facebook timeline tips you should know
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19+ Facebook Timeline Features and Resources You Should Know!

For those of you who read my Facebook Page Changes earlier you will enjoy this article too! Consider this a self-review on how much you know about Facebook (Profile) Timeline. Besides the changes, I’ve included a few less-known features (and resources) that may already been on your homepage for months now! Don’t miss anything important:

facebook timeline tips you should know

Go through the list below ASAP!

#1  Name List Preview for ‘Likes’ and ‘Mutual Friends’

A minor update not long ago but great for a quick glance on who liked your post with a mouse-over.

name preview for likes

Instead of visiting the profile, you can find out instantly (again with a mouse-over) who are the ‘mutual friends’ both you and the sender shared when checking your Friend Requests:

mutual friends

 

#2  To Change Primary Photo on Timeline

If you upload multiple photos at once (minimum 4 photos), one of the pictures will appear larger than the rest on your Timeline. To switch it with another photo, click at the pencil icon and select ‘Change Primary Photo’. You can then use ‘Reposition Photo’ if your selected picture doesn’t fit in properly.

change primary photo

Extra Tip: Wall photo will be displayed as 403×403 pixels in individual post and 960px width is optimal. Learn more about Facebook photo sizes and how you can make full use of your visual content.

 

#3  Privacy Settings for Profile Picture

Just a reminder that all your photos in Profile Pictures folder will be set as ‘Public’ viewable by default. Tweak the settings manually if need to.

profile picture

 

#4  More Photo Thumbnails in News Feed

A huge surprise when I saw a total of 9 (not 6) photo thumbnails in my news feed a couple of weeks ago! You know what that means – more photos for visibility!

more photos in news feed

 

#5  Facebook Gifts

Soon everyone will be able to buy friends a gift directly from Facebook! This feature has already rolled out for U.S. users and will reach everyone gradually. You can look it up in your Account Settings -> Gifts tab

facebook gifts

Note: For Brand Pages who wish to list their products as gift options, fill and submit the form to Facebook.

 

#6  Discovering Pages to Like

Remember how we used to check page recommendations via this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/browser.php ? Now it’s easier for everyone to reach there without memorizing the link. Look for it at your sidebar:

like pages

 

#7  Turn off Notifications or Unfollow Conversations

You can easily turn off notifications from Groups or unfollow a post directly from the notification bar.

turn off notifications

Too many Group updates coming your way? Make sure to un-tick ‘Posts or comments in one of your groupshere to turn off the noise once and for all:

facebook group email notification

 

#8  To Share Files from Dropbox in Facebook Groups

Dropbox is now one of your file-sharing options in Facebook Groups. Once you link your Dropbox account to Facebook, you can search and share photos, documents and video files with your group members. Make sure you aware what information both platforms exchange during the integration.

dropbox in facebook group

 

#9  Emoticons in Chats, Comments and Facebook Inbox

You can see them basically everywhere now:

facebook emoticons

You can even create emoticons with keyboard shortcuts. Just bookmark and use this guide below:

facebook emoticons and meanings

#10  You got a Social Calendar!

Go to this link to check upcoming birthdays and events from friends. Switch between ‘List’ and ‘Calendar’ view; scroll down to load more updates. You can also export the events as shown below!

social calendar

 

#11  App Privacy Settings on Profile Timeline

People can view your most-recent app activities on your Profile Timeline based on your audience selector. You can either hide the activities on the spot:

recent activity on timeline

Or go to your ‘Activity Log’ -> Select the app name then untick the app activities you want to hide from your app page:

facebook app activity

At the same time, review your app’s individual stories and adjust the visibility there:

facebook app activities

#12  Clear Your Facebook Search History (optional)

Go to your ‘Activity Log’ -> look for ‘Search’ in the dropdown:

facebook search history

Here you can find all the search terms you’ve used in Facebook. You can either keep or delete them. To do the latter, click at ‘Clear Searches’ below the dropdown and reconfirm your choice when the pop up appears.

clear facebook searches

 

#13  Check for Auto-Categorized Pages

Certain pages will auto-categorize themselves in your Facebook ‘About’ section. Check your ‘Likes’ and remove the wrongly categorized ones or hide from public view, depends on your preference.

facebook page categories

 

#14  Tweak Your Ad Privacy Settings

Two routes to access this setting: one is a long way through ‘Privacy Settings’ while the other can be found within ‘Account Settings’:

facebook ads settings

Note: In case you’re wondering about the recent Facebook Exchange – the retargeted ads program through real time bidding, you can’t opt out from the program completely. However if you find the ads shown to you to be irrelevant or don’t want to see them again, you can follow the link to the DSP and opt out of future FBX Ads. More info about Facebook Exchange here.

 

#15  Brand New Facebook Inbox

Facebook Messages has gone through a makeover. Not only you can find out if your message has been read by the receiver, an improved photo sharing and message-searching experience are guaranteed.

facebook messages

 

#16  Use Facebook Search for Engagement

Facebook-tagging doesn’t always work well for pages. For instance, I had no idea Mari tagged me when she shared my article and it wasn’t in my page’s Spam folder either. Luckily I ran a quick Facebook search and that’s how I found out who else shared my blog link. A simple yet overlooked feature to improve engagement:

facebook search results

Extra Tip: Switch between ‘Posts by Friends’ and ‘Public Posts’ for better results.

 

#17  Recommendation Bar for Content Creators

“Wow! Hundreds of ‘likes’, maybe I should read that article too?” Don’t underestimate the social signals on a Facebook Recommendation bar. If you’re a content creator, make your visitors stay longer on your site with the Recommendations Bar or use the Facebook for WordPress plugin instead.

recommendation bar

 

#18  Moo Cards for Facebook Timeline

I know, I know, this is old news already but to be honest, I totally forgot about it until someone mentioned about synchronizing the cover design with their business card! This is just for your info that Facebook actually integrated such service, just in case you’re new to Timeline and wish to try it out.

moo cards

But I do wonder how many people actually use this? Don’t you?

And finally, a bonus tip which I learned the hard way,

 

#19  ALWAYS Check Your Audience Selector

Your ‘audience selector‘ is fixed upon your last Facebook update. For security and visibility reasons, make sure you check it before posting: vital to those who had created custom lists for Facebook friends and enabled public subscription at the same time.

facebook audience selector

Extra Tip: Check how your personal Timeline appears to public with ‘View as…’ regularly. If you have too many public posts and wish to hide them from view, go to Account -> Privacy Settings -> Manage Page Post Visibility -> Limit Old Posts. There! All your old public posts will now be visible to only ‘Friends’.

 

Now It’s Your Turn

What other Facebook changes, handy tips or resources have you found useful lately? Do share in your comment.

10 Comments

    1. No kidding! For once they actually contributed something? lol.. It’s my pleasure to include your blog link, Kim. Thanks so much for the workaround.

  1. What a great post! With Facebook always evolving, it can be difficult to constantly keep up with the changes. This list showcases a lot of Facebook features many people don’t know even about and all the images make it very easy to follow. Thank you for posting this. I absolutely love your blog.

  2. Hi Ching Ya.

    Awesome information that summarize some of the many Timeline features.

    I appreciate these great tips and how applicable they are for all of us. Will share with my Hotel Network.

    Take care my friend.

    Cheers..

    Are Morch
    Hotel Blogger

  3. Ching Ya, you’re the best! I found #6 and #16 the most illuminating, and I’m already using #6 after reading this. I’d been wondering how I could find a few more pages once I got into this sharing thing. Great stuff!

    1. Good to know, Mitch. I wasn’t aware of #6’s existence too until not long ago. Not sure if that’ll be something permanent on Facebook but might as well utilize it since we have it. Great to see you here as always, my friend. 🙂

  4. Hi Ching Ya,

    Except tips number #1 #7 #9 #11, I’ haven’t seen other features on Facebook before (that’s no good) and especially tips number #19, after I read it, I immediately go to my page and check if there are any post that could only see by me. Luckily, there aren’t any.

    Thank you so much for letting me know more about Facebook features and I can definitely enhance my Facebook page from it – Ferb

  5. Ching Ya,

    What a great list of Facebook tools. I do not use Facebook as much as I probably should and have kind of gotten lost with all of the updates. Every now and then I do look around to see what is new but this is great help.

    I see that there are several thing I need to go and check out.

    Thank you

    Dee Ann Rice

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