After a while, you may find that you’ve added many friends in Facebook and liked many pages. So many, perhaps, that your news feed is a mix of both and it’s difficult to separate the two. The default is to display both. It’s possible to sort your news feed so that you can view only posts by friends, or only posts from pages. It’s simple. All you have to do is create separate lists for friends and for pages. Then, when logged in to Facebook, all you have to do is select the list you want to look at.
Preliminary Steps
1. Set up Friend lists for friends.
Facebook creates some default lists for you, such as Close Friends, Family, and Acquaintances. Add friends to those lists, or create new ones.
2. Set up a Friend list for pages.
There are no default lists set up for Pages. You need to create one. Set one up and add the pages you want to view. Or create multiple lists for pages if you’d like.
Update: March 30, 2012
Based on a comment below, I wrote up a quick procedure on how to create a list for pages. I’ll write up a more detailed one and add it as a post. In the meantime, though, you can take a look at that.
3. Unhide pages you want to view regularly and add to a list.
View Friends Only
- Select the Friend list of those friends you want to see in the news feed.
View Pages Only
- Select the Friend list of the pages you want to see in the news feed.
The most current posts by some pages that you have not hidden display.
View Friends and Pages
If you don’t select a list, you’ll see unhidden pages in your news feed as well as your friends.
Updates
September 26, 2011: procedure changed to reflect UI changes in Facebook
More >
Facebook: Create a Friend List
It doesn’t work because you can’t do lists for pages…. :(
Hi,
Thanks for the note. You can create lists for pages. I’ll write up a procedure, but in the meantime, here are some instructions.
1. In the left navigation bar on your Home page, click Friends.
2. Click Create List.
3. Type in a list name and click Create. (Don’t add members; just enter a list name.) An editing page for the list displays.
4. Click Add Friends or Manage Pages.
5. In the dropdown list, select Pages.
6. Select all the pages you want to add to the list and click Finish.
Thanks, works well :)
Fantastic!!!! I have been searching for an answer to this as I find it frustrating to see [and I only have 5 friends] a page I want to follow lost in the feed.
Can you tell me [this I also cannot get a positive answer to] I made lists of Friends in UK Friends in Canada etc and put them in the lists. Now if I remove them from the MAIN FRIENDS list, they are still in there respective other lists, will they still see posts I post to Friends or pictures I have that are for friends only ?
Thank you
Alison
Hi Alison!
I’m glad this was helpful to you. Newsfeeds can sure get cluttered. I’m glad your lists are helping with that.
Your friends should be able to see your posts, with one exception: if you excluded them when you published the post. Lists enable you to sort friends into groups so you can more easily see what they’ve posted or to exclude them from being able to see some posts.
Your lists are what you see. They can’t see your lists. Your lists have no impact on their newsfeeds. How they manage their newsfeeds is up to them. So, yes, they should be able to see all your posts and pictures set to friends only (unless you excluded them for specific posts). I personally do not have any friends in the default main Facebook lists (for example, Close Friends and Acquaintances). I instead use friend lists I set up myself. All my friends show up in my newsfeed, along with the pages I’ve liked. I use my lists, though, much of the time, so I can view posts from specific groups of friends (or pages).
If your friends aren’t seeing your posts and pictures, there are three reasons I can think of why it may be the case.
1) Facebook uses an algorithm that takes into account the friends with which you interact the most. For instance, if you regularly Like posts by Friend 1 or add comments to their posts, Facebook will display the posts from Friend 1 more regularly. If you rarely interact with Friend 2, their posts won’t show in your newsfeed as often.
2) Your posts are perhaps are being buried in your friend’s newsfeed, just like what was happening to you. So if they’re not seeing your posts you’ve allowed them to see, you might want to suggest to them to make some friend lists of their own. Or to like your posts more often.
3) When you published your post, you excluded the person or the list of which they’re part. In this case, you’ve essentially blocked them from seeing the content. So, for instance, you could post something just for your Friends in UK list and exclude your Friends in Canada list. Or vice-versa. To publish a post just for some people or lists, select Custom from the dropdown list next to the Post button and make selections accordingly.
To recap: If you’ve blocked friends or lists from seeing an individual post, they just won’t see that post. It’s on a case-by-case, post-by-post basis. Otherwise, if you select Friends when you publish the post, all your friends should be able to see your posts, no matter what friend list you may have set up and added them to. Your lists have no bearing on what they see. They might set up their own lists, but you wouldn’t see those. You have your lists, they have theirs. You can see your lists, but they can’t see them. They can see their lists, but you can’t see theirs. Also, whether or not you add friends to your lists, posts from all your friends should show up in your newsfeed (pursuant to the algorithm). Their posts will be mixed in with page posts, but they’ll be there. It works the same on their end. They should be able to see your posts in the newsfeed.
I hope all this makes sense! If not, let me know. I think I’ll write up some new procedures about all this. I’m glad you asked this question.
Oh – did you know that you can also set up friend lists for pages? It’s a nice way to sort pages, too. The algorithm applies to pages as well. If you don’t interact with a page very much, you won’t see it in your newsfeed very often. I wrote a procedure for it; I think there’s a link right in this post.
Thanks for the comment and question!
Thank you Julie!
Yes I am finding the lists very helpful. AND! found by playing around I could add pages to a list to, also make lists there under the INTERESTS. So I have my favorite page/likes in one list and another in the other list [If I like to see them regularly] most of my likes I have switched off the see on feed bit, and I can visit them when I want to/have time.
One more ? on the Friends list [The default one. as I have all my friends in currently 3 lists, I know un tick the FRIENDS [default list] in each of there cases BUT? will they still see all my posts to friends on my page as I want them to. In other-words if there in lists but not in the default Friends list have I stopped them viewing my page. I haven’t do this in case I do and I don’t want to. But being organized I was trying to keep my feed as minimal as pos. However as you seem to do, I could leave them all in the feed and just look at my lists to see who posted any posts.
I wonder if Facebook is a challenge for organized people? It seems all over the place to me and has a mind of its own :)
Alison