With over 1.23 billion active users, Facebook is a vital component of your online marketing strategy. Yet, the changes rolled out by the company on a regular basis can really annoy you and detract from your experience. Recently, Facebook unveiled some more alterations to how they handle your personal information. While some of these changes may actually enhance your experience, a few of them can be bothersome. Log into your account today and check the following four settings.
1. Auto-Play for videos. You may have noticed that videos now play automatically when they scroll across your news feed. 
For mobile users, this can eat up data allowances and battery life. If you’re on a PC, the noise from the videos can be distracting. Either way, you probably prefer to choose which videos you watch, rather than having them shoved in your face.
It’s a good thing this problem is actually pretty simple to fix. Just adjust your settings and turn off the video auto-play option. Now your Facebook experience will be much more peaceful.
2. Notifications. Facebook is now notifying its users about more things than ever. This can either keep you in the know, or annoy you with constant beeping and buzzing on your phone or computer. To turn off notifications, go to the Settings menu and click the Notifications tab. From there, you can choose which types of notifications you want to receive, and there’s even an option to turn off the sound.
3. Advertisements. Facebook doesn’t exactly sell your personal information, but it does notice certain key words in your posts. The end result is that Facebook might display a diaper ad next to a post about your new baby, or an ad for a golf course next to your post about buying new clubs. Technically, Facebook isn’t violating your privacy by doing this, but it may appear as if you’re actually endorsing certain products.
To fix this, go into your Settings and select the “Ads” tab. Click the “edit” buttons, and change each item to “no one” instead of “friends”. Now you won’t be unwittingly promoting products and services to your friends.
4. Privacy. This is Facebook 101, but many users still haven’t gotten the hang of using their privacy settings. When you post to Facebook, chances are that you don’t want the entire world to view all of your posts, likes and shares. From the Settings menu, navigate to the Privacy tab. You’ll see a list of items, and you can change each one to your intended audience. Remember that “public” means the item can be viewed by anyone, regardless of whether you’re friends.
Private users generally prefer to display their content to friends only, but for business purposes the “friends of friends” option might be better. This means your posts will show up in the news feeds of non-friends when your friends like or comment on them, so it’s a great way to gain more exposure and gain new contacts.
