The new Facebook Timeline profile is now available to any of the site’s 800 million+ users who decide to activate it. The new Timeline format arranges a person’s posts, pictures and important life events (such as marriages, births, etc.) into two columns, with a blue line with dates running vertically down the middle. The sidebar offers users an ultra easy way to skip to months or years in a particular profile. This can be particularly interesting if you are trying to snoop into someones past – digging up dirt on your ex-boyfriend’s prior relationships? Seeing drunk pictures of your BFF during his or her college days? What if we flip the scrip and look into your past? What would we find? Here are 5 things you need to do right now to attain Facebook Timeline privacy bliss prior to activating the new Timeline profile. You will thank us later!
1. Clean up all drunk, overly sexy, questionable or embarrassing content on your profile. My rule of thumb is you shouldn’t post content you wouldn’t mind your mother-in-law or grandmother seeing. The new Timeline profile makes it incredibly easy for people, co-workers, relatives, etc. to find posts that you might have forgotten about. Don’t forget the new Timeline format turns your entire life (AKA from the moment you joined Facebook) into an easy-to-read scrapbook of events and pictures. And check your tagged photos too!
2. How private would you like your profile? Most people should set their privacy and sharing settings to Friends Only.
You can change the privacy level for each status update if you wish. Facebook will “remember” your choices and your next status update will have the same settings. You can also limit the audience for previous posts – just remember, if you limit the audience, the content on your timeline you’ve shared with friends of friends or public will change to friends.
3. Remove any casual acquaintances you have or sort your friends into proper Facebook lists. “Smart Lists” were introduced by Facebook in September to bring more organization and privacy to profiles. Lists offer people sharing and privacy benefits if used correctly. Facebook automatically groups people based on common traits and is dynamically updated. Lists are located on the left hand side of your homepage. Take a look and create new lists if needed. Now you can chose which lists to share specific status updates with. Please note there is also a “Restricted List” – this one can only see status updates and profile information that is set to “public”.
4. Take advantage of the 7-day grace period to customize the content that appears on your profile. You can chose to add posts and pictures that Facebook has left out or vise versa. I strongly recommend you look through your entire timeline to check out what is appearing (I promise you others will too!). Click the square in the top right hand corner of each post to change its settings. Alternatively, to add a post click anywhere on the blue line that runs down the middle of the profile.
5. Get ready for the moans and groans of all your friends when the new Timeline Profile is forced on everyone! Instead of dreading the change, embrace it and tell your friends to do likewise. Facebook profile redesigns are never well received but we are confident you will love the changes.
The social media realm is buzzing with excitement over the new Timeline profiles. We hope you enjoy and benefit from these 5 steps to attain Facebook Timeline Privacy Bliss. Do you have any tips to add? How do you like the new profiles?