You may have noticed that I hide all of the Recent Activity posts on my Facebook profile.

Or you may not have. After all, who notices that stuff? Anyone who looks at your profile is looking for posts and comments there by you and your friends. Nobody reads those little blurbs.

Exactly my point. There are three reasons I hide the Recent Activity.

  1. Content Death. I’ve heard it said (by @copyblogger), “You’re only as good as your last post.” This is an expansion of that idea. When I post on my Wall, I want people to see it. If I share a link, I want them to follow it. Naturally, older posts get pushed down, but the last three or four are still visible “above the fold.” When Recent Activity posts pop up, my own posts are pushed down, decreasing the likelihood of being seen.
  2. Wall Clutter. I’m on Facebook a lot—posting, commenting, and liking probably 30-40 things a day. If even half of that stayed on my Wall, even I would have a hard time looking at my Wall. And these posts show up in groups, diluting my content. 
  3. Irrelevancy. As I said before, who reads those snippets? You could argue that Recent Activity shows engagement of your audience, but I would counter by saying that Comments on your posts (and your responses to those Comments) are far more effective. Plus, it’s not as if I’m deleting my post; that’s still visible on my friend’s Wall—where I posted it. And, as Facebook reminds you every time you hide a Recent Activity post, only mutual friends (who can already see the post on my friend’s Wall) will see this snippet anyway.

My one exception to this rule is when I Like a Page. When I Like a Page, I want everyone to know. I’ve found value in what that Page represents, and the very act of Liking is an effort to promote that Page. Since Facebook has buried Likes under my Profile’s Info section, they’re not readily visible, which means I don’t mind giving my Likes a little bit more publicity.

What about you? Do you have a similar strategy? Or do you disagree—is Recent Activity really useful?

Looks like I’m out of chalk again.