How to Create a Follow Button on Facebook

This article explains how to add a Facebook follow button to your profile to let non-friends follow your public posts. We'll also explain what it means when someone is your friend versus when they're your follower, and when you might prefer one over the other.

Why Add a Follow Button to Your Facebook Profile?

Similar to how you can see what another person or page posts on their News Feed when you follow or friend them, a user who selects the follow button on your profile will see all the publicly available updates from you in their own feed.

The reason behind this makes a lot of sense when you consider how common it is to follow Facebook pages or users on Marketplace. Instead of a business having to create friendships with every interested user, a simple follow button lets people stay up to date on what the page posts.

If you want that same level of engagement and relationship on your personal Facebook profile, you can make a follow button accessible to your visitors. Now, while you could create a business Facebook page, it's not necessary since profiles accept followers, too.

Another reason you might want to accept followers is if you still want people to have access to your posts despite reaching Facebook's limit of 5,000 friends.

This is what the Follow button looks like to potential followers:

Facebook Friends vs Followers

You can friend someone on Facebook without following them, and follow someone without ever requesting their friendship! It sounds confusing, and might not make clear sense why there are two options, but they're available to provide specified control over how people interact with each other.

When you're friends with someone, you both automatically follow each other. By default, they see your posts, reels, stories, and soundbites in your News Feed. To let non-friends stay up to date with your public posts, without needing to manually visit your profile, you can open your profile up to followers.

When someone sends you a request to be friends on Facebook, you have an opportunity to reject the request. This is a good privacy measure so that people you don't know can't keep tabs on what you're posting to your News Feed. Becoming friends includes a link to their profile in your list of friends.

When someone follows your profile, it happens instantly, with no approval process necessary from you. They will see updates from you, and your profile will appear in the Following area of their account.

However, you aren't listed as "friends" in the regular sense, so you don't see their posts in your feed. You'd need to block the user or add them to your Restricted List to remove them as a follower.

How to Create a Follow Button on Your Facebook Account

Access your account settings to add the follow button to your profile. Here's how to do that from a computer or the mobile app:

Make a Follow Button From Your Computer

1. Use the menu at the top-right of Facebook to select Settings & privacy > Settings.

2. Choose Privacy from the left column.

3. Choose Public posts.

4. Next to Who Can Follow Me, on the right, select Public.

Make a Follow Button From the App

Doing this from the mobile app is similar to the website, but not exactly the same.

1. Tap the menu button on the top right, and then scroll down to expand Settings & privacy.

2. Choose Settings.

3. Tap Profile settings, followed by Public posts.

4. In the first section, under the heading Who Can Follow Me, choose Public.