PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- You might know about Facebook's Timeline, but are you taking advantage of Subscribe?
Since last fall we've been telling you about Timeline on Facebook and this week Facebook announced that everyone will be seeing their profile pages convert to Timeline in the next week or two whether they want it or not. While people could go either way with Timeline, NEWS CENTER Social media coordinator Brett Whitmarsh sees one major benefit, Subscribe.
So what is Subscribe exactly?
The short answer is it's Facebook's way to compete with Twitter. On Twitter you can "follow" someone and now on Facebook you can do basically the same thing but they call it "Subscribe." It's also a way to control how much, or how little, you see from your friends. It's helpful with the folks you are already friends with. You can use it to decide if you want to see their most recent posts, all their posts or just the most important. It's a way to limit those who post too much.
Does this replace the "like" button?
It's more like a variation of the "Like" button. Subscribe functions in many ways as a like button but on a "friends" page. Here is an example. Our Lee Goldberg has activated Timeline and is also at exactly 5,000 friends. Facebook limits the friend requests to not exceed 5,000. So what do to? Well you can "Subscribe" to Lee and see all of his updates, but you just can't write on his wall. You can comment on his posts though, and you can see any pictures he decides are public. This way he can still connect with people. And you'll want to do this soon too as he is heading off to the Super Bowl.
So is Subscribe a big deal?
It's starting to be. In the last few weeks a lot of people have really jumped on board to this. A lot of Journalists and celebrities are now popping up as suggested subscribed people. This is also a way to verify the legit people on Facebook as opposed to the fake pages. You're obviously not going to have a close relationship with Leah Michelle from Glee, or Zooey Deschanel, but You can follow them like you would anyone else.
Alright how do we do it and do we have to switch to Timeline?
No, you can be free and clear from Timeline to do this (though it is a feature that was rolled out with it). A note here though, most people will be forced to switch in the next couple of weeks. However, go to anyone's profile or Timeline. I'm going to show it to you with Timeline, because it's easier to get to. Look at the box that says "subscribe" and you can see who is subscribed to you here or you can look for people to subscribe to.
And you have a list for us of NEWS CENTER folks we can subscribe to?
Yes, if you go to our Facebook page, on the left hand side we have a tab labeled "Friend/Subscribe" If you then click through this list you can select anyone from our station who is on Facebook to subscribe to. So if their friend limit is maxed out, stop waiting around and just subscribe to them.
You can learn more about Timeline and Subscribe here: FACEBOOK SUBSCRIBE
And for a list of NEWS CENTER folks you can subscribe to visit our Facebook page and look at the tabs on the left: WCSH6
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