Below is a listing of our top 10 tips for the popular social networking website Facebook.
Hide users, games, polls, etc.
It quickly gets annoying seeing some users posts,
game invites, polls, etc. Hovering your mouse to the right of the post
and clicking the Hide button as shown below can hide any post. After
pressing the button you'll have the option to hide that user or in the
case of a Facebook application the option to hide that application from
ever showing up on your profile.
To unhide someone or unblock an application click the Edit Options link in the bottom right corner of the news feed as shown below.
Greasemonkey and FB Purity
Although Facebook does not give you the option to
hide friends, friend requests, or various notifications, these can be
hidden using browser add-ons. If you're running Mozilla Firefox, Chrome,
Opera, or Safari we suggest installing the Facebook Purity add-on.
Update your privacy settings
Click Account in the top right corner of the Facebook window and then click Privacy settings
to adjust who is capable of seeing what on your Facebook profile. We
highly recommend going through all the privacy settings to verify your
privacy is properly protected.
Anything that is not set to friends only or friends
of friends can be seen by anyone searching on the Internet. Below is a
few things we recommend for most users.
- Under Search in Privacy settings uncheck Public Search Results. Adjusting the settings prevents users from finding your account and profile picture in search results such as Google
- Under Application settings, make sure you're only allowing applications you want to have access to your information. Applications that you grant rights to can have access to your Facebook profile information.
- If you're curious to see how a program or web page connect to the Facebook API can see your profile see Tip135.
Use the Facebook top bar for navigation
Knowing how to properly navigate is vital if you
want to get the most out of Facebook. Below is a brief description of
each of the available options in the top bar as shown above.
Home (facebook logo) - Clicking this logo takes you to your wall (News Feed) that shows all friends recent posts.
Friend requests - If any friend requests
are waiting to be approved this icon shows a notification of how many
friends are waiting for approval. This icon can also be clicked when you
want to view any friend recommendations or search for friends on
Facebook.
Messages - This section allows you to send and receive private messages between one or more of your friends.
Notifications - Any time a friend or
Facebook application creates a new post you'll be notified in this
section. Clicking this icon shows all recent notifications. To change
notifications including any Facebook applications or games click the See
All Notifications link at the bottom and check or uncheck what you want
to be notified on.
Search - Finally, the search box in
Facebook can be a powerful tool that can be used to quickly find any
current friends or people on Facebook. Also, searching for terms such as
a company name, product, sports team, music band, etc. will find fan
pages and groups that can be joined.
Modify your account notifications
Keep your e-mail and your cell phone clean by
updating or eliminate Facebook notifications or keep more up-to-date by
adding new notifications. Facebook notifications can be added and
removed by clicking Account link in the top right corner, then Account Settings, and then clicking the Notifications tab.
Top News and Most Recent
By default Facebook displays your wall postings in
the News format, which means it only displays posts it believes are
most relevant to you. These results are based on your past interaction
with your friends. If you want to see every post made by all your
friends that are not hidden click the Most recent link in the upper right section of your news feed as shown in the above picture example.
If you want to adjust who shows up manually click the Edit Options in the bottom right corner of your news feed.
View High School work friends
If you've added your High School or previous Work
locations to your profile, quickly see all classmates and co-workers on
Facebook by clicking the link in your Info tab under your profile.
Quickly change profile picture
Your profile picture can be changed by visiting
your profile, hovering the mouse over your current profile picture, and
clicking the Change Picture link in the top right corner.
Don't post private information on friend's walls on in comments
When you make a post on a friend's wall or in any
of their comments realize that any of their friends are going to be able
to see that post. If you want for something to remain only between you
and a friend send them a Facebook message instead.
Suggestions and random friend invites
As you get more friends on Facebook it will begin
making friend, groups, and fan suggestions. These are suggestions made
by Facebook and not your friends. Unless these are something you're
interested in they can be ignored.
This same rule can be applied to people who may
want to be your friend that you don't know. If you don't know someone
don't accept his or her friend invite. Once someone becomes your friend
they'll have access to any information your friends are capable of
seeing.
Tag your Facebook friends in your photos
Always make sure to tag any of your Facebook
friends that are in pictures you upload. However, never tag someone who
is not in the picture. When someone is tagged in a photo that picture is
automatically added to that persons profile and is a great way to share
pictures with all friends.
