Five Facebook features you probably aren’t using
Now that damn near everyone is on Facebook, including high school classmates I’ve not seen in 16 years, I’m really starting to enjoy Facebook quite a bit. Way more than I ever liked Myspace. The reason is simple: I like seeing what people are up to, and everything about Facebook is designed to let you stalk your friends. Quickly. Efficiently. And, hopefully, with love in your heart.
Still, after watching the last six months as the site became incredibly popular, I’ve realized a lot of my pals probably aren’t using all the features Facebook puts at your disposal. Part of it, I’m sure, was the new design that confused so many people. But now that people have finally stopped all the bitching and protesting, it’s time to take a look under the hood. If Facebook is your brain, you might be using only 5% of it. Here’s what you’re missing.
Import your blog
Lots of people I know already have a blog. Whether it’s at Blogspot or Livejournal or Wordpress or Myspace, you’re probably already writing about something somewhere. Unlike Myspace, Facebook doesn’t require you to start all over. Just import your existing blog. On your profile, click settings, then click automatically import activity.
You’ll see a menu of choices in front of you, including a bunch of Web site logos you may find familiar. For now, click on the bottom one.
Now copy and paste your site’s RSS Feed. Facebook will automatically import all your new blog posts, including any links and photos. Your friends can read the entire post and leave comments, without ever leaving Facebook.
Import your activity from other sites
You can follow the same steps above to import your activity from other sites. You’ve probably seen this on my Facebook page and in my news feed. When I add photos to Flickr, or share a story in Google Reader, a notification gets added to my Facebook page. Just add your user name or RSS feed from the site you want to import, and you’ll be doing the same.
Customize your privacy settings
Facebook’s getting so popular that you’re probably getting friend requests from people at work or from family members. You might think, “Oh, no! Now I can’t posts those near-pornographic videos to my Facebook account anymore.” Not so!
Facebook allows you to carefully set your privacy settings so that you can screen groups of people, or even individual persons, from seeing the full glory of your Facebook page.
There are actually a ton of options. What I do is create lists of people, and then I define what each group of people can see. It might seem difficult at first, but soon you will grow drunk on the power.
Filter your friends
One of the things I like best about the new Facebook design are tabs on the home page that allow you to filter your news feed by clicking one of several tabs at the top of the page. You can choose to read only status updates or photos or items posted by your friends. You can also choose to view a “live” feed where stuff gets added in real time. 
But to unlock many of Facebook’s best features, you have to click an arrow to reveal hidden extras. Remember those friend lists I was telling you about? You can filter the news feed to focus only on a particular group. For example, you can choose to see only your high school friends or your friends from work.
But what if there’s one dude who’s always showing up in your news feed and you’d rather not see so much crap from that guy (what? who, me?). Well, you can choose to see fewer news items from that person. Or choose to see more items, if you’re not seeing enough. Just click “options” next to any item shared by that person. Then modify the settings accordingly.
Trick out and expand your profile
You’ve probably noticed that Facebook pages aren’t nearly as obnoxious or grotesque as your average Myspace page. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fix the place up. The redesign altered your profile page to include tabs, including default tabs for your Photos, Info, and your Wall. But you can add other tabs, including full pages for your favorite appli
cations.
Click the “+” sign, and you can add tabs for any of the available applications. There’s also a “Boxes” tab you can add to show applications that don’t have their own tab. For an inkling of what you can do, take a look at my profile. I’ve got lots of tabs.
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Most i knew about but I think I will go over and add my blogs to Facebook.
thanks! added my blog, too.
Thanks for the useful info! Your post was very easy to follow, i.e. all the screenshots. I appreciate it!