How do I turn on notifications for all posts on Facebook?

Have you ever noticed people writing “following” in the comments of a Facebook post? They do this so they can get notifications when the post updates, but there’s a much easier and more efficient way to do this–and it’s built right into Facebook.

Granted, writing the word “following” as your comment does achieve its purpose, but it also means that everyone else who wants to also follow a post’s progress usually ends up writing it too. The result is you end up getting notifications for all the “following” comments, making it just more detritus you have to sift through to get to the pertinent information.

Instead of taking the time and effort to write a comment just so you can receive update notifications, you can use a feature that has been part of Facebook for ages. Go to any Facebook post (it doesn’t matter if it’s in a group, on a friend’s timeline, or in your feed), and click the small arrow in the upper-right corner. From that group of options, choose “Turn on notifications for this post”. You’ll get notifications anytime someone comments, even if you never did.

If you’re using a mobile app, such as here on the iPad, the procedure is virtually the same–tap the arrow in the upper-right corner and choose “Turn on notifications for this post”.

You can also use this feature to stop receiving notifications on any post, including one you’ve commented on.

You may also be able to turn off the notifications from the notifications alerts on the main website.

Thankfully, this isn’t a Facebook annoyance like birthday notifications or “on this day” posts. Rather, it’s just a human problem that can be easily remedied through simple education. That said, it’s safe to assume that some people are always going to write “following” or something similar in order to stay updated, but it’s nice to know that now you don’t have to.

RELATED: How to Stop Birthday (and Other) Facebook Notifications

So, now you can take your lurking to new heights while keeping your profile at a constant low by setting up notifications on any posts you find an interest in.

If you want to stay on top of your friend’s Facebook activity with the same kind of alerts you get when someone mentions you in a post or tags you, it’s easy to do so if you know where to look.

Why Set Up Alerts?

By default Facebook alerts you when you’re mentioned directly. If somebody tags you in a photo, mentions you in a comment, or directly posts on your Facebook wall, then you get an alert. But what if you want to stay on top of the goings on in a friend’s life even when you’re not directly tagged? Maybe your brother has a new baby and you want to see the photos immediately. Maybe a friend is going through a rough patch and you want to keep a friendly eye on her social media posts. In such cases you’ll need to do a tiny bit of extra legwork to receive notifications any time that person posts something on Facebook, not just when they interact with you.

RELATED: How to Share Facebook Posts with Only Certain Friends

There are two ways to approach the problem: using Facebook’s “Close Friends” list and turning on notifications for individual friends. Why the two different options and why would you use them? Many people use the “Close Friends” list when they are posting content to Facebook as a way to limit the audience to just their close friends (for say, a particularly personal post or another wave of baby photos). If you want to get notifications when a Facebook friend of yours post something but you don’t necessarily want to put them on the close friend list, you can do so by simply toggling notifications on for that friend.

For the purposes of our tutorial we’re going to turn on notification for our friend “K” who we are convinced, thanks to the evidence presented by Throwback Thursday photos of her seeming ageless face, is a vampire. With the help of Facebook notifications we’ll see if all her activity occurs after dusk and around spooky abandoned crypts so we can make short work of this mystery.

Checking The Notification Settings

The first order of business is to ensure that your notifications settings are such that you’ll actually get the alerts you want once you turn on notifications for your friend. First we’ll check your “Close Friends” settings and then your general email notification settings.

To do so log into your Facebook account and click on this link to jump right to the correct sub-menu. If the link doesn’t work for you, select the menu triangle in the upper right corner of the screen and click on “Settings”.

Look for the “Notifications” entry on the left hand navigation column. Click it.

Within the “Notifications” menu, click on the “Edit” link next to “On Facebook” at the top of the list.

Scroll down to the “What You Get Notified About” section and look for the entry “Close Friends activity”. There will be a drop down menu to the right where you can selection “On Facebook and Email”, “On Facebook”, and “Off”.

By default it should be set to “On Facebook and Email”, but if you messed around with your notification settings in the past it may be turned off. Set the notification to the level you desire (Facebook + Email or just Facebook).

Next let’s take a look at your general email notifications to ensure you’ll get email notifications for people you engage the notifications for but who are not on your “Close Friends” list. To do so navigate to the email notifications settings menu (click on the menu icon as we did in the previous section, select “Settings”, then “Notifications” and click the “Edit” button beside the entry for “Email”).

In that section you need to select either the top option “All notifications…” or the second “Important notifications…”, adjusted to your preference, if you wish to receive email notifications if the person is not on your close friends list but you have turned on active notifications for their profile.

Turning Notifications On

Now that we’ve double checked the notification settings the rest is a snap. Just navigate to a friend’s Facebook profile page and look for the “Friends” button floating over their cover photo. Click the button to pull up the drop down menu and select either “Get Notifications” or “Close Friends”, depending on your preference.

Remember, “Close Friends” will not only automatically turn on the notifications side of things but will also add them as an audience to any posts limited to your close friends list (if you use that function). Selecting “Get Notifications” will just turn on notifications of that person’s profile without adding them to any list.

To turn off the notifications simply return to your friend’s profile and uncheck the appropriate item from the drop down menu.

That’s all there is to it, with a quick check of your notifications settings and a quick toggle on your friend’s profile page you’ll never miss a funny post or baby photo again.

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