This is part of the Social Media 101 series. If you’re more au fait with social media, look away now …

Facebook is Australia’s most popular social network, with a user base hovering around 10 million and growing.

But some things about Facebook annoy us, right?

Here are six quick little adjustments you can make to give you a more pleasant Facebook experience.

1. Unfollow a post

This one is a personal favourite of mine. Sometimes you comment on a friend’s Facebook update, then lots of other join the conversation, occasionally over several hours or days with trite contributions. You grow tired of the notifications and you want to leave the conversation. See the screenshot below: you have the option to unfollow a post at any time (and also refollow if you change your mind).

2. Hide apps or games

Annoyed by updates from friends using Farmville or the latest casino games? You can hover your mouse to the right of that update, and see the choice available for hiding updates from that game or app from now on.

3. Hide friend’s updates

Sometimes it’s far too awkward to unfriend someone, yet you might not enjoy all their Facebook updates. Again, if you hover your mouse to the right of their status update, you are given some choices about hiding parts of your friend’s feed. Your friend does not know you’ve done that, it’s a completely private setting. (Note, I do not filter any of Laurel’s posts!)

4. Hide brand updates

Similarly, you can choose to hide updates  from brands or organisations you’re following on Facebook. You can even report some posts as spam, or click to ensure you don’t see a post (story) again. That’s a good option in those cases where you may be following a news site  for example, and you find a particular news story disturbing and want to hide it.

5. Change group notifications

Are you a member of any Facebook Groups? They’re a great way to keep in touch with similarly minded people. However the updates can become too much. Once again, you can choose whether to get Group updates  pushed  to you, or choose to opt out and just check the Group page occasionally when you remember to. This can be particularly useful for Groups that have a very active community that posts throughout the day. Just see the Notifications option at the top right of your Group screen.

6. Use Facebook Lists

To tailor your Facebook experience even further, you might want to use Facebook lists. These allow you to categorise your connections and quickly check their particular status updates. A handy example is having a ‘close friends’ list. This may be people whose posts you don’t want to miss. You can quickly cut through to their news and bypass the rest of the Facebook clutter.

Read all about Facebook Lists in Facebook’s Help Centre.

Do you have any Facebook tips you’d like to share?