Being Social #32 - Getting Smarter About Facebook

If you are a Facebook user, likely you believe that it runs smoothly..until, of course, it doesn't. Some of the more public "problems" have been around its privacy settings, but there are other problems (or features) of Facebook that you should know about.

My World is Shrinking! - How much of your friends' news is displaying on your Facebook news feed? It is likely that you are only seeing posts from people with whom you have recently interacted (a feature of the "new" Facebook). If you aren't interacting with someone, their news isn't displaying in your news feed. Admittedly, you might not want to see everyone's news, but likely you'd like to see more than what you're getting now. The solution....

Sign into Facebook and you will be on the homepage with your News Feed. At the top of the News Feed, click on "Most Recent" (at the top), then click on the drop down arrow beside it and select "Edit Options." Change "Show Posts From" to "All Of Your Friends and Pages" and Save the change. Once you do that, you'll see more news in your News Feed. If you are like me, you may be amazed at the news you've been missing.

TMI (Too Much Information)! - Are you afraid that you are sharing too much information with your friends and people that you don't know? Consider creating friend lists, then using those lists to limit what people can see about you. For more information, read "How can I use friend lists to help control my privacy?" on this page.

Security, Please! - Facebook does allow for a secure connection (https) which encrypts your communication with the site. "https" connections are frequently used for payment transactions because of the security provided. For information on how to turn on this feature, read "How do I turn on Secure Browsing (https)?" on this help page.

I Need More Help - If there is something that is a mystery about Facebook, check out Facebook's help pages first. Then turn to your friends, since we all learn different aspects of the service. Finally, look for information on other reputable web sites or - yes - in books. If you do turn to a book, look for one that was published recently. Anything that is 1-2 years old will be out of date and inaccurate because the service changes frequently.

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Next issue of Being Social will be in about two weeks...

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