Here are three quick mods that you can make to your Facebook account to reduce the clutter and make it more fun.
1. FarmVille Notifications: Now that you have Facebook setup and have added some friends, you might be overwhelmed by the noise on your timeline. If you have friends that like to play a lot of games, you’ll end up with a bunch of notifications of achievement each time they reach a new milestone in Farmville or Mafia Wars. I don’t know about you, but these notifications drive me nuts!!
Here is an easy way of getting rid of the notifications without hiding your friends completely.
From your main News Feed in Facebook mouse over an entry that has a game notification that you want to get rid of. In the picture above, we can see the annoying Farmville notification Easter egg. When your mouse hovers over the notification, a hide button will appear in the upper right hand corner. Click the Hide button.
Now we have the choice of hiding our friend or just hiding the dreaded FarmVille notifications. Click on Hide FarmVille.
A notification comes on and lets you know that FarmVille has been hidden and that you can manage these settings from the edit options button. When you go back to your news feed, all of the FarmVille Icons are now gone… Yea!!!
2. Friend Lists. As you have added friends, you may notice that people you don’t know have asked you to be their friend. These might be work friends, or people that may be a part of groups that you have joined. They might even be business people looking for new contacts. How can you bring them on board, but separate them from your regular friends?
Facebook has a relatively new feature called Friend Lists that let you create different lists that you can control the security on, so you can select what they see. Here is how to do it.
From your main Facebook newsfeed page, click on the friends icon in the upper left-hand menu.
In your main newsfeed column, a Friends header will show up with a Create a List button on the right hand side. Click this button to create a list.
Type the name of your friends list in the new list name box and select your friends from the icons in the bottom of the create new list box. Once selected, they will have a checkmark next to their profile photo. If you have a lot of friends, you can search for different ones by putting their names in the search box. When you are done, click the Create List Button.
Your new lists now show up under your friends icon. In the newest version of Facebook, you’ll have to actually click the friends button to see your lists.
If you want to restrict what individual friend lists can see, under account, privacy settings, profile information you’ll see a full list of profile isettings. Just click the dropdown box next to the profile information you want to restrict and you’ll be able to hide the information from individual friend lists.
For example, you may not want your business contacts to be able to see your latest beach photos with pasty white legs and a beer in each hand… just a few clicks and your problem is solved. They will still think well of you 🙂
3. Groups. You can easily setup special interest groups for clubs, sports, business activities, and a host of other items. To set one up is easy.
Click on the groups icon on the left hand menu from your main Facebook page.
In the center column a Groups bar will open at the top. Click on the Create a Group Button.
On the screen that opens up, enter your group information with a name, description and contact information. From the pull down menus, select a group type and specific interest. There are a lot to choose from, so you should be able to find something close that matches your organization.
After you have added this information, you will then be able to control settings related to your group’s privacy and add a group picture. You can change these settings at any time by clicking “Edit Group” on the group’s main page.
We setup a group for our local Toastmasters club, which has been very helpful in keeping members up to date on our meetings and special events. You can upload photos, videos, and even have a calendar of events. The on going discussion tab allows members to interact with one another. If you have any type of special interest group, why not start a Facebook group to help everyone keep in touch.
