Ah Facebook. We love it, but there’s a few things that baffle us when we’re posting to and scrolling through its news feed.

Luckily, there are a few fixes to these common issues and I’m happy to share what I’ve learned to make your Facebook activity a more pleasant experience.

1. Facebook doesn’t show me posts from my favorite businesses.

You might not be aware that Facebook doesn’t show you every single post from every friend and business page you like. Which is a good thing! The average Facebook user has 338 friends and likes 70 Facebook business pages. Can you imagine scrolling through every little thought that is posted by your community all the time?

Facebook tries to give you an experience that’s more tailored to who you’re actually interacting with by using an algorithm to curate content that you might like. So, if you haven’t been interacting with your favorite businesses because their posts aren’t popular enough or because maybe they haven’t been actively posting, you may be missing out on posts that you actually want to see. How many restaurant specials, retail sales, or local events have you heard about after they’ve already happened? Chances are these pages have been sharing this information on Facebook, but the news feed algorithm doesn’t show them to your feed.

There are two ways to solve this:

First, go to the Facebook page of a business, and hover over the Like button that appears over the cover photo. You’ll see a few choices: See First, Default and Unfollow. See First shares the page’s post first at the top of the feed. Default means that the posts will be sorted and posted according to Facebook’s algorithm. Click See First to see this page’s posts at the top of the feed.

The second option is to create an Interests list for pages you don’t want to miss. Start by clicking The Interests category on the left side of your Facebook news feed menu. Then, create an Interests lists by clicking the +Add Interests button. Next, click the +Create List button, and Facebook will bring up a window with a list of all of the pages you follow. Select the ones you want in your list, name your list, chose its visibility (public, your friends, or only you), and click Done to save.

I created a list for local restaurants in my area, and now I can check for recent posts from those restaurants so I never miss a special deal or new menu item.

Issue 2: Facebook shows me ads that don’t fit my preferences.

Sometimes you’ll see a sponsored post in your feed and wonder why it’s there because it’s about something you’re not interested in at all.

Clean up the ads in your feed by clicking the dropdown menu in the right corner of the ad and click the Hide ad option. You can make Facebook show ads that are more tailored to your interests by clicking the Why am I seeing this? option.

Facebook will share why you’re seeing the ad based on the interests that were selected by the page that placed the ad. Facebook assigns these preferences to you based on not only what types of pages you like, but what ads you’ve clicked on in the past, and content you’ve clicked on on and off Facebook.

If Facebook has chosen ad preferences that don’t match what you like, click the Manage Your Ad Preferences, and then hit the X button to delete preferences you don’t want.

Issue 3: Facebook includes the wrong photo when I’m sharing a link.

Sometimes if you’re sharing a link to a webpage that has several images, Facebook will upload one with your post that’s not relevant. This happens a lot when sharing links to news sites, which means a photo of a car crash could appear next to a link you’re posting about a viral cat video. You do not want to illustrate a happy story with a tragic image!

If you see a set of arrows in the top left corner of the image that appears above your link, that means Facebook has found multiple images on the page you’re linking to. Simply tab through until you find the one that fits your post.

Issue 4: The link I’m sharing on Facebook doesn’t display an image in the post.

I don’t know enough about code to know why Facebook sometimes doesn’t pull in an image from a link you’re sharing in a post, but you do need a photo to draw peoples’ eyes to your post. There is something you can do to fix this, but you need to start over with your Facebook post.

Instead of placing the link first in your status updates, start your post by uploading a photo first. You can right click on an image from the webpage you’re trying to share and save it to your desktop or take a screenshot and save it to your desktop. Then upload that photo to your status update and add the link in the text box.

The post won’t automatically populate with the headline and description of the page, so you’ll have to remember to include that relevant information in your post.

Issue 5: Facebook is showing me On This Day reminders for people I’d rather not see.

Unfortunate things happen to the people in our lives – deaths, breakups, or friendships that end badly. Facebook’s On This Day app doesn’t know this, so these people or moments who remind us of heartbreak will sometimes appear in the posts from the past that it suggests each day. And if you start your day by scrolling through Facebook, you don’t want it to begin with these reminders.

You can, however, tell the On This Day app to stop showing you posts that involve the people you don’t want to be reminded of. Start by going to the Apps section in the left side of your Facebook menu, and choose the On This Day app. Then click the Preferences button. From there, you can tell the app to avoid reminding you of certain people and dates. One note about the people filter: it can only block people who you are friends with or who allow you to see that they have a Facebook profile. If someone has blocked you from seeing they exist on Facebook, you can’t select them for the filter.

 

Did I miss anything?

These are 5 common issues I’ve been experiencing when posting to Facebook, and if any of these are yours, I hope I’ve helped you make your Facebook news feed a happier place.

If you have more annoying things Facebook does, let me know in the comments. If you don’t know how to fix them, let me know and I’ll find a solution for you!