Even though the new Facebook profile has removed the link underneath a person’s profile picture that says, “Subscribe via SMS,” it’s still possible to subscribe to anyone’s status updates on Facebook via SMS.

Subscribing via SMS simply means that whenever the person updates his or her status, the status will be texted to your cell phone.  With the new profile setup, subscribe to a friend’s status you must now do so within ACCOUNT SETTINGS after the new October 2010 Facebook profile change.

Here’s how:

1. Click on ACCOUNT in the upper-right corner, then select ACCOUNT SETTINGS
2. Click on the MOBILE tab from among the tab choices at the top of the page
3. Scroll down the page until you see this heading, “Whose status updates should go to my phone?”
4. You will notice a blank field to type in right under that heading that says, “Enter Name of a Friend or Page.”
5. Type in the name of the Facebook Friend you want to subscribe to and click the name when it comes up
6. When you’re done adding name(s) to this area, be sure to click SAVE PREFERENCES button at the bottom

That’s it!

Why Subscribe to Someone’s Status?

1. Parents can subscribe to their child’s status to stay in the loop on what their child is posting on Facebook; it can actually be an insightful way to get to know your child a little better than you think you already do!
2. If you often miss a favorite friend’s statuses in your news feed because you don’t log onto Facebook very often; this way you don’t miss a single status from that particular favorite friend
3. You want to stay informed about a business or organization that has a Facebook Fan page (e.g., special events, etc, that might be posted into the status).  For example, I subscribe to “Daffys,” a popular department store in my area, and they update their status with specials (like right now they are having 50% off of all women Fall coats, and I found this out because their status came to my phone with the information)
4. Stay up-to-date on your favorite celebrity
5. I’m actually going to recommend that my sons daycare updates their status whenever they’re closed due to poor weather conditions; that way all parents subscribed to the daycare’s FB status will immediately know!

There is a limit of FIFTY (5) friends/pages you can subscribe to.

You may also want to check out the other details and settings on the mobile page to control what other items from Facebook are texted to your phone in addition to statuses.

NOTE: Note that the “Subscribe via SMS” link still appears on “fan” pages with the LIKE button, just not on the normal individual friend pages.

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