How to Enable Followers on Facebook

Updated February 28, 2024

How to Enable Followers on Facebook - Hero

In addition to having friends on Facebook, you can also have followers, even if you’re not a celebrity. Learn how to enable followers on Facebook in this guide.

If you’re a Facebook user, you probably have a few celebrity accounts you follow. However, did you know that following isn’t something that’s only restricted to celebrities? You can allow people to follow your Facebook account in precisely the same way.

Whether or not you want to allow people to follow your account or you prefer to stick to the tried-and-tested adding friends route will depend on your personal circumstances. Still, there can be some useful benefits to having followers, too, rather than just friends.

If you want to enable followers on Facebook, follow the steps below.

Why Have Followers Rather Than Friends on Facebook?

If you’re not a business account or a celebrity, you may wonder why you would want followers rather than friends on Facebook. Well, there are a few reasons why this might be the case.

First, when you become friends with someone, your content will appear in their feed, and their content will appear in yours. However, you might prefer not to see all the posts from people who want to see your account. By enabling followers on Facebook, people can see the posts you choose to let followers see without you having to see their posts in return.

In addition, Facebook has a limit of 5,000 friends for standard accounts. If you’ve reached this limit, you won’t be able to add any more friends. Enabling followers allows you to let more people see your posts, even if your list of friends is full.

You also don’t need to approve followers like you do with friends; they will become followers automatically without any input on your side. You can enable followers instead if you’re tired of wading through friend requests.

How to Enable Followers on Facebook Desktop

Enabling followers is simple, but it’s pretty well hidden amongst the Facebook settings and easy to miss. The steps are a little different depending on whether you’re enabling followers on a mobile device or a computer.

To enable Facebook followers in a browser on your computer:

Log into your Facebook account in a browser.
In the top-right of the screen, click your Profile icon.
Click Settings & Privacy.
Click Settings.
In the left-hand menu, select Public Posts.
Under Who can follow me click Friends.
Select Public.
Anyone can now follow your profile.
To choose who can comment on your public posts, click Public in the Public post comments section.
Select Public to allow anyone to comment.
Select Friends to only allow friends to comment.
Selecting Friends of friends will allow your friends and anyone who is friends with one of your friends to comment.
To control when you receive notifications about interactions with your public posts, click Public in the Public post notifications section.
You can select to be notified about Public interactions, the interactions of Friends of friends, or No one.
To control who can comment on your profile information, such as pictures and bio, click Friends in the Public profile info section.
You can set this to Public, Friends, or Friends of friends.

How to Enable Followers on Facebook Mobile

If you’re using Facebook on mobile, you can also enable followers using the Facebook mobile app.

To enable followers on Facebook mobile:

Open the Facebook app.
Tap the Menu icon. This is in the bottom-right corner on an iPhone and the top-right on Android.
Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy.
Tap Settings.
Under Audience and Visibility, tap Followers and public content.
Under Who can follow me, tap Public.
Your profile is now open to followers.
To choose who can comment on your public posts, scroll down to Public post comments.
Choose Public to allow anyone to comment.
Choose Friends to only allow friends to comment.
Selecting Friends of friends will allow your friends and anyone who is friends with one of your friends to comment.
To control when you receive notifications about interactions with your public posts, scroll down to Public post notifications.
You can choose to be notified of interactions from Everyone, the interactions of Friends of friends, or No one.
Go to the Public profile info section to control who can comment on your profile information, such as profile pictures and bio.
You can limit commenting to Public, Friends of friends, or Friends.

How to See Who is Following You on Facebook Desktop

Once you have enabled followers, you can check out who is following you through the Friends section of your profile. Note that you won’t be able to see this section if you don’t have followers enabled or no one is following you.

To see who is following you on Facebook in a browser on your computer:

Sign in to Facebook in a browser and click the Home icon.
In the left-hand menu, tap on your profile.
Beneath your profile photo, tap Followers. If you can’t see it, you may need to tap More.
If you don’t have a Followers tab, you don’t have any followers, or you have turned followers off.

How to See Who is Following You on Facebook Mobile

You can also view your followers on Facebook mobile, although finding them is a little different from the way you do it in a browser on your computer.

To see who is following you on Facebook mobile:

Open the Facebook app.
Tap your Profile icon.
Just below your cover photo, tap See Your About Info.
Scroll down, and next to Followers, tap See All. You won’t see a Followers section if you don’t have any followers or don’t have followers enabled.

Take Control of Your Facebook Account

Learning how to enable followers on Facebook ensures that you can control exactly who can see your posts without adding them as friends. As a rule of thumb, if it’s someone you know and like, it’s better to add them as a friend, as you’ll see their posts in your feed. If it’s someone you don’t know that well but you still want them to be able to see your posts, giving them the option to follow you is a great choice.

There are plenty of other useful Facebook tips and tricks. You can learn how to remove stories from Facebook if you’re no longer happy with the ones you’ve posted. You can learn how to turn off your Facebook active status to keep your usage private. And if privacy is an issue, you can learn some tips and tricks for maintaining your privacy on Facebook.

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