I joined Facebook in April 2012. At this time lists already existed. I used list since I’m on Facebook. I have lists for several groups of friends on Facebook. With lists you can organize everything on Facebook.
I have an own list for Facebook chat for people see me online on Facebook. I have several “From-“ lists. For example “From-Work” so can handle all people which I know from businesses. And for each business company I worked for there is also an own “From-“ list. In “From-Misc” there are all people don’t fit to all other “From-“ lists.
I have a “FriendRequest” list where I manage all Friend Requests I make on Facebook. So I know which people I sent a friend request. After people accept me as a friend on Facebook I remove them from the “FriendRequest” list.
When I create a Facebook status update I decide for which group of people I want to share the information. I decide for which group of friends informations I share are useful. You can except people to see a status update. When you share a post to a list all people in this list can see who can see this post. But not so on the except option. You click on “Custom” when you create a post. And then a “Custom Privacy” popup appears. Choose “Share with Friends” and in the “Don’t share this with” section you type some list you don’t want to see this post. Further friends (maybe potential employers) don’t see old posts when I keep my lists up-to-date and fresh.
Now (March 2014) I’m friended with 332 friends on Facebook. But more than 80% (270) of my Facebook friends are on the “RestrictedLight” list. When you use the “Restricted” list maybe you can imagine for what I use “RestritedLight”. I use this list to manage all people I’m not close enough in my real life. People I have seen once or twice in my life, I know from parties or I only know at the Internet. All people who are in “Restricted” are also in “RestrictedLight”. So in the future when I decide to show someone more information about me I remove them from “Restricted” but let them in “RestritedLight”. They don’t see posts I excpted “RestrictedLight”. When I post no useful informations or informations which are less useful I add “RestrictedLight” to the except field of a post. So if I want a person to see all of my posts I remove this person from “RestrictedLight”. “RestrictedLight” is also excepted in all posts of other people who tag me in their posts.
I have gender lists: “Gender-Male” and “Gender-Female”. When I decide to post only to male friends I except the “Gender-Female” list in the post. I have age lists: “Age-Older”, “Age-Younger” and “Age-Me” to cover all age ranges. When I post adult stuff I except “Age-Younger” from the post. If I want to post only to German speaking people I add all other “Language-“ lists to the exception field.
I don’t use automated or predefined lists from Facebook like “Acquaintances”, “Family” or hometown/current city lists.
After you have setup all of your friends in lists custom sharing informations to certain groups of friends is pretty simple.
