How to Customize Your Facebook Page

Facebook is a growing social network site, with new users joining everyday. The first task for new Facebook users, after basic registration information is completed, is to create a homepage. Once the basics have been completed for your information page, you can begin to customize your Facebook page.

Customizing your Facebook page generally focuses on two areas; what you feature on your homepage and news feed and what others can see when viewing your page. Additional customizing of your Facebook page can allow you to block applications or viewers.

Facebook Privacy Settings

The first thing you should do when customizing your Facebook account is to start with the settings feature on Facebook. The top right hand tab on Facebook will allow you to decide who can view your Facebook page, who can search your name, and what viewers can see. My suggestion is to lock your Facebook page and require friend requests for others to completely view your Facebook page.

The next step for customizing privacy settings on Facebook is to go through the list on the settings page and set each to who can view the information. You can customize Facebook by selecting friends only for viewing photos, status updates, comments, and all other combinations of information posted on your Facebook page. Be sure to go through each individual Facebook setting for photos, comments, and other information. You can customize all of the settings and allow photos to be viewed by everybody and status updates only viewable by friends and networks, for example.

Facebook News Feed

Your Facebook page that others see when they click on your name will be different from the one you view when you click on the Facebook tab. Personal profile shows what others see, and is your homepage. The News Feed is the page where you will get a continuous update of all your friend and network updates, as well as quiz results and application posts.

The first thing to do on your Facebook News Feed page is to decide if you want the Top News or Most Recent setting. I suggest clicking on the Most Recent setting on the top of the thread. This will allow you to see automatic updates and when you are away from Facebook for awhile, you can return and see the number of new posts listed next to the Most Recent tab at the top of the page. Once you click on that number, Facebook will update to real time status.

One thing you can do to block unwanted news, such as the many application posts which may take up room on your news feed, is to click on each when you see them on the right hand side. This will bring up an option to block the application, or person from future posts on your news feed.

Facebook Personal Page

Your Facebook page can be customized in many different ways. At the top of your Facebook page there are a number of tabs that can be clicked on to view photos, information, boxes, notes, and any applications you have. You can click on each tab to see what others will be viewing when they click on that box and modify what they can view.

On the left hand side of your Facebook page, your photo will be featured on the top left. The more photos you upload, the more choices for a Facebook photo icon you will have. On your uploaded photos, there will be an option to use the photo as your Facebook photo. These can be interchanged at anytime by going into your photo albums and selecting the photo you want to set as your personal photo icon. Once selected, you will be able to crop the photo before publishing it.

Underneath your Facebook photo on your Facebook page, a box with your basic information is featured. You can edit this box to include your birthday, kids, significant other, networks, and relationship status.

Your Facebook friends list is next to edit. Located on the left side of your Facebook page, you can select 6, 9, or 12 Facebook friends to be featured randomly on your Facebook page. You can also set a select group of Facebook friends to be set as the friends shown on your Facebook page.

Boxes featuring Flair, Facebook quiz results, stickers, or other application results can be featured on the left side of your Facebook page. Individual applications can be changed by clicking on the edit button of the box. Boxes can be posted and changed at anytime.