Take Control of Your Facebook Account

You supply your e-mail address, let it magically hook you up with everyone in your contact lists, and voila – instant social connectivity is yours.

Before you know it, however, your news feed is clogged with notifications from games your friends are playing and posts from retailers you “liked” to claim some special offer. Your cousin’s ex-boyfriend’s sister is commenting on your photos and you have more than 100 “friends” who you couldn’t point out in a mostly empty room. Where did it all go so wrong?

Have no fear. Taking control of your Facebook account is a fairly easy proposition.

* Cut Off Unused Apps

Even if you haven’t played Family Feud in more than a year, the application continues to have access to your personal information until you disconnect it completely.

Review the list of your approved applications by clicking on App Center on the left-hand side of your Newsfeed, then select My Apps at the bottom.

You can delete using the X button that appears when you hover your cursor over an app. You can also modify how an application interacts with your Home Page by clicking on Settings under each listing.

* Nix Unhelpful Notifications

If you are already relegating the daily flood of Facebook notifications to your junk mail folder, turn off the ones you don’t want to see.

In the upper right corner of your newsfeed, select the drop down arrow and choose Account Settings. The menu on the left includes Notifications which takes you to a list of all notifications available divided into categories such as Groups, Events, and Other Applications.

Turn off what you don’t want to be bothered with and turn on notifications for the updates you don’t want to miss.

* Trim Down Your Friends List

Does that distant acquaintance you didn’t even like in high school really need to know about your daily life? While it’s easy enough to hide his or her posts from your wall, sorting your friends into groups to limit who sees your posts can be a hassle, particularly if you’ve amassed a sizeable friends list.

You’ve likely seen people post “I am cleaning up my Friends’ List. If you’re interested in sticking around, send me a message.” If you elect to try this, re-post the message regularly for a week or two. Even with this precaution, surely there are people important to you who may miss a message like this.

Another option is to review your friends list and delete people one at a time. For those with a swath of names to sort through, FacebookDeletes is a script you can download that allows you to select the friends you want to keep and then delete the rest, page by page.

* Fix the Annoying “Features”

Anyone who still yearns for the old, pre-Timeline “classic view,” you’re in luck. Social Fixer promises to fix your Facebook woes and customize your experience.

It allows you to hide posts you’ve already read or change the layout, color and look of your Facebook window. Use Advanced Feed Filters to control what shows up on your news feed and, or group together certain stories and updates under separate tabs for better organization.

Easily hide posts by who posted it, type of story, or even by key word. The Friend Tracker feature alerts you when someone un-friends you, so you can demand re-entry into their social circle or breathe a sigh of relief that he or she saved you the trouble.

* Audit Your Privacy Settings

From your Facebook main page, click on the arrow next to the Home button in the upper right-hand corner and choose Privacy Settings. The Default Privacy setting controls which posts others can see, provided you don’t add a custom modifier when you’re posting a picture, web link or status update.

If you choose “Friends” for this setting, “Friends of Friends” will still be able to see posts their friends are tagged in. To limit that default setting, click on Custom and un-tick “friends of those tagged.” Even if you default to “Friends,” you can customize the privacy setting of a particular post. Also, review each of the individual settings on Connecting and Tagging. Click on “learn more” if you’re unsure of what something means – Facebook Help Center is full of useful information.

Article by Andrea Eldridge and Heather Neal. Andrea Eldridge is CEO and co-founder of Nerds On Call, an on-site computer and laptop repair service for consumers and businesses. Heather Neal is also from Nerds on Call. Andrea is the writer of two weekly columns, Computer Nerds On Call a nationally syndicated column for Scripps-Howard News Service, and Nerd Chick Adventures in The Record Searchlight. She regularly appears on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, The CW, and CNN on shows such as Good Day Sacramento, Good Morning Arizona and MORE Good Day Portland, offering viewers easy tips on technology, Internet lifestyle and gadgets. Andrea recently has begun working with Demand Media to produce content for eHow.com and has written a book for them Smartphone 101: Integrating Your iPhone Into a Windows World. Andrea is available for Q & A’s, expert tech quotes and will appear on your show, call today! See Andrea in action at www.callnerds.com/andrea.Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Take Control of Your Facebook Account