I have talked to many people who want to jump online and start using Facebook but are afraid to do so because they want to keep some privacy around their life.  In a lot of cases I have encountered someone who has been using Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends and then all of a sudden they receive a friend request from their employer or a client.  This often throws them for a loop because to a point people do want to keep their personal and business lives separate – even though in today’s world they are quickly merging.

It is possible however to use Facebook for staying in touch with both your family and friends as well as your employer, co-workers and clients and keeping the level of privacy that you desire.  Lucky for us Facebook users, the team at Facebook saw this as a potential issue and created some privacy features that allow you to choose who sees what information.

The feature that is being covered today is Friend Lists

Friend Lists

One of the top ways to separate what information you share with who on Facebook is to use Friend Lists.  This feature in Facebook allows you to privately group your friends into lists.  This helps for organization as well so that you can look at a particular list and only see the status of those on that list.

You can add people to multiple lists if they belong in more than one.  I have several lists and I use them in various ways.  Here are just a few ways that I use my lists:

Family – this is where all of my family members reside and if I have something that is family related I select this list as the list that can see it

Photos – This is the list that I allow access to my photos.  For me since I use Facebook for both personal and business reasons I don’t want everyone seeing photos of my kiddos.

Buddies – These are my close friends that I do things with on a regular basis

Co-Workers –  This is where I list those that I work with on a daily basis

Real Estate – This contains others that share a passion of Real Estate

Marketing – This group contains those that I get and share marketing info with

One way to use these lists for privacy is to select which list or lists you want to see what you post and share on Facebook.  If you are posting a status update and you only want certain groups to see this then you tell Facebook that.

Here is what you will see when you are updating your status:

If you click on the arrow by the lock then you will have the option to select who you want to see your post.  To select a particular last you will need to select the customize option and pick the lists that you want to see it.

Here are some additional resources for information on Friend Lists from Facebook:

Facebook Help Center: Friends: Friends List and Limited Profile

Organizing Your Connections on the New Friends Page

HOW TO: Create Friend Lists on Facebook (via Mashable)