We can all admit to spending a lot of time on Facebook. This is all the more evident when you have work to do. Reading that business report or putting the final touches on that important presentation seems to take a backseat to Facebook. As a matter of fact, it’s often when there’s important work to do that it feels like we want to see what Facebook friends are up to, or want to post about that vacation. This may just be inevitable, but this is one way you can make your Facebook experience more efficient.

Filtering Friends

You know that Facebook friend – the one that is invariably posting about the minutia of what they’re eating or which reality Tv program they’re watching. Despite the fact that they spend time muddling your Facebook news feed with the trivial, you would like to stay their Facebook friend. Do not fear, as there is an answer.

There is a function in Facebook that will allow you to unsubscribe from this friends updates. You are able to do this directly from your news feed – all it requires is that you hover over that friend’s update with the cursor, click on the down arrow that appears in the upper-right hand corner of the update, and then select the option to “unsubscribe from status updates.”

Extending Messages, not Friendships

Here’s another nifty Facebook tip: You are able to send messages to people without sending them a friend request. Simply go to the Facebook page of the non-friends to which you want to send messages. Seek out the “message” button on the upper-right corner of the page. Individuals who let others send them messages without first befriending them will have this button.

Additionally, you can use Facebook Chat and connect it with external services. For instance, if you are using Hotmail, you can use your Windows Live profile and integrate it with your Facebook account. This functionality is fantastic if you want to talk to your online friends from your mail window. Yahoo messenger actually provides a similar function – all you have to do is perform a search on Facebook for how you can achieve this integration.