I have to admit it felt a little weird when I was writing out that title. Since when do we need to organize our friends into lists? It’s not very warm and fuzzy is it?
Well here’s the thing…if you’re using Facebook to help run your business having different lists for different “types” of friends can be very useful! Have you ever noticed that when you visit the main news feed you kind of get sucked in? Not a good thing right? You log into FB to get some “work” done and before you know it you’ve spent the past hour or so looking at pictures from your cousin’s friend’s roommate’s birthday party.
DOH! Not really a good use of your time!
The Benefits of Making Lists for Your Facebook Friends
It’s definitely fun to visit the main news feed during your FREE time but during business hours you need to stay FOCUSED! You need to stay focused on building relationships and growing your network. One of the best ways to build relationships is to simply LIKE and COMMENT on other people’s posts! And especially on the posts of your NEW friends! That way you don’t keep posting on the same accounts all the time…you need to spread the love so YOU show up more often in the news feeds of others!
But what if those friends aren’t on FB as often as you are? Chances are they won’t show up in your main news feed. And you certainly don’t want to go visit everyone’s timelines one-by-one. That would take FOREVER!!
That’s where FB lists save the day!
For example…
Let’s say you’ve made some friends from a knitting group on Facebook. You can put all those friends on your KNITTERS list. Then, when it’s time to network you can just go to the news feed for your KNITTERS list. That way you can still stay in touch with everyone…even those people who don’t post very often and wouldn’t otherwise make it to your main news feed.
Lists can also be useful even during non-work hours. For example, your Aunt Edna only posts once every week and unfortunately FB doesn’t think she’s popular enough to display her posts in your main news feed. So by adding Aunt Edna to your FAMILY list you can be certain that you don’t miss any of her very important posts!
Another benefit to having lists is that you can choose to share your posts with only those people on a particular list. For example, let’s say you have a question for people who live in your area…your FB friends who don’t live nearby probably don’t care who the best plumber is in your hometown. You could create a list for your friends who live in your state, city, subdivision, etc. Then when you write your post you can choose to only share it with that list.
How to Create Your Friends Lists
So now that you know WHY lists can be useful, how do you go about setting them up? It’s really quite simple!
If you want the Facebook version you can go here: https://www.facebook.com/help/www/135312293276793/
Or just keep reading for my version. 🙂
And just a heads up, you’ll need to do this on your desktop or laptop where you have access to all of the Facebook features…unfortunately you won’t be able to do this on a mobile device.
1. The first thing you’ll need to do is go to https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/lists. As an alternative you can go to the main news feed, and in the left sidebar go to the FRIENDS option and when you hover over that, a link will pop-up that says MORE. When you go to this page you’ll see a button on the top that says CREATE LIST. Click that! 🙂
2. Name your list!
3. Start adding friends to the list by typing their names in the MEMBERS box. This is pretty easy so far right?!? Seriously, what didn’t you ever think of doing this before? And yes, don’t worry…you can add a friend to more than one list.
That’s pretty much it!
OK now what?
Now that your friends are all organized you can access your lists by going to the same link as before: https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/lists. When you click on a list it will go to something that looks like a newsfeed with a random cover photo on the top but will only show updates for friends that are on that list. Yeehaw!!
You’ll also notice a button on the upper right corner that says MANAGE LIST. I recommend going to CHOOSE UPDATE TYPES and only selecting those updates that you want to see, otherwise it will start to get very cluttered. I personally like to keep it limited to STATUS UPDATES and PHOTOS but it’s totally up to you!
When it’s business hours on Facebook now you can go straight to your lists and totally avoid the main news feed! And don’t forget, when you a write a post on your timeline you also have the option of only sharing that post with certain lists.
I hope by organizing your Facebook friends into lists you’ll find that it increases your productivity!
Do you have any other tips for eliminating time wasters on Facebook? I would love to hear them! Please post them in the comments section below!
Amanda is a wife, toddler mom, PMAD survivor, certified nutrition and running coach, recovering perfectionist, and minimalist-in-training. Her mission in life is to help others get off the pity potty, embrace their own brand of weirdness, and get after their dreams. Proverbs 3:5-6