Oversharing. Notification spam. Post pollution. TMI. Annoying! Sometimes your Facebook newsfeed just gets filled with junk – quizzes, game notifications, and my latest pet peeve, Spotify updates.

It’s time for Facebook hiding and blocking.

OPTION 1: Hiding

Hover over the top right of any post you’d like to hide until you see a little arrow and a drop-down menu. Then select the type of hide – person or application – and check it. (The screen capture below shows just the option of hiding the app, but on other posts you’ll be able to hide the person, too.) Your hide is not publicized, or communicated to the person if you’ve hidden a person.

Hiding is less harsh than unfriending and a good choice if you want to turn the volume down without tuning someone totally out. If you change your mind and want to unhide the app from your feed, scroll ALL the way down on your newsfeed until you see this:

Then click on “Edit Options” and you’ll see an alphabetized list of all of the apps and people you’ve hidden. I bat those quizzes and game notifications like flies as soon as they come up, before they breed and muck up my feed – 466 applications hidden and counting.

OPTION 2: Blocking

When hiding isn’t enough, there’s blocking. Blocking means that you totally prevent an app or person from interacting with you. For people, it’s beyond unfriending. It’s being unlisted for just that person.

The blocking function is a little harder to find. Start with your “Privacy Settings,” pictured right. Then scroll down to the “Blocked People and Apps” and select “Manage Blocking.”

You can block users, app invites from specific friends (the over-inviters), event invites, and apps. The event invite blocker in particular is a glorious feature.

Hiding and blocking let you have more control over what you see and who you interact with. I’m sure there’s something you’ve been itching to drop from your feed. Go hide!

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

It’s happened at least half a dozen times, and it’s never pretty.

A friend calls, emails, instant messages – “I’m locked out my Facebook page. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. I can’t get in. I’m desperate and frustrated. HELP!”

photo credit: Julija Felajn

Another scenario I’ve encountered several times – a business creates a Facebook profile instead of a page, and then gives employees or volunteers the login and password to the profile. While the intention is good – sharing page duty – the approach is probably going to get you in trouble.

Make a Page, Not a Profile

While I feel that this subject has been beaten to death, I still run into businesses or nonprofits running their Facebook presence with a profile.

Click here for an explanation of pages vs. profiles.

Click here to start your own Facebook page.

Here’s what I tell folks in coaching and training sessions:

• A page is public, as in it shows up in Google (this is good)
• Anyone can like a page (this is good)
• Pages were specifically created for brands, businesses, nonprofits, artists and politicians
• A profile requires a mutual relationship – you both must agree to be friends (this can hold you back)
• It’s actually against Facebook’s terms of service to use a profile to promote your business (dealbreaker)

Don’t Be The Only Admin of Your Page

OK, you’ve got a page. You run it from your personal Facebook profile. Super.

For some reason, you, personally, get locked out of your Facebook account. Your page also stands still. Double lock out – ACK!

photo credit: Aturkus

OR, the person who made your page leaves your organization and never tells anyone how to get in. Your page stands still. FOOEY!

Don’t let this happen to you!

SOLUTION: Make sure you add a backup admin. Even if they don’t do much of anything. It’s like leaving a spare set of keys with your neighbor, just in case.

Here’s how to add an extra admin. Start on your page, then click “Edit page.”

Don’t get locked out – go ask a friend (your spouse is definitely an option) to be your backup admin!