Know about Facebook Follow?
This little trick really helps your reach and visibility on Facebook!
Learn why, and how to enable it, right here.
What is Facebook Follow?
When you become friends with someone on Facebook, they automatically start following you. BUT – you can also allow people who aren’t your friends to follow your public posts!
Facebook Follow is a feature for your personal profile, not a business Page.
However, it can help your business!
If you participate in business-related Facebook groups, or for other reasons are regularly getting friend requests from people who could become your blog readers or customers, Facebook Follow is gold.
Why Enable Facebook Follow?
Why do I say it’s gold?
Well, if you have a Facebook Fan Page, you may be struggling to get engagement due to the Facebook News Feed algorithm, which makes it tough to get your posts in front of many Fans.
Facebook suppresses Page posts, but not personal profiles.
When you enable Facebook Follow on your personal profile, you can at least double your chances of getting your posts in users’ news feeds!
Followers can see all of your public posts – you can still reserve private stuff for friends only. In fact, you can control exactly who sees what with each post.
If you’d like to get more visibility on Facebook, yet still maintain some privacy on your personal profile, the Facebook Follow feature is for you! Users feel closer to you, and get to know, like, and trust you.
You don’t have to point out to people that you want them to “follow” you instead of “friend” you. Once you enable this feature, as soon as they send a friend request, they’re instantly following you.
What does “following you” mean? It means they’ll see your Public updates in their FB news feed.
Followers can share your Public posts, which spreads your post and profile to a larger audience. Just in case you want to go viral on Facebook 🙂
Of course, you don’t have to let everyone follow you. You can block certain people from following by adjusting your Privacy Settings Block List.
Only follow back if you want to see their updates.
And, you’re not limited to 5,000, as you are with Facebook friends.
Do note, however, that your personal profile isn’t intended for the sole use of promoting your business, so take care not to overdo promotional posts.
How to Enable the Facebook Follow Button
On your personal profile, click the down arrowhead at the far right of the blue header bar.
When you see the dropdown menu, click Settings. NOTE: If you’ve enabled New Facebook 2020, you’ll select Settings & Privacy > Settings.
Now click Public Posts in the left column.
In the top section Who Can Follow Me, select Public.
Below Who Can Follow Me, you have more options:
- Public Post Comments: Allows you to select who can comment on your public posts.
- Public Post Notifications: Allows you to select if you want to get notifications when people who aren’t your friends start following you and share, like, or comment on your public posts.
- Public Profile Info: Allows you to select who can like or comment on changes to your Intro section that is part of your public profile. This includes changes to profile photos, profile videos, cover photos, featured photos and News Feed updates. source
At the very bottom of this tab, click to see what your Timeline looks like to the public.
You now have a Facebook Follow button on your cover photo!
NOTE: Everyone can see your public profile, whether you enable Follow or not. Your cover photo and profile picture can’t be made unavailable, but if you don’t like other things that are showing up on your public Timeline, now is a good time to review your privacy settings.
Back in Settings, click on Privacy in the left column and set the default for future posts.
Also review if you want to let “Everyone” send friend requests, or just friends of friends. Give everything else a once-over to make sure it’s how you like it.
My default setting is Public, but you can always set individual posts just as you want them. You can share with just one friend, friend lists you’ve created, a custom group just for this post, all friends, friends of friends, or the entire public.
Or even “Only me”!
Just click on the Public button (or whatever your default is) before posting and choose your preferred audience.
Now See Who’s Following You
After you set your profile privacy settings to Public, you can see a list of followers who aren’t also friends.
To find this list, go to your profile and click Friends below your cover photo, and then click More > Followers. If you don’t have any followers yet, you won’t see this option.
What do you think – will you use this to increase your influence on Facebook? Let me know what you think of Facebook Follow!
Victoria says
Hey great post! Hopefully this is still activate! I do have the follow button woohoo- but it’s showing me friend requests in my notifications like crazy! I don’t get it
Louise Myers says
The follow button shouldn’t initiate a friend request.
Marcy says
Do you know why my Facebook business page still has the like button when everyone else has a follow button
Louise Myers says
Pages should have both Like and Follow. Personal profiles only have Follow.
Paul says
Louise,
That was a great article on the FB follow feature. Thanks so much. But can you clarify this. I use my Profile pretty much as “place holder”, keeping my personal exposure on FB extremely limited. But I would like to be able to have clients and colleagues follow my Fan Page posts. Is there a way to capture followers on the fan page without opening up to followers on my personal profile? Thank you for your great site. Paul
Louise Myers says
Hi Paul,
I certainly understand about the personal profile. Anyone can click “Like” on your fan page and that makes them a follower of the page. “Reach” on fan page posts is, unfortunately, extremely limited. Meaning very few people who follow/like your fan page will see your posts.
Louise
opeyemi says
thanks for me
Louise Myers says
You’re welcome!
Vannessa Vinos says
p.s sorry wrote Sue instead of Louise. My apologies (well it is Monday morning where I am 😉
Louise Myers says
No problem 🙂
Vannessa Vinos says
Great tips Sue. But will changing the settings on a personal page have any impact on my biz page?
Louise Myers says
Hi Vanessa!
Your personal page posts are likely to get more visibility, thus keeping your name in front of prospects / clients.
AND, from time to time you can ask people to LIKE your fan page via your personal posts, or direct them to your blog posts, or share an offer for your business!
It might not directly impact your fan page (tho it could) but more importantly it affects your impact on your fans!
Sue says
Thanks Louise. I checked – people can follow me. It seems though, that it’s a personal feature rather than a biz page feature, from what I can see. Which is fine.
Have a great day and thank you for the great info. It’s appreciated.
Sue
Louise Myers says
Hi Sue! You’re absolutely right – it’s for your personal profile. I’ll update my post to make sure this is clear.
Lynne says
Thanks for the tips! I think that having facebook followers is great. Also a great way to promote your business.
Louise Myers says
You bet, Lynne!
khaos renee says
hello I was trying to figure out how to I guess tag my fan page on facebook from my personal page … also I wanted to know how to add a follow button to my music fan page as well
Louise Myers says
The Follow button is only for personal profiles and can’t be added to Pages. Pages have the Like button – similar concept.
Tag your Page by typing your handle as shown under your Page profile picture. Such as: @louisemcom with the @ symbol. Page name will pop up.