How to Create a Facebook Friends List

A Facebook Friends List is one of the best ways to protect your Facebook privacy. While there are other benefits of creating a Friends List in Facebook, from a privacy standpoint, Friend Lists are an excellent way to give access to your most private information only to a group of specific people. For example, you can limit some of your Facebook information only to your immediate family and relatives.

I suggest you create one or more Facebook Friends Lists before you adjust your Facebook privacy settings so you'll have the maximum amount of control before making any adjustments.

Creating Friends Lists in Facebook

To create a Facebook Friends List:

1. Log into Facebook
2. Click Account (in the upper-right corner) and then Edit Friends. The Friends page opens in Facebook.
3. Click Create a List near the top of the page. (See Image 1.)
4. The Create New List page opens. (See Image 2. ) Type a name for your new Facebook Friends List in the Enter a Name box.
5. For each Facebook Friend you want to include in this list, click that person’s image. The background of the friend you selected will turn blue and a check appears next to their image. If you see no change, click again. (It works best when you click right on their profile image.) If you don't see the friend you want to select on the page, you can start typing in that friend's name and a list of selections will appear from which you can choose the friend you want to include in your Friends List.
6. Continue selecting all of the Facebook Friends you want to include in the list.
7. Click Create List.

When I created my first Facebook Friends List, I was surprised at the number of Facebook “Friends” I really don’t know that well. You may be surprised too, depending on how long you’ve been on Facebook and how selective you've been in accepting invitations to become Friends on Facebook.

After you’ve created your list, a page will display with the name of your list at the top and your selections in the center of the page. Along the right side, Facebook will make suggestions for people you might want to add to the list – perhaps you overlooked them or didn’t go through all of your friends when you were setting up the list.

To Add More Friends to Your Facebook Friends List

If the Friends List you created is still open, click the + button next to the names of anyone you may have inadvertently left out when you created your Facebook Friends List. At the bottom of the list, there will be a link for “See more suggestions”. You can click that link to pull up the next group of Friends to see if you’ve left anyone else off the list by mistake. Once you’ve cycled through all of your friends, the link will disappear.

Editing a Facebook Friends List

Once you have a Facebook Friends List in place, you'll want to keep it up to date as you add new friends.

To access your Facebook Friends List after it's been created, you can click either Find Friends or Account, then Edit Friends and a link to your Friends List will display in the left column of Facebook, below where your profile image would display. (See Image 3.)

Once you click a Friends List, activity from just the friends on that list will display, along with an Edit List button at the top of the page.

1. Click Edit List. The Edit List window opens.
2. (Optional) Click Edit Name at the top of the window to change the name of this Facebook Friends List.
3. (Optional) Add more friends to or remove friends from the list by clicking on their photo to select them or remove them from the list.
4. Click Save List.

You can create as many Facebook Friends Lists as you need to in order to group your Friends according to the type of information you’re willing to share. Once your Friends Lists are in place, you’re ready to adjust your Facebook Privacy settings.

Next: Adjusting Your Facebook Privacy Settings