Jarrett's 8 Steps to Operating A Kick-Ass Personal Facebook Page

I have been a Facebook member in good standing (no hacks, deletions, nor suspensions) since 2007. I have over 2K friends, over half of whom I have actually met in real life. While there are arguably better people to write a list such as this, I just want you to know what has worked and so far continues to work for me.
It is important that I use a format outside of facebook for this list because I don't want to speak for and about Facebook, on Facebook, because the legality of such things is constantly evolving.

I prefer Facebook over other social networking apps although I use many. (My Twitter and Instagram are linked here.)

8. Find a niche and stick with it. A niche is your own personal space to display what's important to you. Maybe your thing is quotes by the Founding Fathers and other important people in history. (OK, so that's actually mine but it can be yours too.) I think one of my first posts was a quote by Benjamin Franklin.  For the past decade or so, when I can't think of anything to say, I choose from an array of famous quotes the best describes my current mood or my take on the news of the day. Some of my friends do an ink drawing or take an interesting selfie, or post a news article or blog post that they've written.

7. Try to keep your friends list at around 50% people you know or have met in real life.  This helps you to not get baited by Russian Troll Farms. And when someone you've met in the flesh has an opinion on something, give it a little more weight than you would someone you've only just met online.

6. Don't operate more groups or pages than you can handle.  I've seen people who end up drowning in their own online personas and even need psychiatric help because of it.  Sound strange?  It is... but its also becoming more common. Facebook is very upfront about things and they despise anonymity. They want to create an atmosphere of trust and a more neighborly "hey, I know you" environment. Don't try to bite off more than you can chew without cracking up. It's fine to take a few of your groups and pages and hand them off to trusted friends.  People LOVE taking over a group that was handed to them with active members pre-installed.

5. Don't admin/moderate or create Groups or Pages unless you have a full pc, tablet or laptop.  Phones don't allow you to quickly find the correct ways of handling an attack posed by a renegade admin or moderator. Sometimes with a phone, you find yourself at the mercy of your data allowance.

4. Politics - Be honest, yet polite wherever possible. ("And it is always possible," to paraphrase the Dalai Lama). When you need to unfriend or block someone who is sabotaging your timeline with counter-propaganda, do it quietly. I'm choosy about when it's appropriate to make an example of someone and prefer not to do it. Most political differences can be solved in private messages with more honesty. It's the public nature of comments that fuels people behaving like trolls.  If they only want attention and always go about it the wrong way, a block might be in order. 

3. Don't be afraid to block.  Facebook has this feature for a reason.  They don't want you reporting posts to their staff that aren't worthy of being reported, "FB fights" always boil down to that level of pettiness when they aren't stopped by a block or Facebook's new feature, "Taking a Break". I once joked to my mother who was marveling at my growing friends list, "well, if you're impressed by that, you should see my block list."  I won't tell people what KIND of people they should be blocking on first contact, but I do have opinions on that... Everyone's tolerance threshold is a bit different in that respect.

2. Don't bring offline drama online.  It's surprising how many people still fall prey to this particular temptation. Look, we all have messy personal lives. But we don't all make our drama public in attempts to "get back at so & so".  It's perhaps the biggest divider of class on the internet. If, for example, your prospective employer decides to look you up on Facebook and they see nothing but cute puppy memes and insightful TED Talks, your odds of getting hired for the new job will probably improve.  But if that same employer sees a bunch of interpersonal arguing, cussing, lovers' quarrels, and drunken rants... your odds of getting the new job go down to about zero.  It's not exactly legal for prospective employers to look at your facebook page, but it happens and you will never know what hit you. This brings me to my #1 step.

1.  Be careful adding coworkers and especially the boss at your job.  They might hint around at it and show you a post on their phone in a covert method of showing you their Facebook name. But it's safer to say, 'I never add co-workers' and mean it, then it is to alienate SOME co-workers by ignoring their request. Unless you have a job in the media or in roles where you're expected to keep up a social media presence, it's best to keep Facebook as an "after work" activity.  Besides, no customer likes having to wait for an employee who is too busy with their phones to pay attention.