Christine Casey ~ Change Begins with Choice

I created my Facebook profile account this past January, yet it wan’t until recently, when I began using more of it’s features, that I truly realized what a great tool it is — and now, I find myself visiting it more frequently than checking my email.  I discovered that by tweaking some of the settings, I can not only communicate more often with those I’m connected with, I can also get through a lot of the everyday chatter to see the information that I don’t want to miss!

NEWSFEED

Did you know you can change some of the settings for your News Feed?

Just last week, a good friend of mine mentioned that he had “un-friended” a few people he was connected with on Facebook because they were big into the games you can play, and he was tired of seeing all of that information in his News Feed.  He had no idea that he could “Hide” certain status updates/posts from within the feed.  Here’s how: From within your News Feed, go to the status update that you no longer want to see from within your feed, and click on “Hide”, which should appear in the upper right hand corner of the status update/post  when you have your curser over it.  It will give you two options; you can either Hide “your friend” or Hide “the application” from your news feed.  If you choose to do either, you will still be connected with this person, they or their application(s) just will no longer show up in your News Feed.

Have you recently begun to notice that some of your friends have disappeared from your News Feed?  Well, Facebook recently made some changes to the News Feed to limit the number of friends that will show in your feed each day, and if you want to change the default, and see more of what all your friends are up to each day, my friend Glyna Humm shares how do this.

PRIVACY

If you are someone who values keeping as much as possible of your personal information private, you’ll want to make sure that you have your Facebook Privacy Settings set to your liking.

To do this, go to” Account” on the top bar, then scroll down to “Privacy Settings” on the tab. First, I would recommend viewing the “Basic Directory Information” settings. To give you an example, I allow “Everyone” to search for me on Facebook & send me requests & messages, yet only allow certain lists I’ve created (which I explain a little further down in the post) to see my “Friend List” and “Hometown”.  For the “Sharing on Facebook” option (listed right under Basic Directory Info), you have a few options:

1. Share with “EVERYONE”
2. Share with “FRIENDS OF FRIENDS”
3. Share with “FRIENDS ONLY”
4. “RECOMMENDED” settings (by Facebook), or
5. “CUSTOM”

For my profile, I have chosen option #5, to create “Custom” settings.  NOTE: If you choose a “Custom” setting, you will need to choose “Custom” from the pull down menu that appears.

“Application and Websites”  is where  you can designate what, if any, personal information you make accessible through application and websites when your friends use them.  I would strongly suggest that you open up and look through each of the options you have from within this menu to make sure that information you deem private is not shared at all, even through the connections that your friends have.

Once you’ve changed the “Privacy Settings” to your liking, did know you can “Preview (My) Profile”, type in a friends name, and see exactly what they’ll be able to see about you on your profile?  To do this, go back to “Basic Directory Info” and click on the button in the upper right hand part of the screen, then you’ll see “This is how your profile looks to most people on Facebook Preview how your appears to a specific person:” with a box to type in the name on the upper left corner of the screen.

CREATING LISTS

I have found that the easiest way to organize all my friends on Facebook is by creating different lists.  To create a list, click on “HOME” in upper right corner, scroll down to and click on “Friends” (located in the left bar area of the screen).  You’ll then see a tab called, “Create a List”, which will open a new box with all your friends listed.  Name the list, and then choose which friends you want to be part of this list.  When you are finished, don’t forget to click  ”Create List” on the bottom of the box.  NOTE: Your friends can be on more than one list.

Let me share with you one of the great ways that I use my lists.  From within my News Feed, I can click on “Friends” in the left side bar, and then choose which listing of my friends I want to view &  just friends from that list will now show in your News Feed.  You can then click on another of your lists to see what’s going on with friends from within that list.  Remember though, once you click to another page in Facebook, your last viewing preferences will revert back to your default setting, so then next time you visit your News Feed page, it will again include all of your friends.

You can also use your lists to customize your privacy settings, or when posting status messages or sharing links & pictures.

FRIEND REQUESTS

When I receive “Friend Requests”, I look for either a personal note from that person, or if we might already be connected through mutual friends.  Another thing I will personally do is to view their Facebook profile and perhaps find out a little more about them, and some of the items I will notice are: Do they have a photo? What are their status updates like ~ Are any of them what I deem to be offensive or if they’re affiliated with a business, do they only write about their company or opportunity, with little to nothing noted personally (basically, I look for how they interact with their friends on Facebook, and ask myself if this is someone I want to link with)?

Something I personally do when I request a friend connection on Facebook is to include a short, personal note, especially if it is to someone who I have not personally met or interacted with yet.  And, when my friendship request has been accepted, I will always send that person a short message or post a short sentence on their Wall, letting them know I’m glad we connected on Facebook (Example: “I appreciate the connect & look forward to getting to know you!”)

Something I have made an effort to do each week is to pick three people that I don’t already know well, who I’m connected with on Facebook, and get to know them.   By taking the initiative, I feel I’m creating a real friendship connection, gaining valuable insight into someone else’s world, learning about new things, and I am closer to being able to state that I DO actually know most everyone I’m connected with on Facebook…how many of us with hundreds of Facebook friends can really say this? ;-)

APPLICATIONS

A great way to add more information about you(as well as to individualize your Facebook profile) is by adding applications.  Two applications I use (Networked Blogs & Friend Feed) are included on my tabs, and I also have a direct link to my Twitter account on the left sidebar. If you have a blog, the Networked Blogs application will allow friends to see a listing of all of your blog posts, as well as blogs that you follow. I use my Friend Feed application on Facebook because it shows a detailed listing of all of my activity from my other social media sites, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube —  My friends simply click on this tab and will see what I’ve shared on my social media sites without actually having to visit each one.  How convenient, don’t you think?

If something that I’ve shared has been helpful to you, or you would like more information, please contact me, I’d love to hear from you!  Likewise, if you have any other tips/tricks for Facebook that I didn’t mention & you’d like to share, please leave a comment.

There’s no doubt to the popularity of Social Media, and most likely, you know at least someone who uses it on a regular basis.  Yet, what does it mean to be involved and how can you become more successful with using Social Media?

Regardless of whether you have a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube account, there are some important things you should include in your profile, such as your photo and some basic, public type information about yourself.

Twitter

If you use Twitter, you definitely want to make sure you use your photo and have a short bio, and as you brand yourself on this service, you probably don’t want to change things around too often, especially your photo, as this helps other users to identify with you. Retweets (RT) are great, just be sure that you are also contributing valuable information (from yourself) to your followers. And, if you have your own business, it is okay from time to time to tweet about your opportunity or products, just don’t make a constant habit about doing this as you can become branded as a spammer!  Don’t be afraid to occasionally ask your followers questions, or even respond to a question someone you follow has asked.  Also, Twitter is one of the mediums where I have found that content is more important than popularity – how can you really be social if you are following thousands?  One thing you might discover is that, by being actively and frequently involved in the conversations, and contributing valuable information to your followers, you soon may have more followers than those that you follow. Think about how great will that be!

Facebook

Facebook is an awesome tool to keep up on what your family and friends are up to.  One of the cool things about this tool is the News Feed, where the most recent postings from your friends are listed, and where you can join in on their conversations by “liking” their post and/or commenting.  I have gotten to know some really wonderful people just  from joining in on some of these postings/conversations.  And, as you send requests to add friends, be sure to include a short note on your request so that the person can relate to you (do you belong to the same group/organization or do you have mutual friends). Facebook also has the advantage of being able to establish a Page or Group if you have a business or organization you want to share details of with others, and may be a good option if you’re concerned with privacy issues, and want to restrict who you “friend” with on your personal profile, yet still want to stay connected with general public in order to share your business information.

LinkedIn

I’ve heard LinkedIn referred to as “Facebook for professionals”, and I believe this is true to an extent.  There is a lot of really valuable information you can find, and share, on LinkedIn, especially by joining in on groups.  As there are many different groups, join several that relate to the industry you are in.  These groups share useful information, perhaps even something that you may be seeking an answer to, and likewise, if you have information to share, post it within the group.  It really is all about helping one other succeed. And, if you have a blog, did you know you can feed your blog posts to your LinkedIn profile page?  What a great way for others to get to know you better.

Bottom Line: Doesn’t it make sense that Social Media means to be social – to interact with others?  I believe this is vital in how to become successful using this powerful communication tool, and as you become more involved in the conversations, on whatever social media platform you’re using, you’ll also discover new friends and have fun!