While most everyone has been talking about Facebook’s forced download of Facebook Messenger on mobile devices, Facebook has also been working on some other new features to improve their usability and create some positive publicity.
The new save feature is one that allows you to save content (videos, articles, locations, movies, etc.) directly and privately through your Facebook profile. So, for all who are upset about Facebook Messenger, take a moment to find out about the new save feature and decide for yourself if it in any way makes up for Facebook’s recent move.
The How-To of Facebook’s “Save” Feature:
Facebook has set the save feature up to be super simple: you can do it from any and all devices (a smart move on Facebook’s part) and once you save something on your desktop Facebook profile, you can access it from your mobile profile, or vice versa. And hopefully they won’t pull another Messenger move and make use download a separate app to use this new feature.
This how-to into two sections: desktop and mobile. There are 3 steps in each section that are practically the same, they just look a little different depending on the device you choose to use.
Saving On a Desktop:
Step 1: Find the post with a link (this excludes statuses and photos uploaded directly on Facebook) that you want to save, and select the downward arrow in the top right corner. You will see a “save” option, which I have highlighted in yellow in the image below.
Step 2: Access that post at a later date by going to the top, left of your Facebook feed. There is a “Saved” option just below “Events”.
Step 3: Access your saved items! There they all are! You can archive items, organize them, and even share them directly from the saved section with your friends directly or on your wall. It’s as easy as that.
For Mobile:
Step 1: Find the post with the link you want to save, and select the down arrow. The top selection will be “Save” if it is a qualifying post not a status update or Facebook photo (sorry, you still have to screenshot those). Select the Save option.
Step 2: Go to the “More” option at the bottom, right of the app, and this is what you’ll see:
Note the “Saved” option right below “Friends”. You will select this to get to step 3.
Step 3: Access all the saved items you want!
There they are, all nice and saved so you won’t lose them in the ridiculousness that is Facebook’s algorithm.
Notice that Facebook has broken them down into links, places, music, books, movies, TV shows, Events, and your archive. This means that if your friend checks into a restaurant or museum you’d like to visit, then you can save it and it will appear in the places section. Or lets say you see an event you’d like to learn more about, you can save that too! There are a wide variety of ways to use this save option.
The Benefit
For Individuals:
This is great for personal use as it allows you to save anything you might be interested in, but might not necessarily have time to read or watch right at that moment. It can also help you plan a vacation, specifically if a friend says you must make a stop at such and such place, you can instantly save it and remember it for later. The same goes for books, movies, TV shows, and so forth.
It’s also perfect for those of us who like to reread articles, or hang on to a library of resources that might help us out later when writing a blog post or posting some great articles to a brands social media. This option allows you to bookmark these resources without filling up your internet browser bookmarks.
Facebook’s saving feature also allows you to save featured posts or ads that might offer discounts or other useful information that you may not have time to read, or you may not want to look at on your phone as opposed to your computer.
For Brands:
If your currently boosting your Facebook posts, then those posts can be saved along with content that shows up organically. That means if you promote an awesome discount or registration to an event, someone on a mobile device may not want to try and register on their mobile phone, but may want to register on the computer. This feature gives them the option to simply save the link, and the next time their on a computer, they can register without having to remember who posted the item or what day it was posted. This is especially useful for those of us with short-term memory loss.
This also means that, if your content is of a high enough quality and interest to your audience, they may save it and share it later, which allows more eyes on the content and drives more traffic to the original source. This is always valuable, especially in an online world where it feels like content can be so easily lost.
Conclusion
Facebook has created a way to simply bookmark items that are interesting to an individual, and can allow them to create a library of content that is easily access without the whole world seeing it on their wall. Instead of sending messages of content to your significant other or a close friend (which I’ve been guilty of doing when I didn’t want to loose a particularly interesting video, article, or museum destination) you can save it in your own personal Facebook account and then decide later if its something you want to share with someone else.
This seemingly simple idea may seem a bit like the concept behind Pinterest, but it does not rely as heavily on the visual as Pinterest does, and allows you to really make the most of what you see in your Facebook feed without being THAT obnoxious poster.
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