How separate your personal and professional Facebook friends
Photo by Master OSM 2011 on Flickr. Creative commons.
I’ve just started a new term as a visiting lecturer at City University, London. I’m encouraging this year’s cohort (studying the MA in interactive journalism) to use Facebook to share their stories.
For those who want to separate their personal and professional lives, I’m suggesting they create lists.
I split my Facebook contacts into two as an experiment last year, thinking the majority of my real-world friends wouldn’t be interested in some of the journalism news-related links I share, and feeling that my professional contacts wouldn’t want to see baby pictures.
It also avoids having friends or family comment on a professional thread.
It’s worth noting that the Facebook Mentions app (designed for verified public figures) allows you to separate personal and professional by letting you to share updates with people who follow you but not with friends.
If you don’t have access to the app, here’s how to segment friends and professional contacts:
Create a list (or two)
I have one called ‘journa-list’ for my journalist and journalism-related friends and ‘non-journa-list’ for my school friends, family etc.
To create a new list:
Scroll down to ‘friends’ on the left side of your News Feed. Hover over ‘friends’ and click ‘more’
Click ‘create list’
Enter a name for your list
Click ‘create’
You can also manage the list and see who to add or remove:
Click on the list
Click ‘manage list’ (top right) and ‘edit list’
Then toggle to ‘friends’ and click to check and add people to a list
When you share an update:
Select ‘more options’, custom
Add the name of the list that you want to include / exclude
As I mentioned above, I set this up as an experiment last year. I did use the system for a while but rarely use it now. I’ve concluded that my personal contacts don’t mind seeing journalism news, and I’m happy for professional contacts to see family pictures and updates. And I often make professional links public so that my followers can see them.
It does take time to set up this system and, having tested it, there doesn’t appear to be any advantages in terms of the Facebook algorithm. But if you see a benefit for segmenting your contacts, it’s a good way to have control over who sees what.