The Hardest Part of Switching to Facebook Timeline and How to Make it Easier

I finally took the plunge and faced my fear of switching to Facebook’s new timeline format–and I’m glad I did. It was surprisingly easy once I got through the hardest part.

At first, I felt nervous about switching over from the old format because of concerns people have raised about online privacy issues. Once you make the switch, Facebook allows seven days to review your content before you publish.

The hardest part of changing to Facebook Timeline

Once you get to the right place, the Facebook Timeline start page, take a quick look around. You’ll probably gain confidence when you see how many of your friends have already made the switch. Facebook identifies the people on your friend list who are already using the new format. You can take a look at their pages and see how they’re set up.

Clicking start and moving through the set-up steps is all very easy.

The hard part? Deciding which photo to use for your cover.

What? How can that be hard?

The cover photo is large and is the first thing your friends will see because it is prominently displayed at the top of the page. Do you have a favorite photo that fits the bill and serves the purpose of letting people know something about you?

I spent some time on the couch with my laptop, swapping out photos to see which ones would work.

– Get a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and have some fun with this step.

– Leave yourself enough time to sample different images.

– Click cancel to remove any photo you’re previewing.

I picked one that made me laugh. At the same time, I changed my profile picture to one that shows a different side of me. You can see what my Facebook profile page looks like here. Hopefully, Facebook will continue to allow us to change our cover shot and profile picture as often and as easily as we’ve been able to in the past.

Once I made my selection–and hit publish–I removed any sample photos that were cluttering up my timeline. I uploaded several to check out how they looked and then decided which ones to keep on the timeline and which ones to delete. That’s easy too. On your status update, if you hover over the top right hand corner, the option to edit or remove becomes visible.

What people are saying

Because everything you’ve ever said on Facebook is still there, you should comb through it and remove anything that seemed funny at the time, but now could be embarrassing. If you’ve been on Facebook for a few years, your sense of humor might have matured–or the people you’ve added to your page, have shifted the mix of your audience.

Solutions:

1. Consider having a public page where you share information suitable for a general audience and a private page for the people who love to read about your antics and laugh at your “just to be shared with your friends” brand of humor.

2. Take the time to remove status updates and photographs that might give people the wrong idea.

3. A good move for everyone is to remove any reference that includes the answer to popular security questions. GoodSecurityQuestions.com provides a comprehensive list of good questions to use to assist you when you’ve lost your password. That includes obvious things like maiden names, pet names, even school names. If your password security includes the answer to any questions like these, do yourself a favor and take the time to delete the reference or choose different security questions.

4. For most of us, the idea of trolling through a few years of status updates (old conversations) will rapidly lose it’s appeal by the time you get to page two of your list. I thought to myself, “who’s going to take the time to look up what I said about (fill in the blank)?” Only someone on a mission, who has the software or know-how to do it quickly, probably. Your best bet is to keep your private life private and to avoid saying things that you might later regret. If you have made snarky comments, during a break-up or when your favorite team was losing, for instance, it might be worth your while to go in and remove the conversation.

In the end, there was nothing to worry about. The jury is still out about whether people like the new format or not. Try it and see what you think.


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