Recently a friend posted the following question as her Facebook status.

Is there a way to make my news feed more specific? Like top 20 people in my life who I associate with will always be at the top? Or something like that? Since all of the changes I can’t seem to figure it out…

This person happens to be both a real “friend” as well as being a “Facebook friend”.  Several people jumped in gave their thoughts, many people had some good ideas/thoughts.

Being that we work with dozens of individuals, non-profit groups and businesses on their social media strategy and how to maximize their time/resources, this type of question is not all that uncommon. Each member of the Encompass Marketing team has been asked a similar question. Not to take anything away from the folks who posted their opinion on my friends wall,  here is a bit of advice we give folks.

This will be the first part of a two part approach, we’ll first look at the “Subscribe” function of Facebook, we’ll then look at how to set up your Facebook Groups and Lists.

On a Friends page (or when they come up on your feed), check out the  “Subscribe” button.  That “Subscribe” button has a drop down menu to allow you to decide what type of information you would like to see from that Friend.

As you can see from the image/screen-shot you can decide to see all updates from your friends, or perhaps you on wish to see “photos” or “comments.”

The “How Many Updates?” piece can get tricky.  Even though it is implied you picking “how many” updates you see from each friend, you are really picking the level of importance.  “All Updates” clearly means you’ll see everything from your FB friend.  “Most Updates” and “Only Important” are based on how often you interact with that person and how many & how often other people “comment”, “like” and interact with that same friend.  This might take a little trial and error.

(Editorial Comment:  lets face it, if you are “Facebook Friends” with someone and you don’t want to see/hear anything they have to say, consider not being their friend on Facebook.  Or you can always remain their Facebook Friend but “un-subscribe” to their updates.  This will allow you to interact with them, on your terms, not theirs.)

Selecting what you want to see from your Facebook Friends should make your Facebook time more productive and help you gather the information you want from the people you really want to hear from.

Next time, we’ll look at setting up and using Facebook Groups & Lists to filter the information from your friends.