Facebook Hints

Michael is using the "good" laptop (the one I usually use!) to play some online games.  All of my pictures are on there, so the blog I had planned to write has to wait until tomorrow.  So as I sat here trying to think of a "Five for Friday", nothing was coming to me.  However, I was reminded of a blog I have been thinking about writing for a long time.  I would say 99% of the people that read this blog have a Facebook account.  There have been many things I have learned along the way--both as someone who hosts online parties and someone who was an admin of a group with 4000+ people.  They come to you when they can't figure out what is going on!  But some things I just learned by trial and error.  It appears that the general public does not know these things.  If you do, good for you!  Ignore my post.  I see people making these mistakes often though, so I thought I'd share.

TIP ONE

You don't have to get 100 different notifications after you comment on someone's post.  I had a friend who just had a baby.  I both liked the post and made a comment.  As you can see, when I took this snap shot she already had 76 comments.  I'm sure it's going to keep rising by the minute.  I don't want to get every "Congratulations" post.  You may see under her status that there are a few choices.  If you don't want to get a notification for every comment made after yours, you can just click "Stop Notifications".  On the flip side--if you are part of a group or someone posts something that interests you, you don't have to write "following" in order to get notifications.  There is an option that says "Get Notifacations" instead of the stop one.  You can just click that and it will automatically send you the notifications.  Make sense?

TIP TWO

I have to believe that the majority of you don't know about this feature, because if and when you make a mistake or autocorrect writes something funky...instead of editing your comment, you write another "fixer" comment underneath.  You don't need to do this!  If you go to your comment and hover over the right corner, that blue pencil will pop up.  Then you can choose "edit".  Fix your mistake and then click publish.  Done.  You don't have 3 or 4 posts trying to say the one thing you wanted to say!

TIP THREE

Did you know you have an "other" folder?!?!?  This has been around for over a year, at least.  Yet I still see friends posting that they just figured it out.  I'm guessing some of you may know about it.  Especially if you are on a buy/sell page.  The rest of you need to go check it out.  If someone who is not your Facebook friend sends you a message, it will go to your "other" folder.  Sometimes you do get spam, so it can be helpful, but you could also be missing important messages.  When you go to your messages at the left of your computer screen, you click on inbox.  Your inbox messages immediately pop up.  If you click on that little gray "other" word, it will take you to a whole different inbox.  I check mine periodically, so there is no number there.  If you have some unread messages, it will say something like Other(4). That means you have 4 unread messages.  

TIP FOUR

This one may not be as important, but coming from someone who has tried to hold online events or invited to something via a Facebook invite, I think it's helpful to know.  If someone invites you to an event, either an online party or even maybe a birthday party or get together, you will get a notification.  Sometimes you may see the notification.  Most people seem to miss them.  Only guests who RSVP "yes" or "maybe" will get further notifications.  As a host, it is helpful to know that you at least saw the post.  So just say "no" if you don't plan on going.  If you are interested, but aren't sure then put "maybe".  That way the host at least knows you saw it and you will also get all of the updates that may help change your mind one way or the other.  I have learned that as a society we are HORRIBLE at RSVPing.  There really isn't a good excuse in this day and age.  It takes two seconds to click a button.  Your "events" are located under your messages.  You can see that I have one event coming up.

TIP FIVE

Here's another free tip for you.  Really, it is a good tip in general, but also relates to Facebook.  If you are still using Internet Explorer as your browser, then you are living in the dark ages. Seriously.  You need to download chrome or firefox or something like that.  It will save you lots and lots of trouble.  (It will also save your Facebook page admin lots of trouble!).  If you've ever posted in a group and your item posted twice, then you tried to delete one and it deleted the picture on both--this is why.  It is an Internet Explorer glitch.  Get rid of it!!!!!

 TIP SIX

 This is mostly for those who are part of a group.  I would guess that is most everyone, but maybe not.  First, if you don't want to get all of the notifications every time someone comments, then you can click that little green check by the "Notifications" mark.  If you are looking to find a post, a lot of people use the magnifying glass (on the right).  This does work sometimes, but the magnifying glass itself has issues sometimes.  People were always trying to find their posts in our group as they got buried quickly.  If the magnifying glass doesn't work for you, you can go to your activity log.  It's located on your own personal page.

If you go to your page, up by your cover photo you will see a spot that says "Activity Log".  If you click on it, it will actually show you everything you've ever done on Facebook.  So you can find a post you made, a post you may have "liked", or a comment that you left.

Did you all know these things, or was it helpful?