The Best Ways for Educators to Clean Up Facebook Timeline

by Jeffrey Thomas on January 10, 2012

If you’re an educator who has decided to activate Facebook’s new Timeline feature then there are a few things you can do to help you maintain your professionalism.

First off, activating the Timeline isn’t very difficult. The problem lies in cleaning up your Timeline. Why do you need to clean up your timeline? Once you activate it EVERYTHING will be visible — even those questionable Christmas party pictures your friends took a few weeks ago. If there is content you don’t want on your Timeline, then you have to start cleaning it up.

The Problem?

Cleaning up your Timeline can be painfully slow! Here are a few posts that will help you speed up the process and in the meantime make sure you are doing it correctly. Now, I know what you’re thinking – by the time I read these posts, I could have been done. NOT SO!!!!!!! There is a reason Facebook gives you seven days grace between activating and publishing your Timeline!

Facebook’s New Timeline: Important Privacy Settings to Adjust Now CIO.com–Facebook’s new Timeline has the potential to expose status updates and wall posts from years ago. Here’s how you need to update your privacy settings before you or Facebook publishes your Timeline.
Prep for Facebook’s Timeline Layout: 6 Must-Do Privacy Tweaks | PCWorld–Facebook users have seven days to clean up their profile before the default Timeline layout goes live. Here is a checklist of things you’ll want do so your past doesn’t come back to haunt you.
5 Quick Guides to Facebook Timeline – Learn How to Use it Fast – Technology Blog–Facebook Timeline is an illustrative, chronological listing of all the details about people such as posts, shared links, photos, check-ins. Timeline will expose your life to the whole world.
How to Master Facebook Timeline in 5 Quick Minutes | Gadget Lab | Wired.com–Yesterday, Facebook rolled out its new Timeline feature to the masses. This ultra-illustrative, chronological listing of posts, photos, shared links, check-ins, and more is a radically different arrangement than the Facebook profile you’ve been used to. Here’s how to curate it to best effect.

After reading these posts you should have a much better idea on how to effectively clean up your Timeline. One of my favorite tips from these posts is the use of the Activity log. The Activity log button is on the right hand side of your Timeline. Only you can see your activity log and it allows you to go through and decide what to do with your Timeline info. You can feature items, hide items, delete items, etc. For a good explanation of the Activity log click here.