Your Facebook feed can be confusing today. I met a woman I’ll call Sally a few years ago now. She is a customer of mine and only used Facebook minimally. She wanted her posts to be seen in the main Facebook news feed. However, Sally was not aware of the friends list feature.
Sally wanted to grow her business and realized she really needed to have a Facebook page and more knowledge of using Facebook herself.
It really helped me to understand how non-bloggers and non-marketers use Facebook. They may look for photos of family members and post rarely themselves. Others use it as a personal news source or to spy on friends and family.
Therefore, I created a guide for your Facebook feed to see more of what you want on the social network.
Table of Contents
The Feed – What You Need To Know Now
Today with the algorithm changes on the network, you may want to change your Facebook feed around. You may only want to see relevant content today.
Facebook is more of a communications necessity vs. using it as a marketing tool or as a business. People go to Facebook to connect with family and friends and that’s why close friends list feature is still so popular.
Your Facebook Feed – Lists
As Sally and I went over how to use Facebook she had no idea how Facebook lists worked. Never mind why or even how to create them and use them.
I went on to explain that her family members might not want to see her postings related to her real estate business.
Or her real estate customers may not want to see pictures of her with friends vacationing, etc. She was starting to get the picture and began getting excited!
Now, cut to the latest Facebook Newsfeed Algorithm changes. And boy, am I ever so glad I started Sally on her lists. The Facebook Lists we had created now continue to help her navigate the latest changes made to the Newsfeed.
Facebook is ever-changing and their priority is to have us talking to each other, engaging in deeper and meaningful interactions, and leaving comments that lead to conversations.
This being said, we truly need to stay on top of things or else we will get left behind.
How to Use Facebook Lists
You can still create lists out of your Facebook friends. They are used so that you didn’t have to share everything with everyone.
Posting To Lists
Facebook Lists can give you control over what shows up on your news feed. With only a click of a button, you can go from talking to friends to switching to business information.
These lists you create help you to share things only with the people you have added to those lists. There are also “interest” lists that can be created. Things that you are interested in and use the lists likewise.
Looking At List Feed
It’s also a great way to see what people in your lists post.
You can go to your list and see just that feed instead of your mainstream Facebook Feed. It can save you a lot of time. (Just as Twitter lists do.)
Check out “100 Awesome Facebook Lists to Follow (and Bypass Edgerank)” by Scott Ayres. Scott states, “Facebook quietly launched “Interest Lists” about a year ago – around the same time Timeline launched.
Before that, lists were mostly used for organizing friends. The Facebook Lists let users include people (including non-friends) and pages.
The 100 Interest Lists were arranged by categories such as – social media, business, sports, politics, music, art, food, etc.
Facebook Close Friends List
When you make someone a close friend, you will see their posts in your Facebook feed almost every time and in your notifications. Sally really liked this feature and wondered why she hadn’t been seeing some of her friend’s posts.
It is also available on Instagram but used a little differently.
She would see them in person and they would ask her if she saw something in particular about this or that on Facebook. She was dumbfounded.
Or you can add your close friends from their personal Facebook page:
You can see above I added my blogger friend Vishwajeet from Tech Biz Masters.
Acquaintances Facebook List
These are the friends you may want to share less with.
You can choose to exclude these people when you post something, by choosing Friends except Acquaintances in the audience selector. I’m loving this feature, have you tried it yet?
Restricted Friends on Facebook
This is for people like your parents, kids, or bosses you want to be friends with but don’t want to see your posts. A little sneaky trick here but it works.
When you add someone to your Restricted list, they will only be able to see your Public content or posts of yours that you tag them in.
Other Ways to Change Your Facebook Feed
Adjust Your Newsfeed To “Most Recent” –
This is great if you are tired of seeing the same old stuff and start receiving the most recent things vs. top stories which is the set preference. So, if you want to see the most recent posts you must adjust it.
This works great for any breaking news you may want to keep up with as well.
See First Option In Your Facebook Feed
Did you know you could change whose posts and pages you see first? You can choose up to 30 pages and people whose posts you will see first in your Facebook feed above all the others.
It’s a great feature like the friends list.
This feature is under your News Feed Preferences on your Facebook Settings Tab – upper right-hand corner of your personal FB page. Then you will see this when you click on it.
This is a great way to see posts from Facebook pages that tend to get lost in your Facebook feed. Sally may use this one for her new Facebook Page so her fans can see all of her posts. Of course her Facebook administrator can do that for her as well.
Of course, having a professional-looking Facebook page is helpful here too.
Showing your page followers this trick can help your page stay in their newsfeed.
Notifications On Facebook Feed
If you don’t click turn on notifications you won’t see them in your notifications. That’s usually what I look at first. And if you set your mobile to make a noise or vibration you will be notified instantly.
You may want to be extremely selective in which you choose to use notifications. Notifications can get annoying if you have too many.
Click On Posts
If you are seeing posts that don’t interest you – you have an option. You can click on the right side of them and see the selection of choices.
See below the current Facebook choices you now have with posts in your Facebook feed:
These options, like the snooze button on Facebook, work great during elections and when tensions are high around the world with news events.
Can You Stop Others From Tagging You on Facebook?
Yes, there are many options available in your Facebook privacy settings today to have control over unwanted tagging on your own timeline.
You may find yourself getting annoyed with family and friends who want to share things on your feed that you may disagree with or you may not find professional looking on your personal feed.
After all, it is your own Facebook wall (feed.)
Being tagged on Facebook is like someone coming to your home and littering your yard with signs. Mind you, signs that you may not want there.
There are times you may like being tagged too, so my best advice is to approve it first. Next, be aware that when you are tagged others may see it too. Once again, Facebook gives you options to change that as well.
You do have control. See below how to adjust your Facebook timeline and tagging settings:
Facebook Story Preferences
You can change what you see from people with this option. Next, you can mute stories or archive them. You can also add to your story here too. Facebook stories only stay up for 24 hours.
Facebook stories are similar to Snapchat or Instagram stories in that they disappear in a 24-hour period.
You really can have more control of your Facebook Feed and save yourself valuable time when on Facebook. These options are available on desktop and mobile as well.
Different Facebook Feeds for Your Facebook Feed
Also, note that there are several different feeds to choose from. There is the Groups feed as well as the Pages feed.
Helping your fans and clients learn how to look into their Pages feed will help people who enjoy your blog postings and articles to locate your business page.
You really can have more control of your Facebook feed and save yourself valuable time while on Facebook. These options are available on desktop and mobile as well.
Facebook Algorithm Changes
There are over 2.96 billion people now using Facebook daily. (2023, Omnicore agency stats.) Yes, that number of users is in the billions.
Facebook has over the years had to change the ways in which people view their Facebook news feeds.
An average Facebook user looks at 300 posts per day.
Therefore it is really almost impossible to see everything everyone posted. Even if you had just a few friends and liked several pages. There are now sponsored posts and related posts.
There are Facebook events and ads. You need to cut through this Facebook clutter.
There are over 100,000 different factors now that play into the Facebook Algorithm. A few top ones to take note of are:
Top Facebook Algorithm Factors
- Engagement – If you comment on a friend’s post or a page’s post you will more likely see more from them.
- Relevancy – If topics are relevant to what you post about, etc you may see their posts more often.
- Sharing – If a post is shared by you, you may see more posts from that person or page.
- Time – How much time one spends reading a post is also a factor in your Facebook feed. The more time you spend reading one, the more likely you will see more like it in the future in your Facebook feed.
- Liking a Post – Likes have decreased in value over time but are still a small factor.
- Hiding a Post – This will likely show you less from that person or page in the future on your Facebook feed.
- Video – Videos rank very high today in the Facebook algorithm. Especially if the videos are 3 minutes or longer!
- Links – How you post a link may also impact how many people see it. It’s best if you can start with a comment about it, then share the link URL and image. If you are sharing a link it is best to use the link preview format. If you are sharing just a photo it’s best not to post a link within a caption.
Continue Reaching Customers On Facebook
Although the changes to the Facebook newsfeed affected business pages drastically, it doesn’t mean there is no hope in reaching loyal and valued customers. We just need to change the way we approach it
Now we need to reach them through “meaningful interactions”. When writing an article to post on your page, you should make sure it will prompt conversations between users.
Comments are key for the Facebook feed. Just don’t goad people to comment because that’s considered “Engagement Bait” and that is a a no-no today.
Therefore, ask open-ended questions, but don’t tell them to “share if you agree” or “click like”. Find a way to get people talking about your content by writing about relevant and timely topics.
You can also invest in making Live videos, Podcasts, and creating a Facebook Group Page. Of course, this may all change the next time Facebook makes yet more changes to its algorithm.
And last but not least, use some videos and reels in your Facebook page posts.
Conclusion: Facebook Feed Updates
How are you using your Facebook news feed today? Do you use the friends list often when sharing? What is your favorite thing about your Facebook feed that you can customize?
What other advice would you have for Sally? I’d love to know more in the comments below.
Has your Facebook Page been tagged for deletion? Read more here how to tell if Facebook page deletion is a scam or not.
