Do you spend too much time on Facebook? Wish there was a way to avoid the addictive time-suck of endlessly looking at photos, status updates, and funny cat videos people are posting? (yikes, I sound like an infomercial don’t I?)

I believe 15-minutes is all you need to catch-up on everything that’s going on with your friends on Facebook. What is the secret? Two words…

Friend Lists.

If you take the time to setup and configure personalized Friend Lists, your daily dose of Facebook will be forever easier (and you can thank me later ). You’ll find yourself spending less time sorting through the mess of friends, fan pages and co-workers that junk up your FB homepage Newsfeed. Friend Lists make it greatly easier to consume Facebook.

What is a Friend List? It’s simple. It is a customized list in which you choose how to sort and customize. You can have up to 100 Friend Lists with a maximum of 1,000 people per lists. As an example, I’ve taken a screenshot of my lists setup for my account (see image below on the right).

Once you setup these lists, you’re able to quickly digest a TON of information in a few minutes about specific types of friends just by clicking the filters on the left. Here are some of my favorite lists I use:

“Bloggers/Influencers”
I created this list to segment people who have influence online (in my opinion). These friends are typically content creators and publish frequently. They have a huge following and community online. For me, it’s nice to have them in 1 bucket for consumption to see what they’re publishing.

“Favorite Fan Pages”
This is a great way to pull-out and segment Fan Pages so you just get updates from all the Fan Pages you really care about (since we’re all guilty of clicking “like” to more companies and businesses than we actually want to follow).

“Kansas City Fan Pages”
I find this useful and relevant based on when I’m in the mode of “looking for something to do in my city”. Particularly, I find myself looking at this on Thursday and Fridays when making weekend plans.

“Circle of Trust”
This is where I start first everyday. It is a small group of about 30′ish people who I really care to read their status updates and posts. If I only have 5-minutes to check Facebook because I’m busy, this is the only Friend List I look at.

I also have these lists which I use:

“Family”
“Work”
“People I Don’t Know”
“High School Friends”
“Phi Delta Theta”
“Online/Internet Friends”
“Clients”

iPhone App

Friend Lists will appear on your iPhone as well! (comes in handy when you only have a few minutes to catch-up via mobile). Just tap the button in the top right. The FB app will pull-in and display all your Friend Lists. How cool is that!?

Send a Message to Friend Lists

You can send messages to all the people you’ve put in a Friend List. This is extremely helpful, because essentially it’s a way to create “groups” for Facebook messaging. Note: the maximum number of recipients you can send is 20, so you will not be able to send a message to any Friend List that contains over 20 people. When you send a message to a Friend List, the message will show all the recipients’ names, but the title of your Friend List will never be visible to other members of Facebook (incase you’ve got them categorized as “people that annoy me” ) .

Send Event and Group Invites with Friend Lists

On any Group or Event page, you can type in any Friend List name and they all will be invited. Another great “group” feature to send to multiple people easily.

Now go get started! I promise, once you take the time to setup Friend Lists, your life on Facebook will be changed for the better (dramatic yes, but I speak the truth …promise!)

Here is how you create a friend list:

Click “Friends” on the left menu. Then click the “Create New List” button (top right).

1. Type the name of your list and press enter.
2. Add friends to the list by typing their names into the “Add to List” field or by clicking them from the list.
3. Select “Create List” to save your changes (*this is important, it’s easy to forget to click save*)

Still confused? Facebook has an entire FAQ help section you can reference.

BONUS TIP: I’ve really been digging a website called www.itstrending.com which tells you the videos, images, and news that’s being shared the most on Facebook. Check it out.

Hopefully this walk-through helps you! If you’ve got other Facebook time-saver times, share them with me in the comments. Do you use Friend Lists already? What categories are you using for your friends?
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