Take Control of Your Social Media – Make it a Nicer Place to Visit!

Do you enjoy spending time on social media at the moment? I have spoken to many business owners over the last few months who have taken a step back from their business social media because they just can’t face their news feeds. Who can blame them?! They have found that their feeds have been full of overwhelming content that affects their mental health in negative ways. Regular coronavirus updates and figures, uncertainty and arguments about who is and who isn’t sticking to the rules, differing opinions of what the rules actually are now, fake news…the list goes on….. When we are already feeling totally out of control of the situation around us the last thing we want to do is bombard our already struggling brains with more of the things that are overwhelming us in the first place. The good news is that we have control over our social media news feeds. You can choose what to see!

Facebook Pages

Let’s start with pages, along with pages that Facebook suggests for you. Now, Facebook wants you to enjoy spending time there. It suggests pages for you based on the types of content you have interacted with at some stage of your Facebook life. As we know, it doesn’t always get this right and our preferences can and do change, so we need to help it out by telling it what we do and don’t want on our feeds. This magic all starts with those three glorious dots at the top right of posts on your news feed. Click on those dots and Facebook gives you several options.

Hide Post: This option will let Facebook know that you want to hide this post from your feed and see fewer posts that are similar to this one. This includes posts from other pages that are similar to this post too, which is very handy!

Snooze for 30 Days: This option means that you will not see any of this particular page’s posts appearing on your news feed for 30 days. After that period the posts from this page will begin to appear on your feed again.

Hide all Posts from This Page: This means that Facebook will not show you any future posts from this page on your news feed. If the post is from a business page that you like and follow then you will still be shown to like the page, but you are no longer following them, so their posts won’t make it onto your feed.

Facebook Groups

Groups are up next. With so many of them being created at a rate of knots you might find that you are being invited to join several every week. Groups are incredible places to build connections with people who have the same interests as you, get involved with free trainings and challenges that are hosted within them, and usually feel like slightly safer spaces to get involved and comment on posts. There is nothing wrong with, and I would actually encourage it, joining several groups to see if they are the right ones for you and then remove yourself from the ones that don’t feel right. The other thing that can be a bit overwhelming when you are a part of a big group is the notifications….there can be a lot of notifications! Again, we need to use those 3 magic dots to moderate the activity we see from our groups. Head to the main group page and you will find them at the top right of your screen on a mobile, or as separate buttons under the cover image on a desktop or laptop.

Following: If you click on this one you will no longer be following the group, but you will still be a member of it. You won’t see that groups posts in your news feed.

Notification Settings: This will let you manage the types of notifications you get from the group. You can choose to see all of them, just notifications when friends post and suggested posts, only for friends’ posts, or turn off notifications from the group entirely.

Leave Group: This one is self-explanatory and will mean that you are no longer a member of the group.

Facebook Friends

This last one is a little more sensitive. Friends. When we have a large number of friends on Facebook it can be difficult to keep a track of them all. You may find yourself accepting friend requests and later regretting it, being friends with people who you have moved away from or start seeing posts from them that aren’t your cup of tea. Whatever the reason, sometimes we just need a bit of a Facebook friend cull or mute, and that is ok.

Once again, I am going to direct you to those 3 dots, underneath the profile picture of your friend, on their profile page.

From the menu you can choose the suitable option.

Friends: Click here to unfriend. They won’t be notified but they may notice that you are no longer friends. You won’t be connected with them on Facebook anymore and will no longer see their activity in your news feed.

Following: This is the one to choose if you feel that unfriending them completely is a bit harsh. You will still be Facebook friends and can go and see all of their activity on their profile page, but their posts will no longer appear on your feed.

Find Support or Report Profile: Here’s where you need to go if you are having any problems with friends posting stuff that they shouldn’t be or if you find yourself being harassed, bullied or stalked on Facebook….it does happen ????

Block: If you choose to block someone on Facebook they will no longer be able to see what you post on your timeline, tag you in anything, invite you to events or groups, start a conversation with you, or request to add you as a friend again. You will also be given the option to just choose to see less of this friend on Facebook by clicking on ‘take a break’ instead.

So, armed with that knowledge, you can now go and have a good old deep clean and take back control of your Facebook experience. Making your social media a less stressful, noisy and more positive place to be will ensure that being there to work on your business social media is a much easier experience ????

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