Recently, a couple of our readers asked questions about hiding Facebook page likes. We’ve written about this before but we think we need to clarify this whole topic. You have to remember that we have readers from across the globe, many of whom may not be proficient in English. We’ve found it useful to explain things in several different ways, hoping that one explanation will finally make sense to a portion of our audience. Here we go:
1. We all know what a ‘page like’ is, right? If you go to a company’s page or a singer’s page on Facebook, you will see a large ‘Like’ button. It looks like this:
2. If you click that like button, you will receive updates from that page on your news feed. Unlike adding a friend, liking a page sets up a one-way communication link between the page and you, not between you and the page. Sure, you can comment on the page or on anything the page owner posts but they will not receive your updates or posts. It’s one-way only.
3. If you have hidden your page likes, as described here: Hide Page Likes, none of your friends will be able to see which pages you have clicked ‘like’ on. (There is an exception which we will describe below). If you’ve already hidden your page likes, this article isn’t for you…except for the glitch that we will explain later.
4. Let’s say you haven’t hidden your page likes but you don’t want to broadcast the fact that you like a page. Here’s how to do that. We’ll be using the Psych page as an example. This is what it looks like before you click the like button:
5. Click the Like button and you’ll see this menu pop down:
6. Let’s uncheck the ‘Show in News Feed’:
7. OK, here’s the explanation: If you’ve hidden your page likes, this won’t show up on your news feed or in your likes box. If you haven’t hidden your page likes but you unchecked the ‘Show in News Feed’ section, this won’t show up but it will be in your page likes section. Got it? There are some exceptions to all of this. Read on:
Facebook Page Like Glitch – this is the exception to the rule
Remember those like boxes, the ones on your timeline that have titles such as TV shows or Movies, etc? Believe it or not, some page likes fall into two categories. Take our Psych example. Yes, it is a Facebook page and, yes, we have liked it. Since our Page Likes are hidden, it would make sense that anything to do with our liking that Psych page would be hidden, wouldn’t it? Well, it isn’t.
Since that Psych page is a TV page, the fact that we liked it is visible in our Favorites under Television. Yes, the page like is hidden but the Psych page is still listed in our Likes/Favorites/Television section. Curious, right?
What should you do? We suggest that you completely hide all of your favorites. Maybe you don’t like a singing star’s music but you do like the photos on that person’s page. If you don’t hide your Music Favorites, that page will show up there. Any page that intersects with a favorite, could be music, TV, games, athletes, etc., will show up in two places on your Facebook Timeline page. If there is any question about whether you want your friends to know what pages/stars/movies/singers/sport/whatever you like, then hide them all.
Tip: Many employers use your Facebook profile to check you out before they hire you. Whether or not you agree with this, they do it. Let’s say you like the TV show ‘Breaking Bad’ or ‘Weeds’. Some conservative employers might just assume that you’re more interested in drugs than you should be, at least if you want to work with them. Do you see the ramifications here? Mull that over while you hide all of your likes.
Tip: Remember that you can hide any of your likes except photos and mutual friends. You can hide your friends but you can’t hide your mutual friends. Keep that in mind.
Thanks for reading. We’re going to to a whole post on that glitch, just to highlight it. Comments and questions are welcome!