This post is the third in a blog series Shift Digital is presenting this summer on using and customizing Facebook privacy settings.
Last week, Beatriz gave us some great reasons why we should take control of our Facebook privacy using lists. This week, I’ll give you some simple instructions on how to create custom lists in Facebook, and how to do it without spending hours on Facebook.
The easiest way to create lists is to roll your mouse to the right of the Friends section in the left sidebar of your Facebook page. Or, you can go to https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/lists.
This will take you to all of the friends lists you have created. Some are custom lists, such as lists of people you work with or that live in the same city. To create a custom list, click on “Create List” at the top right.
Once you’re there, create the name of the list and then add the names of the friends you would like to be on the list.
You can use these lists almost as mini Facebook accounts. You can go to the list page (by clicking on it in the left sidebar) and choose to post a status only to that list. As Anneliz pointed out in our comment section last week, you can also use these lists to keep up with certain groups of people, instead of reading all of your NewsFeed updates.
You can make as many lists as you’d like, and in a future blog post we’ll go in to more detail of examples of lists to create. But for now, here are a couple of tips on how to organize and use your lists quickly and effectively.
Try to think of all your lists ahead of time, and then create them. If there are some names that come to mind immediately, add them, and then move on. Don’t spend forever going through all of your friends and sorting them out. That will make this task take hours!
Instead, while you’re reading your Facebook NewsFeed daily, keep those lists in mind (which isn’t too hard, since a list of them will be ever present on the left side of your NewsFeed). Then, while you’re reading updates from your friends, scroll over the name and choose the lists that person would be right for. You don’t even have to leave your Newsfeed to do this.
You may even think of more lists to create during this process. Same thing with pages, scroll your mouse over the page name and over where it says “Liked”, and choose the list you want to add it to.
