Some Thoughts on Switching Over to Facebook Timeline: #socialmedia



So, I've decide to make the switch to Facebook's Timeline (now that I made the commitment, I will have 7 days until it's published --it will go live on January 21 unless I choose earlier.)

I decided to make the change because I didn't want to wake up one morning and find my page in Timeline and not have had the chance to view the information and choose what they call "Your Cover Photo."  (My worst case scenario is I walk up to my giant face plastered across my Facebook page in my most unflattering photo ever...)  So vanity won out as it usually does and today I began creating my Facebook timeline.

I wrote some notes as my status for others making the change and I'll include them here along with others--



1)  If you choose to do Timeline you have 7 days before you have to publish it.  The bonus with this is that gives you the opportunity to take anything off Timeline that you want to keep private.

2)  While you can still keep your friends private, your Timeline will show when you become friends with someone, so it looks like you will need to delete these updates on your timeline if you want them private.

3)  There is a little bit of the "creepster" element to timeline if you have checked into places, as it allows people see where you were and if you use location check-in, it will show where you are (it does this now, but for some reason, having maps seems creepy to me).

I have learned you can go into your privacy settings (under "tags") and set it so people can't check you into places.

4) I just realized you can delete maps (choose Hide from Favorites)-- I'm hoping it doesn't show up anywhere else once I publish this.

5)  If you are friends with people you don't know, I'd recommend being careful with any dates since sometimes those are used for security measures with your accounts

6)  When choosing your cover photo, something simple works best

7)  You can still see if how your page looks to other if you click on the little star next to "Activity Log"

If I learn anything else, I'll let you know.

Surprisingly though, I'm not hating Timeline as much as I thought and do see a few benefits with it.




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Comments

  1. I don't think Timeline is all that different from its predecessor -- just bigger photos and more clunk.

    My only complaint is I can no longer hide my Friends list from viewers. I have repeatedly set Privacy to "Only Me" -- to no avail.

    Anyone else having this issue?

    Thanks Kelli.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Drew,

    I'm having the same issue. When I do "view as" all my friends seem public (which I don't like!)

    I do hope they fix it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jessie--

    It sets up immediately, but I spent about 2 1/2 hours making sure the photos I wanted private were still private and making a nice "cover image"

    -- I'm not sure it would take a "normal" person that long, I'm just weird about my FB page because it started out as my personal page, then a lot of writers (I have never met) asked to be my friend, so I stopped posting family photos as that felt weird to me.

    So it probably won't take you that long if you have a decent sense of figuring out new things. Plus, you then get 7 days before it takes effect, if you want to tweak anything.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Kels,
    I can't seem to find where I can hide Maps - you mention "Hide from Favorites" but I don't see that option anywhere?
    Sigh - I'm taking this on, finally...not looking forward to the switch, still, though.

    ReplyDelete

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