Essay

Building your personal presence on Facebook
How to use Timeline and Subscribe
A guide for public figures

Millions of people visit Facebook every day to connect with friends and discover more about public figures they care about. This guide is designed to help public figures use Timeline and Subscribe to connect with their public audience authentically and personally.

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Introducing Timeline and Subscribe
In the past, many public figures used Facebook profiles to connect with friends and family, and Pages to connect with their public audiences. With Timeline and Subscribe, it’s now possible to connect with your friends and family and your public audience in one place. Timeline is a collection of the top photos, stories, and life events that make you who you are — organized as they happen. Timeline is the story of your life.
Create an authentic presence on Facebook
Add a great cover photo and profile image that express your personality.

Expand your audience with Subscribe
Anyone can subscribe to you and start receiving your public updates in their News Feed.

Build a network
Connect with other public figures you know to build your network.

Tell your story
Highlight your professional information, memorable photos, and life events.

Control who sees what you share
Use privacy controls to decide who sees each of your updates. Post publicly when you want to reach your subscribers.

Visit facebook.com/about/timeline and click "Get Timeline" to activate and publish your own timeline.

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Get started with Subscribe
Subscribe is a feature on your timeline that allows your audience to receive your public updates directly in their News Feed. When you allow subscribers, you can share your story with an unlimited audience while reserving personal updates for people you know well.

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Turn on Subscribe
To allow subscribers and start building your public audience, visit facebook.com/about/subscribe and select Allow Subscribers.

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Edit Subscribe settings and notifications
Control who can comment on your public updates - Everyone, Friends of Friends or Just Friends.

Decide whose notifications you would like to receive - Everyone, Friends of Friends or No one

Edit your search privacy settings at facebook. com/privacy. Select Edit Settings next to How You Connect to control who can look up your timeline. Set this to Everyone so your audience can find and subscribe to you.

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Post Publicly
To post to your Subscribers, set the privacy settings of your posts to Public.

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Top 5 Tips for using Timeline with Subscribe

Post publicly: Set the privacy settings of your posts to Public so subscribers can like and comment on your posts.

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Choose great photos - Add a great cover photo and profile picture that express your personality.

Make your Timeline unique - Select a unique Facebook username for your timeline at facebook.com/username.

Make it easy for people to identify you - Fill out the job positions and information that best represents your current status in the About section of your Timeline.

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Understand your audience and how they want to hear from you - Ask for suggestions from your subscribers. You’ll get useful and interesting feedback, your subscribers may surprise you!

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Resources
To learn more about Timeline, visit: facebook.com/about/timeline To edit your search and friend request privacy settings, visit: facebook.com/privacy To start allowing subscribers, visit: facebook.com/about/subscribe To receive more tips and updates for public figures using Facebook, visit: facebook.com/publicfigures

Need help deciding between creating a Page or a Timeline? Visit: facebook.com/publicfigures?sk=app_271800242838919

It’s easy to update your Page with your mobile device, here’s how:
Use the Facebook app on your smartphone or iPad Visit facebook.com on your mobile browser Use email to upload photos or status updates

Access more information about mobile features for Timeline at facebook.com/mobile