This third and last post in the series on the recent Facebook changes gives you a few tips on miscellaneous topics. Don’t forget to read post #1 on Subscriptions and Privacy and post #2 on Custom Friend Lists.
It may seem like the Ticker is showing you a lot more of your friends’ activities, but what shows up there is information you would normally see if you visited a friends’ Profile page (and scrolled down their Wall). The Ticker is just showing your friends’ activity in real-time in one place.
This real-time update is supposed to encourage more social engagement with your friends, but if you find it to be a distraction, then I suggest you set up your Custom Friend Lists (see post #2) to avoid seeing the Ticker altogether.
You can limit the amount of your activity that is broadcast on the Ticker by adjusting your privacy settings.
Go to Privacy Settings – How You Connect – Edit Settings – Who can see posts by others on your wall? Most people recommend keeping this at Friends or Friends of Friends – this takes a lot of the clutter out of your Ticker and preserves the privacy of your friends’ posts.
Business (Fan) Pages:
Interesting tip: Thursdays and Fridays are the best days for posts
When someone interacts with a business (fan) page, that activity shows up in their friends’ Ticker – so for businesses, better fan interaction promotes more visibility.
The SHARE button may be more important than the number of impressions on your page – since your post is being promoted (shared) to a bigger audience than just being viewed by the one person who clicked on it.
Other Miscellaneous tips:
Facebook now gives you a 5,000 character limit per post.
Discussions, Reviews and Fan Updates functions are scheduled to be removed.
If you are using the Spotify app, you can now choose a “private listening” option, so your music activity isn’t shared with your friends
I hope these 3 posts were helpful as you are getting used to some of the recent Facebook changes. But…get ready – some of the biggest changes are soon to come: the Timeline will be replacing your current Profile (what others see when they find you on Facebook) and this layout is dramatically different!
I’ve been using the new Timeline for a few days now and will be writing several posts about it soon, but here are a few things to think about (if you want to prepare):
Photos in general are a bit larger and showcased more on the new Timeline than your current profile. So if you enjoy posting photos, you should like the way they look with the Timeline.
Timeline “Cover”: every Timeline (what we now call a Profile) will display a large picture across the top. Your current thumbnail picture will appear in the lower left corner of the cover area. The dimensions of the cover picture are: 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels high.
Use a photo from one of your Facebook albums, upload a new one or get creative with graphics and make a truly unique “branded” cover of yourself.
Take a look at some of these sample “cover” images at Mashable.com : 10 Facebook Timeline Designs that Will Blow You Away. You can get very creative if you want (and have the time!)
More to come on the new Timeline soon!
About Terry League