The Steve Rubel Stream

I find Facebook useful to keep up with both personal connections and with interesting information from professional connections whom I know. I use FB lists obsessively -- which is one reason I dislike the home page redesign, because it's it more difficult to get to lists or reorder my lists. Solution to that is Firefox buttons that takes me to the list of my choice.

I don't engage in FB games, so awhile ago hid all the game updates. That boosted my signal to noise ratio significantly. I get enough entertainment from seeing the various groups my FB friends join.

Using Buzz to explain how to better use Facebook! I like that! And thanks for the suggestions. So far, Twitter and Facebook are my main socia media for interacting, with social bookmarking still central for my purposes.

I've been trying ro figure out get ANY feed from peeps I want for over a year. If what I am reading is right you solved it. FB help certainly never provided that information for any of it's past two versions. So thanks to you

So... is Facebook "the new Lifestreaming" or what?

Dave, you raise a good question. I have actually contemplated changing the name of this site to the Steve Rubel Stream. The model works - it's a hub for anything longer than a tweet and it syndicates to different social networks depending on context. But these days I engage with my content more in other venues. One that I plan to do more on is our Facebook page - http:///www.facebook.com/edelman.

PROTIP: Instead of hiding updates from those annoying applications, block them entirely. This will prevent your friends from sending you annoying invites from them, from using them to post on your wall, and will also prevent your information from being used by those apps in any way just because your friend uses them.

To block an application, the next time you see an update from one of those, notice that the "from FarmVille" or whatever is a link. That will take you to the Application's main informational page. There you will find a link to block that application.

Steve:
I'm back to loving Facebook for the simplicity of interaction for the average user.The ability to chat, email, share all in one place is a great way to filter and interact. I just finished a series of Facebook 101 classes for a lot of Girl Scout staff in Michigan to ensure their "page" isn't a silo. Their enthusiasm is unbelievable!

Another FB gaming tip - go to your notifications page and find an invitation to participate in a game (a gift, an invite or whatever) and click on Block Application. Now those who play the games don't see you on the list and can't keep sending you things.)

I use the lists for privacy too - who can see what of me on Facebook.

But also for what I share. For instance, I'm fascinated by FarmVille as a social media tool (blog post coming soon). But only 10% of my friends participate in FarmVille. I send the FV poststo that 10% by customizing the post entry for specific people - FV - and only they get them.

Warning, what is private on Facebook, does not stay private outside. For instance, if I "lock" a status update to a category of friends that "lock is ignored and the status update goes out with all of my updates to FriendFeed, or other streams.

mcwflint
http://mcwflint.com

I love using lists to separate my personal and work/industry connections. I hadn't thought of using them to better organize Pages, that's a good idea. In terms of setting priorities, I wonder if in addition to trying to get users to fan their Pages, some will also try encouraging them to "show more of us" in their news feed settings

Thanks Steve. Brilliant tip about hiding applications that enabled me to turn off all that Farmville stuff.

life for struggle

VERY useful post. Like you, I increasingly use Facebook not just for personal connections, but also for business/professional colleagues. And, for filtering news and information. I use the "hide" feature liberally turning it on and off for pages and people depending on my time availability and interest, and their use of the medium.

I did set up lists with varying privacy setting for my connections - work, family, etc. But I've since let go of privacy concerns and got rid of lists giving everyone access to everything.

However, I didn't think to use the list feature for the fast growing number of pages I fan, but will now.

Thanks so much for sharing your insights!

"Brilliant tip about hiding applications that enabled me to turn off all that Farmville stuff."

Brilliant tip? It was in the freaking ny times. Honestly Steve, if you just discovered that basic facebook tip you're not an evangelist, you're a newbie. It makes me question you know what the hell you're talking about.

From hating Facebook, I have come to see it as a better version of FriendFeed. If you use apps like RSS Graffiti, its a lifestream that drives traffic back to the original content.

I may (to my horror) start using my facebook page as my primary identifier in comments.

Thank you, thank you! Finally got the Mafia and over zealous farmers off my back - thank you again!

Definitely intrigued, your second suggestion laid out a whole new approach for my use of Facebook. One question, assuming I have subscribed to 50+ organizations' pages and I want to share one of their status updates beyond facebook, say Twitter or something else - now what? Have you run across an app for this or still just good old copy and paste?

Daniel, I haven't. 

Great tips on managing your attention on facebook.

Excellent strategy. Thank you for sharing!

The News Feed / Set Your Priorities thing needs to go at least one step further. Ever since the latest FB redesign I am getting a note on EVERY SINGLE BIT of my friends' activity. Little blurbs telling me what they have commented on, whom they have friended, etc. have pushed updates that I actually want to read further down the page (or "below the fold" to use that Olde Tyme term). What would be super neat is more extensive customization where I can see, for example, actual updates ONLY. And leave out the bits about whom friends have friended, etc.

Facebook's ubiquity continues apace. A key opportunity I see for the company is improvement of its own search engine and back end keyword analysis. Then it becomes a place for discovery as well as connectivity. A topic I have posted on here. http://bit.ly/cSyxxn

I think club join requests need a brief summary of the club itself when you receive a join suggestion from a friend so you can decide whether you want to join.

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Spending long hours on Facebook or Twitter lead us to don't want to drive our attention to other resources to look for something else so I find your advices pretty useful. Optimizing research on social networks is important for businesses. I suggest using TweetDeck!

From hating Facebook, I have come to see it as a better version of FriendFeed. If you use apps like RSS Graffiti, its a lifestream that drives traffic back to the original content.

I may (to my horror) start using my facebook page as my primary identifier in comments.