How To Use Facebook Lists To Keep Your Family Life Private
One of the biggest complaints I hear about Facebook is the struggle to keep things private. As with all social media, no matter how hard you lock things down, it’s never 100% safe.
But we do have the tools to help us separate our private and public lives. And Facebook lists is one of those hidden secrets that you are going to wish you had known about before.
When I talk about FRIENDS in this post I am talking about anyone you have become Facebook friends with.
Why Use Facebook Lists?
You probably know that when you make a post on your profile you can choose to set it to public, friends, or restricted friends. But lists allow you to take things even further. You can…
- Segment your friends so you can post specific updates to specific groups of people.
- Pick a list and only see the posts from the people on that list.
- Also, you can be friends with someone without them seeing all your personal posts…
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We all use Facebook in different ways, some as a way to keep connected with friends and family on the other side of the world, some to network, some to keep up to date with what’s going on and some to fend off loneliness.
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It doesn’t matter why and how you use Facebook, by setting up lists you will be in more control of what you see and who you are connecting with.
Using Facebook Lists For Business
A Top Tip:
If you are friends with influencers or even just people further ahead in the game than yourself and you want them to notice you… set up a list called “influencers” or whatever you want to call it. Add all the people you want to connect with to the list.
Each day, check this list then make smart and helpful comments on any new posts that pop up. I don’t recommend doing it on every post, you don’t want to come over as crazy-stalker-chick but if you are contributing to the conversation this person will notice you!
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Don’t worry about offending anyone, no-one knows which list you have put them in, they don’t know if you unfollow them, they might discover you have unfriended them but if you have hit the unfriend button, does it matter anyway?
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Here is a video taking you through how to set up Facebook Lists or you can use the steps below…
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These steps are shown on the desktop, the system is basically the same on a mobile device but you might have to poke around to find where the menu is! Why they can’t make everything uniform is beyond me! Anyway…
Facebook friend list setting step 1
Go to your homescreen, click on the friends’ list link
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This will bring up the box so you can create your own custom lists, there are a couple in there by default, then you can add your personalised ones. If this is the first time you are dipping into lists then pick a few, think of your friends and how to categorise them – you can have them in more than one list so it doesn’t have to be cut and dry.
.Step 2
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Add your list name here, you can call it whatever you like, no-one but you will see the list. Get creative!! You can also add people to the list straight away, just start typing a name in the members’ box and FB will pull up the names.
Repeat until you have a few lists to start you off, you can easily add more, so don’t get stressed about it.
.Step 3
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Now you have a set of lists you need to file friends into the right list. WARNING – if you have a lot of friends this might take a while, put on a movie and settle in…
De-cluttering and organizing your Facebook friends is good for the soul! You will feel much better once you have cleared out anyone that makes you feel yuk.
Click onto your Friends List, it will bring up a page with your friend profile, the app you might just get their picture, in which case you need to click through to to the Friends box.
You will get a drop-down menu.
Click Add to another list…
.Step 4
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Here you will see the lists that you have set up. Obviously, they will be different to mine, unless you just copied my list names and well, that is a little freaky!
You can add one friend to multiple lists. The text will be bold and a checkmark will appear for the lists that they are added to.
If you suddenly realise that you don’t have an appropriate list, you can easily add one here, scroll to the bottom of the lists box.
And the great option here is the RESTRICTED option. This means that although the person is added as a friend they will only be able to see your public posts. Handy if you don’t want to mix business with your private life. Having two personal profiles is again Facebooks T&C so it is best to stick to this method.
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Go to the offending friends profile and hover over their name to get the box to pop up. Then click the Following tab and choose unfollow.
This isn’t permanent, you can go back and follow them again if you wish to, they will be none the wiser!
It just means that their annoying posts won’t be shown in your feed anymore.
You can also choose to Take A Break which means Facebook won’t show you their posts for 30 days.
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I hope that helps, let me know how it goes!
Finally, if you are a multi-passionate mom, then come and join us in Moms That Rock – a kick-ass community of amazing mamas!
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