172,"date":"2012-10-04T07:54:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T07:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2012\/10\/personalizing-your-facebook-news-feed.html"},"modified":"2012-10-04T07:54:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T07:54:00","slug":"personalizing-your-facebook-news-feed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reelfaith\/2012\/10\/personalizing-your-facebook-news-feed.html","title":{"rendered":"Personalizing Your Facebook News Feed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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For a while, I\u2019ve meant to write a short tutorial on de-cluttering Facebook news feeds. With last night\u2019s Presidential debate still so fresh in my mind and hearing social media feedback, perhaps there\u2019s no better time than the present.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure: I realize I am a chief of the political posters, perhaps because I feel that the direction the country is headed is at least as important as what we made for dinner or how lousy your day is going. I think a debate is also one good chance you have to live-blog, because no one is watching it time-delayed on the west coast and there are no spoiler warnings.<\/p>\n

In recent months, I have also become aware of frustration of friends who struggle with the need to be authentic but also have Facebook friends they feel they cannot be authentic with (this is understandable, because there are things such as a circles of relationships). \u00a0If you want to clean up your feed or make your Facebook more personal, but you don\u2019t want to lose friends or hide anyone, this is the best way I have found.<\/p>\n

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Create a List.\u00a0<\/b>I did that a long time ago because I realized I was missing some of my best friends\u2019 postings because of my feed being cluttered with postings from people I barely knew. I added the acquaintances to groups I didn\u2019t check quite as often, leaving my feed free for my friends\u2019 postings.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s how you de-clutter:<\/p>\n

1. On the left toolbar, go to \u201cFriends\u201d and it will take you a page such as this:<\/b><\/p>\n

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2. Click on the tab \u201cCreate List\u201d and name it something.<\/b> I have names such as \u201cPRC\u201d (for the friends who attend my church), \u201cFlorida\u201d (for the friends I made when I lived in Orlando), \u201cListeners\u201d (for people I\u2019m not quite sure I know), etc. You may want to put one as \u201cPolitics.\u201d Here\u2019s another idea\u2014you live on the West Coast and you don\u2019t like TV spoilers? Create a list of \u201cSpoilers.\u201d Next, I\u2019m going to tell you what to do after you\u2019ve created the list.<\/p>\n

3. Add friends to the list they belong to. <\/b>The worst political post offenders (it\u2019s spelled \u201cDeWayne\u201d with an \u201ce\u201d)? Add them to the Politics list. Add family to a Family list. Facebook automatically creates some lists for you, such as Close Friends, Acquaintances and places you\u2019ve worked. I\u2019m going to use my lovely wife as an example. When you hover over a friend\u2019s name, this will pop up.<\/p>\n

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You notice she has a gold star, because she is in my Close Friends list. When you hover on that category (most of yours will say \u201cFriend\u201d), there will be another pop up like this:<\/p>\n

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The checkmarks mean that LeAnn is a Close Friend, that she shows up in my News Feed and I receive notifications from her. If she was one I wanted to put in another group, I would click \u201cAdd to another list\u201d and designate it. Then, if I wanted to pull her postings from my news feed (of course, I would never for my wife), I would simply uncheck the \u201cShow in News Feed\u201d designation. Her posts will be waiting in whatever group I assign her to. If she\u2019s political and I don\u2019t want to hear it, I add her to the Politics group, uncheck the \u201cShow in News Feed\u201d category and now I only see her posts when I go to that Politics group.<\/p>\n

4. Find the group.<\/b> To get to a particular group of friends or List, it will either show up on the left side toolbar or you will click \u201cFriends\u201d again and it will take you to the main group page, giving individual counts for new posts and activity. Here\u2019s what it looks like on the left side for some of my more important groups to keep up with:<\/p>\n

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These are lists that I\u2019ve \u201cAdded to Favorites.\u201d You can do that by hovering on the left side of the list and the pop up will allow you to do it. I believe Close Friends is automatically at the top along with your News Feed and your own profile.<\/p>\n

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5. You can make your posts specific to groups.<\/b> If you\u2019re only targeting your work friends, you can do that very easily in your status update. You can target only your Close Friends. Your close friends are the ones who know you best, know your humor and don\u2019t get offended or argumentative quite as easily (if they are, you might find yourself some new close friends). When you go to your status update, hover over the \u201cFriends\u201d category:<\/p>\n

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The default is public on mine. But when I click that button, it opens up like this:\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Then you can designate away. I have used \u201cCustom\u201d so I could do two or more different groups while leaving some other groups or individuals out. I have even told my staff members how to do this, in the event they wanted to post something they don\u2019t necessarily want me to read. Because I do think there\u2019s a place for letting your hair down with people who \u201cget\u201d what you\u2019re saying.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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To me, the lists feature, more than anything, helps bring Facebook back around to being a little more intimate and personal, as it was in the beginning when everyone had not discovered it. I love being connected to all my friends, but being able to place them in different categories gives me the freedom to be more authentic.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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If you\u2019ve considered giving up Facebook (as some of my friends recently have), I strongly encourage you to try these tools before you walk away. I still believe it\u2019s a great tool to help people stay connected.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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If you have questions or comments, please let me know in the comments section. You can also email me.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a while, I\u2019ve meant to write a short tutorial on de-cluttering Facebook news feeds. With last night\u2019s Presidential debate still so fresh in my mind and hearing social media feedback, perhaps there\u2019s no better time than the present. Full disclosure: I realize I am a chief of the political posters, perhaps because I feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2815,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPersonalizing Your Facebook News Feed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For a while, I've meant to write a short tutorial on de-cluttering Facebook news feeds. 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