Minnesota, USA -June 13, 2011 - Maybe you realized that after years of using Facebook that you do not know much on how to use it outside of the basics like posting comments, Â changing privacy settings, or tagging photos. Now there is a surprise: there is actually more available that you did not even realize existed. Perhaps these few small tricks could make your Facebooking a little more enjoyable and customized; use Facebook to its fullest potential without putting much effort into it at all!
Even though it was covered weeks ago, we will review the trick for seeing all status updates except for the ones that you prefer not to see; let's face it, some friends post too much so it could be overwhelming to see all of the updates that could come with changing your Newsfeed settings. Then again, sometimes we want to see everything that anyone posts, so we want to be set up to do this.
Next to "Top News" click the arrow for "Recent News"; scroll down to "Edit Options", then switch the setting to "All of your friends and pages". Under this, you will see a box that says, "hide posts from" which you can automatically type in a person's name if you can automatically think of anyone in which you do not want to see updates. In addition, you can also hide any of your friends' activities by clicking directly to the right of the updates (on the X) and pull down to "hide this post" or "hide all by..."
Tip #2 Customize the recent activity that you let your friends see
Recently I noticed an increase of activity on all of the posts on my friends' walls; the frustrating part was probably the fact that it was among my friends but these particular friends did not even know each other or have each other added as friends. I took a moment to realize that I still had my entire activity showing for everyone who looked on my wall.
In order to hide any of your activity, click on the "X" on the right side of the update, you can either remove the specific post or that specific type of activity. This allows you to control what you do and do not show to others.
Tip #3 Give a status update to only a few people
Perhaps you have a special relationship with someone or a little message that you want to give out on Facebook but you do not want others to see; you want that particular person to see it though because you're extra 'shy'. Well, believe it or not but it is possible to do this!
If you did not notice a long time ago, under your status update there is a little lock next to the 'share' button;Â if you click on the "customize" option, a box will appear where you can change the option from "friends only" to "Specific people"; after this, a small box will appear where you can start to type the name of the people who you want to see the update.
Tip #4 Cut down the names of people in tags
If you are like many people, you love to mention people in your statuses; this can get a lengthy and cut into the 140 characters you get to express yourself. In order to save a few characters after you insert a name, hit the backspace bar once when the name is still highlighted; this way you can actually keep the tag but cut down on the name a bit.
Tip #5 Get more secure with HTTPS
HTTPS browsing was around for a few weeks, but you may not realize you have not switched over to it yet. In order to have secured browsing, you should really do this even if not all of the applications you use are switched over.
Go to "Account Settings", under Account Security, click "change"; Just click on the box by the "Browse Facebook on secure connection whenever possible."
Tip #6 Manage the information that applications access
After starting to use an application, you may not remember the information that you allow this application to access. Fortunately Facebook does not want to lock us into any applications without anywhere to go and change whatever it can see.
When you go to "Privacy Settings" click on "Edit your settings" under "Apps and Websites" all the way at the bottom; click on "Edit settings" and make the changes as you see fit.
Tip #7 Get login approvals in advance
Most people access their Facebook pages from multiple devices; this can cause a problem because Facebook cannot detect on whether it is actually you or someone else. Fortunately, Facebook allows users to only allow particular devices that it saved. If any other device tries to access its page, it will prompt you upon your next login. It is simple to add a device and it only requires filing in a code that is sent to your cellphone.
To get login approvals, click on "Account Security" in "Account Settings"; after this, click "edit" and go down to "Login Approvals" and click the box next to it to enable it.
