If you’re anything like me (and the rest of the world) then you probably spend too much time on Facebook. Assuming that’s inevitable, you may as well optimise your time spent on the world’s number one social media platform.
These 3 Facebook hacks will hopefully make your life better (or at least make your user experience a little better)!
Facebook Hack 1: Saving Posts
I use this time saving hack all the time!
If an article, post, picture or video catches your eye but you don’t have time to read it then just click on the arrow in the top right and then click on “Save <article name>”.
Facebook then adds list into your list of saved posts which you can refer to at a time that suits you.
This neat time saver also works on your phone too, so if you’re on the run but want to read it later then you can.
I save up a whole list and then sit down and go through everything together, once per week.
You’ll find the list of links in the top left hand corner of the page under your profile picture when you’re looking at your news feed.
Facebook Hack 2: Turning On (and off!) Notifications
Our news feeds have never been fuller. My prediction is that they will continue to get fuller and fuller as time progresses and more businesses try their hand at advertising.
Therefore I find it really useful to give my own news feed a good cleanse once in a while. A spring clean if you like!
You might like to consider doing the same so that you see more of what you want, and less of what you don’t.
This can be achieved with the turning on and off of notifications.
When a story appears in your news feed you can click the arrow in the top right and turn on or off the notifications accordingly as below.
This will not ‘unlike’ a given page but it will stop their stories being shown to you.
You can always turn it on again later if you wish, from the page itself.
By turning on the notifications of the pages you are genuinely interested in, and turning off those you aren’t, then you instantly make your news feed a happier and more relevant place to be.
I hope you have notifications from me turned on! If not then you can rectify that here!
Facebook Hack 3: Your Advertisement Settings
Now whilst you can’t turn adverts off in your Facebook news feed (Mark Z has to feed his family somehow!), you can control a little of what you do and don’t see.
Again, click the little arrow in the top right corner of an advert in your news feed.
You’ll notice you have a few option.
You can elect to stop seeing adverts of that sort, or from that particular advertiser. Really useful for some of those adverts which just won’t seem to go away!
The one I find really interesting though is the option to ask “Why am I seeing this?”
When you click on this option you’re taken to another page, with some interesting insights for you!
Firstly, you’ll see why you have been shown the advert.
This is particularly relevant if you’re thinking of crafting your own Facebook adverts; you can see who other companies are targeting with their ads!
It gets even more interesting if you click on “Manage Your Advert Preferences”.
This next page shows you all the things which Facebook believes you are interested in.
It determines this from various pages you’ve liked, comments you’ve made and some other assumptions.
It makes for rather interesting reading too!
Some of the things Facebook believes I like include cocktails (yes!), tapas (yes!) and the South Korean band Beast (who?!).
Again, by deleting the ones you’re not genuinely interested in then this will change the adverts which Facebook serves up to you.
You can’t stop being shown adverts so you might as well see ones that you might actually like!
Do you have any Facebook time savers? Please share your Facebook hacks in the comments below if you do!
If you’d like to read more of my blog posts on Facebook and social media then you do so right here.
And of course be sure to like my Facebook page here!