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How to Use Facebook as a Productivity and Content Management Tool
The surprising power of “Only Me” and other tricks on Facebook
It’s a popular pastime these days to savage Facebook, to index the seemingly endless ways in which this globe-spanning service has contributed to social corrosion, become a fertile host for malignant memes, and acted as a platform for bad actors sowing discord and division. While these criticisms all, sadly, have merit, Facebook remains the globe’s most trafficked virtual town square, daily newspaper, and backyard fence for billions of us.
Besides posting wacky pet pics, silly memes, and sketchy news items like everybody else, for nearly a decade, I have used Facebook daily as an integral part of my workflow. As a writer who mainly focuses on science, technology, and online culture, I spend most of the day with my eyeballs glued to my cinema display searching for compelling content and doing research for articles that I’m working on. The Internet is where I work—and Facebook has become an indispensable tool in that work. I have basically figured out for myself how to use Facebook as a workplace. When I tell other people how I use it as a work tool, they often seem shocked and amazed. So I thought it was time to unpack my Facebook bag o’ tricks so that others can possibly benefit from these same platform features, tips, and workarounds.
Posting With Myself
I talk to myself on Facebook all day long. It’s amazing how many people seem unaware of this key Facebook feature. As you likely know, when posting something to your Facebook feed, you can choose whether to share it with the world (“Public”) or only with your network (“Friends” or “Friends except…”). But there’s also a choice of “Only Me” (and even other choices under the “More” arrow that allow you to choose from customized share lists).
This function can be a very powerful tool. There are a few ways in which I use “Only Me” posts.
