It’s okay ~ people still like you. No one has blocked you (well, perhaps some have) – but really, there is no need to panic or place your paranoia flag at code-red-level. Unless… you own a business or a MLM (multi-level marketing) business and have noticed your social media activity lacking lately.   Have you noticed that you are only seeing updates in your news feed from the same-old people lately? Have you also noticed that when you post things like status messages, photos and links, the same circle of people are commenting and everyone else seems to be ignoring you? I always know when something changes, because my mother becomes my only “likes”. (kidding!).  Perhaps, you’re like me – and your banker asks you if you post on Facebook any longer; or if 5 people in the last 2 days have asked you why you are no longer in their news feed?

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while but what prompted me to write it today, is the fact that the last two to ask me this question are sweet southern women, who first – would never ask unless they were concerned and two because I too have noticed that site hits and interactions have dropped since May – on all 34 sites I monitor. (Perhaps, also since my work email server is currently being migrated and I am not actively receiving email, maybe.)

First, a social media primer. Social media is meant to be social. Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Therefore, if you are an habitual “face-stalker”, meaning you only view posts in your news feed – and never visit anyone page, nor interact with them – you may find you have less and fewer people to face-stalk. Or maybe they know you are just a face-stalker (again, kidding!).  The problem is that a large chunk of your friend/fan list can’t see anything you post and here’s why:

In May 2013 Facebook started rolling out their post-sorting algorithm, and not everyone is a “fan”.  There were two back-to-back changes that not everyone noticed. First, for those on the “new Facebook timeline” there was a news feed setting that by default is automatically set to show ONLY posts from people who you’ve recently interacted with or interacted the most with (which would be limited to the couple of weeks just before people started switching to the new timeline). In other words, unless your friends/fans commented on one of your posts within those few weeks or vice versa – you became invisible to them and they of course were invisible to your timeline. It was at this time, I stressed the importance of creating “lists” to put your friends, fans and contacts in. Personally, I have grown to love the list feature. I find it incredibly helpful. I sorted my just less than 5 thousand friends, family and fans into lists such as : GHS, family, military family, New York, Vermont, New Mexico, England, Maryland, Tennessee, (each business name) – and my personal favorite “restricted” .  By taking the time to complete this task, I am able to use one profile for multiple purposes – I can post something that is military specific and only those in that list will see it – and so forth. If you own a business and/or have a down-line this is how you can communicate with them without alienating the rest of your friends list.

More recently, facebook developers deployed their smarter algorithm software  that determines News Feed placement based on facebook friends whom you would most likely engage. If you’re trying to see more of your best friend’s Facebook posts, or fewer from an habitual over-poster, there is a way to set these preferences, too.

On the Facebook timeline, mouse-over the area, or click the button on the right side of the cover photo that says “friends”. From the drop-down menu – first make sure that “Get Notifications” is checked, and show in news feed is checked. From this same drop-down you can add the person to one of your custom-made lists (see add to another list), suggest more friends for them, and/or change what types of updates you get. You can even unfriend them this way, if you want or need to in the future.

Click show in news feed – then – Settings

Then select all updates (below)

You can select all updates to see everything your friend posts in your news feed, or select fewer posts, but all photos, etc – by checking or unchecking from the drop down under all updates.

 The good news – if you listened in the past and set-up friends lists, this task will not seem so cumbersome since you can select the list and right-click on the profile photo to open each persons profile. If you did not set up lists, then – yes (the bad news is) you’ll have to visit each profile of the people whose posts you’d like to see in your news feed.

 If you are a MLM person and need to remind your team – simply posting an update about this won’t do any good because most of your friends/fans already can’t see your posts by default! (The default is to only see “most” posts).

 You’ll either have to send out a message to everyone on your list, or post an event page and invite all your friends with one click – explaining the situation. Even better, pick up the phone and call your down line and invite them for coffee or lunch!

Hope this helps! Now get out there and BE SOCIAL.