Taming Your Facebook News Feed

imageSome people say their Facebook has too much on it and others tell me theirs has too little. On the ‘too much’ side, do you wish there weren’t so many ads and other promotional posts in Facebook? And, on the ‘too little’ side, do you wish you could be sure of seeing everything posted by good friends?

What if I told you there was an easy way to accomplish both of those results in one simple feature? It’s called “Close Friends” and I’ll tell you exactly how to use it with Facebook on the computer as well as Facebook on mobile devices like Android Phones and iPhones or iPads.

What’s a News Feed?

The Facebook news feed is the stream of posts that you see when you first log in to Facebook. These posts are coming from friends, pages you have “Liked,” and Facebook promotional material. It’s like opening a newspaper and reading all the news from those “Feeds.”

What’s a Friend List?

When you first start using Facebook, it assumes you have some friends who are more important to you than others and it sets up a list called “Close Friends.” You can also set up custom lists like “Summer Camp Friends” or “Work Friends.”

Using the Close Friends Feed

You can use a Friend list to limit who sees your posts. You can also use a Friend list to limit whose posts you see. If, instead of the everything News Feed, you select to see only your Close Friends feed, then you will be seeing ALL the posts from your Close Friends, and NOTHING BUT the posts from your Close Friends. See what I mean about it accomplishing two goals? To get back to your ‘everything’ News Feed, just click Home on a computer, or the News Feed icon image on a mobile.

How To

Computer Browser Android Phone Facebook App iPhone Facebook App
View the Close Friends Feed Click “Close Friends” on the left sidebar. Tap the 3-line menu, then Close Friends Tap the 3-line menu, Feed, Close Friends
Post to Close Friends only Write post, click audience selector, More Options, Close Friends Write status post, on “To” line, tap right arrow More… Close Friends same as Android
Add/Remove people from Close Friends list When viewing close friends News Feed, the people will show up at the right. Easy to “Add friends to list” or See All and click X to remove people Can’t manage the list as a whole. Go to a friend’s timeline, tap the “Friend” indicator and then “Edit Friend List” Then Check or UNCheck Close Friends. Same as Android

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