Facebook News Feed Overhaul. Benefits and Your Control.
I’m certain you’ve noticed Facebook’s update to how you view your news feed. It was kind of hard to miss with all the pop-up boxes and banners Facebook rolled out to ensure Facebook users like you and myself were “in the know.” As with most Facebook overhauls, many people are in a state of dislike but that seems to fade over the course of a couple of weeks.
This post is to highlight why we can benefit from the news feed overhaul and how we are more in control now! What a great feeling.
- [No. 1 on image] Control how often you see updates from particular people by selecting Subscribe to [Insert Name] All Updates, Most Updates, Only Important. Before, we only had one option, to Subscribe or Unsubscribe and now there are THREE options.
- [No. 2 on image] Control what YOU think is a Top Story. Before the overhaul, Facebook would determine what a Top Story was based on how many thumbs-up and comments Facebook updates received. Now you have the power of making that decision. Hover over the top left corner of an update and click the small triangle.
- [No. 3 on image] See your friends’ status updates in real time via the new sidebar ticker. Want to join in? Just click on your friend’s status update in the ticker and you’ll be able to make a comment, share the post or give it a thumbs-up.
Benefits
- Information is more current via the real time ticker and the notification at the top of your news feed upon your login - Top Stories from the Last [Insert # of hours not logged in] Hours. Per the image below, I guess it had been eight hours since I logged in.
- If you navigate away from the news feed and then return back, Facebook tells you how many updates posted since you navigated away from the news feed.
How to do a mass news feed subscription update from the news feed page -
1. Hover over News Feed in the left margin. A small light blue pencil will appear.
2. Click on the small light blue pencil and then click Edit.
3. A box will pop-up titled Edit News Feed Settings. Click on Manage Subscriptions (top right). Here you will see a list of Facebook friends and non-friends what you have subscribed to. Now it’s your choice to stay subscribed or not based on what you want to see in your news feed daily.
**You can also do a mass news feed subscription update from your Facebook profile by clicking on Subscriptions, which is under your profile picture.**
Posted on September 21, 2011, in Facebook and tagged facebook, how-to, social media. Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.
Not seeing how ‘subscribing’ to friends is giving you more control than the old method of choosing to hide certain people or certain kinds of posts from your newsfeed, but okay.
And I feel like the ‘real time’ benefits of the ticker are negated by the way the information’s given to you. Seeing ’5 people have liked Jon Doe’s status’ and then requiring you to go click on this to see what the status was in the first place? Less helpful than seeing Jon’s status with the number of likes listed under it.
However, if you don’t like the new newsfeed style, you can still get something similar to the old one with the List feature. Put all your friends (or all the friends you care to hear from) on a list, and it functions like the old newsfeed with all the statues, pictures and posts in chronological order. Far more helpful for keeping up with your friends than seeing what Facebook decided were the ‘important’ events of the last 10 hours.
I am sorry you feel that way. We do now have the control to determine what we believe is a “Top Story.” Before, Facebook determined that for us.
Thanks for stopping by.
THANK YOU Allison!! Just when I thought I was getting the “hang” of facebook it changed – now I know how to manage it!! Would bookmark this post but I’ve found I am bookmarking every one of your posts… so from now on, whenever I have a social media question, I just come to your site for the answer!!
Thanks for this – I am almost at the point of giving up on Facebook altogether – I am spending less and less time on it – and I wasn’t on it a lot to begin with – but I know that if I follow your advice i’ll get the most out of the little time I am on it – so thanks!
I am glad you find these posts helpful, Lucy.
Great FB tips!
Thanks for stopping by!
I love how you simplify this. But it can still be somewhat overwhelming. You are like those little yellow books we all used in college – called “cliff notes”. Thank you for making my life easier!
I’m definitely in that “dislike” category. One of the many reasons I use facebook less and less.
Gosh thanks for this! I’ve been just a tad overwhelmed with all of the new pop ups!
I actually like the new format… and I don’t like change!
Thanks for the tips, Allison!
I like the new format too. Especially being able to see “Recent Stories” and how many stories happened since I was last on the news feed.
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