You’re scrolling through Facebook and you spot an update that has been shared by another user. It’s a topic that interests you.
Perhaps it’s a question that you would love to know the answer to, but don’t want to say so publicly.
Maybe it’s an update from your competitor that you’d like to watch… to see if it gets any interesting responses.
It could even be someone offering something that you want to explore in more detail, but want to wait to see what others say first.
You may know to follow Facebook posts by writing “following” in the comments, so you’ll automatically receive notifications of later comments posted.
But here’s the thing. When the number of comments begins to increase, having lots of “following” comments in the thread will annoy people who are trying to keep up with the conversation.
It’s also annoying for the page admins and the original poster, who will receive tons of comment notifications with no extra value being added to the conversation.
I’ve seen many complaints about people writing “following” in the comments section of posts in busy Facebook groups, so it is a universal annoyance. And as a Social Prospector, annoying people is best avoided, especially when there is another option.
So, here is the good news. There is another, covert way that you can achieve the same result (get notified of new comments) without typing “following” into the comments box.
Turn on notifications to follow Facebook posts
To the right of any post, either in a group, on someone’s timeline, or in your newsfeed, is a little upside down triangle.
Click on this triangle, and depending on what shows in the drop down menu, do one of the following 2 things;
- If “Turn on notifications” appears in the drop down menu, click on it to turn on notifications for that post.
- If “Turn on notifications” doesn’t appear in the drop down menu, click on “more” at the bottom of the menu, then “Turn on notifications”.
Now you’ll be notified of all new comments being added to this post, forever. (You’ll find the notifications in your notifications section that sits top right of the screen, inside the blue bar within Facebook)
You can follow the same process to turn off notifications, should you choose not to receive notifications from posts you have commented on.
E.g. adding a comment to say “happy birthday” to a friend, doesn’t mean you necessarily want to receive a notification of the other 292 people who wish them happy birthday after you. So you might choose to turn off notifications for this post.
That’s it. Turning notifications on/off works on both desktop and mobile apps. The process for mobile apps is identical to desktop.
Plus, there’s the added benefit that it is quicker to turn on notifications that it is to type “following” into the comments too.
Bonus! 🙂
Veronica Pullen
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No, the original poster isn’t notified, and there is no indication on the post itself of who has turned notifications on.
Can people tell if you have turned on notifications for a post??
Great wee tip – thanks Veronica!