Did you know you can make your Facebook statuses visible only to specific people of your choosing???
The below description tells you how. It may seem a bit daunting. It probably looks like more steps than it really is, but I've provided screenshots for every step of the way (which is why it seems like a long process. I assure you it is not). Once you do this, it's nothing but a SINGLE click every time you want to post to a list of your choice.
(click on any image to see it larger -- sometimes there are details on the images that you'll want to see)
STEP ONE: Organize your Facebook friends into LISTS (same thing as a Google+ circles). This, admittedly, will be the longest and most tedious step. I know some people won't ever use this amazing Facebook feature simply because they're too lazy to organize their friends into lists. So suck it up, and do this now!
Notice on your Status/News Feed page, on the left, you have "Friends" (pointed out by the arrows in the picture below). When you hover over "friends" a "More" will appear to the right of it (as shown below). Click "MORE" (note: do not confuse this with the "Groups" and the "more" that appears when you hover over "groups." Groups are very different than "Lists")
STEP TWO: On this page you'll see a bunch of already-created "smart lists" created by Facebook. Just ignore those for right now. You can edit/explore/delete them later. Right now, click on "Create List" at the top right, as seen here:
STEP THREE: Title your list and begin adding people to it. What should you title it? What sorts of things would you want to post to only specific groups? If you're a big hockey fan, create a hockey list and only add people to it that would be interested in your posts about hockey. Or what about a "Church Friends" list, or a "Local Friends" list?
For this example, I titled my list, "Test Group" but I shouldn't have done that. It's misleading. This is not a "group" it is a "list." Moving on: Once you click "create" then you'll see the page below (read my red notes on the image). Here, you can add anyone to this list (or circle or whatever you want to call it) that you choose. You can add them manually here (shown by the arrow) but there are a couple of other easy ways to add people to the list. Keep reading.
STEP FOUR: Once you've added at least a couple of people manually into your new list, Facebook will start providing suggestions to add to this list. Look at the graphic below and discover a few things that are easy to use and understand:
STEP FIVE: Another way to add people to your custom lists is to hover over their name in any part of your news feed. A box will appear and you'll see a button that should look something like this:
Click on the "friends" button for that person. This will bring up an additional window that shows you what "lists" (or circles) this person is a part of. You can add them to a list or remove them from a list by clicking on the list name. If you have lots of lists (like I do) then just click "show all lists" if you don't see the one you're looking for. See here:
STEP SIX: Boom! The "hard" part is done. Now it's all easy and downhill! When you post a status, look under your typing window and you'll see that your post is already geared up to post to a specific list. NOTE: Facebook WILL remember the last list you posted to, so be sure to double check who you're posting to.
Simply change which list you want to post to by clicking the drop-down arrow:
Once there, you can select a "list" that you want your new post to be visible to. Maybe you want this post only visible to your old high school friends, or your old home town friends, or your church friends. Or maybe it's a picture of your kids and you don't really want all 500 of your friends seeing it (400 of which you hardly know). Just create a "Close Friends and Family" list and make it visible only to them!
NOTE: These lists work on the iPhone FB app too!
STEP SEVEN: Honestly, that's the bulk of it. But what if you want a post to be visible to multiple lists? When you click that drop-down arrow to select a list, click on "custom" if you want to post to multiple lists.
That will bring up this window. Choose option: "Specific People or Lists"
Your window will now look like this (below). Read my notes in red on the image below for ideas and further understanding. And note that you can also hide posts from people!
There you have it, Feeps. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! Let's clean up Facebook! Stop posting to the whole world things that are only meant for a specific few!
Put a link to this blog post on your Facebook wall!
