You either want to organize your ever-growing number of “friends” OR…
You get the dreaded friend requests from family members and coworkers. You either A) have no problem ignoring the requests or-more likely- B)feel like you have to add them or else there will be hurt feelings. Then you race through your profile trying to delete anything that could be considered not family-member/work-friendly.
But there’s a better way! Create Friend Lists! You can create lists of different groups of people and manage the privacy settings for each group (what each List of friends can see on your profile).
For example, your friends Joe, Pat, and Amy are in your “High School Friends” list – you decide that they may see everything on your profile.
Then you create a separate list for Mom, Dad, Great-Aunt Gertrude—you can limit them to see let’s say your “Info”(work, phone number, etc) and your Facebook photo album entitled Family, but nothing else. Because let's face it, they probably don't really need to know that the reason why you're a little cranky today is because of those 8 shots you did last night.
No one will be the wiser—no one is notified/be able to see that they’ve been put on a “list.” And you can label the list whatever you would like without them knowing. If anything they’ll just notice they can’t see as much as they did before, but they should understand that if they are a co-worker or family member.
I have broken this Tutorial up into four relevant sections, along with pictures, because we all learn differently and these things can be confusing! **Disclaimer**I have blacked out sensitive information as these screenshots were taken from my personal Facebook profile.
1. Go to the left panel of your Home page on Facebook and click "More"
2. Click "Create New List"
3. Enter a Name for the List, Select Friends that you would like to be on that List, and Then Click "Create List"
4. Repeat until you have all of your desired Friends Lists. (some examples: Work Friends, Family, Don't Know Very Well, Internet Friends, etc)
1.Go to "Settings" (on the blue strip up on top of your Facebook page) and Click.
2.Click on "Manage" under "Privacy"
3. Click on "Profile"
4. There are different sections that you can control what people can see (Status & Links, Profile (Wall), Info, etc). Select the Drop-Down menu for the section you would like a list/lists of friends to not see. Click "Customize"
5.Then under "Except these People" you can either type in people's individual names or enter the name of a Friends List/multiple Friends Lists you created. Then click "Okay." Repeat for each section of your Facebook page you would like to edit Security Settings for. (By the way, make sure "Only Friends" under these sections is checked if you don't want everyone who is searching for you seeing everything on your profile)
You can edit who can see your photo albums, but you must do each photo album individually.
1. Go to your Profile again.
2.On the Left-hand side there's a box that will show some of your photo albums. Click on "See All."
3. On the photo album you would like to Limit Access to, click on "Edit Album"
4. On the tabs up on top, click "Edit Info"
5. Under "Privacy: Who can see this?" Click the drop-down menu and then "Customize"
6. It will pull up the same sort of menu you saw before in the picture above: Under "Except for" type in the individual Names and/or Friends Lists.
7. Click "Okay"
Alright, you're all set. Now Great-Aunt Gertrude and your parents won't be able to see the photographic evidence of what you were doing at that strip club last month! OR what your new hottie is writing on your facebook wall.
If you would like to test out how one of your friends sees you when you are on step 4 of part B (under Settings, privacy-->Manage, Profile) you can type in a friend's name and see your profile as they would see it.
Just one thing though: Your profile photo. Change it to something kosher. Because all of your friends can see that
There's a whole world of Search Privacy for people who are looking for you on Facebook--if you don't want them to see everything on your facebook page. In addition to the drop down menus you did before (for the different sections of your profile) and clicked "only friends" for, you should:
1. go to click on Settings again
2. click on Manage under Privacy again.
3. This time click on "Search" this time, instead of Profile.
4. Using the drop-down menu, choose who you want to find you (Everyone, Friends of Friends, etc)
5. And then select in addition to your name, what they can see when they do find you.
6. I prefer to not show up in Google listings, so that checkbox for me is left unchecked.
7. Click "save changes."
Here is how my Search Privacy settings looks like:
Was this helpful to you? Did it change your LIFE? hey, maybe. It made me a little less nervous about my boss and my parents being my facebook friends. I hope this helps you! Since this is submitted in the Geekdrop contest, please PM me with any questions, as I will not be able to comment back until the contest is over.
Please leave comments if this has "touched your life" in any way!
This is an award winning GeekDrop Contest thread
Love it
Kudos on this thread GG!
This is one think I haven't done yet and I need to. I accepted one friend from work and it spread like wild fire. Some things I like to keep private so I will be doing this for sure. I just never sat down to really figure it out and now I don't have to you wrote some great directions.
This is a GREAT thread! Most people don't know that you can show different people different things.... And based on some of the fails I've seen on the internet.... Most people need to find out.
---When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.---
I just walked a friend through a more simplified version of this. Great tutorial. All she needed was to block one person. This would be great for all those people scared to add people like their boss or co-workers.
thank you, i needed this.
good one. I am planning to implement it myself
Single & Not Looking
Awesome thread GG! I totally needed this too, I have a pretty good idea how to do it, but you just made it so much simpler....thank you!!