The vast majority of users are still only getting used to their Facebook Timeline, and the fact is that it will be mandatory for everybody within the next week or so. The first thing that people notice is the cover photo and the new flashy design, but there are tons of little tricks and tips that you can use to enhance your Facebook experience. Given that Timeline is essentially a picture of everything you do in your life, you will probably want to make yourself look as well as you possible can and avail of some of these cool new features that are available…

Subscribers

This was a subtle change that Facebook introduced a couple of months ago. You don’t have this switched on by default, but by turning it on you can bypass the problems you have with too many people sending you friend requests. You now only have to have your real friends and you can allow other people to simply subscribe to your updates. Your subscribers don’t need to see everything you update either as the options allow you to customize every single thing they see. To activate subscribers, simply go in to the subscriber tab on Timeline and then click on “settings”.

Tagging Photos To Map

You can upload photos from the various mobile versions of Facebook, but you can also retrospectively add photos to your map on Timeline. It’s a great way of tracking where you have been  around the world and when. Improving your map will become addictive with the more photos and locations you add over time the better it gets.

Life Events

Life events are new on Timeline and they allow you to paint a picture of the major things that have been happening in your life like getting a job, relationships, moving house or starting a hobby. Remember that these will all be dated and added to your Timeline at the relevant time so it’s a great way of keeping track of all the big moments in your life and looking back at a future date. You can also add events retrospectively.

Pimp Your Photos

The Timeline photo is obviously something that you can play around with a lot to create a unique look for your page, but you might not be a graphic designer or have the eye for creating something truly stunning. Luckily Schweppes have launched an app that does all the hard work for you and allows you to create stunning Timeline cover photos. The video explains how it works and you can check out the app itself here.

Hide Stuff From Your Timeline

As soon as you start using Timeline you are going to realize that there is stuff that you never want to appear so publicly for the world to see. The nature of the layout means that people can scan back over everything you have done for a number of years and find the geeky or drunk photos you posted way back in the day. Luckily you can click on the little pencil beside any individual item you spot and choose to hide it forever from your public Timeline.

Hide The Sidebar

Facebook is currently doing everything it possibly can to keep your attention within the site. The ticker (the little mini real time news feed in the top right hand corner) and chat appear on every single page and they keep you on the site. They can also be very annoying and highly distracting as you probably don’t want to know what song somebody is listening to or what article they’ve just read. Luckily one simple little click of a button on the bottom right of the screen will remove the ticker and chat and give you a purer Facebook experience.

Block People From Seeing Your Timeline

If you really don’t want somebody to see your Timeline at all you can go through a series of steps to restrict who sees what. Once you have clicked on the privacy settings you can then enter the names of the people that you want to block. Once you have done that you can head over to your Timeline and click on “view profile as” which will show you what your profile will look like when viewed by a particular person.

Change Your Cover Photo On The Go

With the main cover photo acting as the main feature on your profile it can be a nice tip to change this while on the go. By simply firing up any of the Facebook apps and heading over to your profile, you can then click on the photo icon and snap a photo that will instantly appear on your Timeline. A great way of letting people know what is happening with your life while on the go.

Play Beautiful Full Size Videos

If you have shared (or somebody else has shared to your Timeline) a video then you can click the little star beside it that will allow you to “resize” the video. This simple action means that the video will then appear full size on your Timeline forever going forward (unless you change it back of course). It’s a simple way of showing off great content and making your Timeline look more unique. This also works for photos.

Control What Appears On Timeline Of Others

The most important place to go on your Timeline is “Activity log” which allows you to control what is happening on your Timeline and what gets shared. You can also chose to remove stuff that you have been tagged in, remove the post from Timeline completely or even mark it as spam. This is the best place to go if you are worried what other people are posting on their Timeline about you.