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Tips For Finding The Perfect Holiday Gifts On Facebook

With the holiday season in full swing, Facebook is a great way to share holiday spirit with friends and family. Not only does Facebook help users keep in touch and spread cheer, it is also a valuable resource to find the perfect gift for loved ones.
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Cork, Ireland
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Cork, Ireland

With the holiday season in full swing, Facebook is a great way to share holiday spirit with friends and family. Not only does Facebook help users keep in touch and spread cheer, it is also a valuable resource to find the perfect gift for loved ones. Here are our insider tips for using Facebook to source great gift ideas this season.

Tap Your Network for Gift Ideas

  • Some people are hard to buy for, but your friends and family members may have some gift inspiration that you just haven't thought of yet. Pick their brains -- and ensure your recipient won't see your recognizance work--by creating a post with a custom audience. In the drop-down audience selector menu, click on "More Options", and then select "Custom." There, you'll be able to select specific friends or family to query for ideas, and add in the potential gift recipient to the "Don't Share With" section. You can also simply search "gift recommendations" or "holiday gift guide" to instantly see posts from friends and Pages you follow about the kinds of items they've suggested as gifts in the past.

Use For Sale Groups to find re-useable gifts

  • There are millions of people around the world who use Facebook Groups to discover, buy, and sell items, with many people turning hobbies into livelihoods. Some of the most popular categories of items sold in For Sale Groups include clothes, cars and auto parts, books, crafts, and sports equipment.
  • We publicly announced new tools in February to improve the buying and selling experience in For Sale Groups. These tools include structured sales listings for sellers to better manage and list items for sale (description, price, pick up location, mark previous listings as sold), as well as improved browse and search capabilities for buyers.

Look for Gift-Giving Clues on Profiles

  • Your family member or friend's Facebook profile may contain a bunch of clues about the kind of gift they'd appreciate: does he have a favourite restaurant? Does she play video games? Go there to see what they've Liked on Facebook, and browse the recent posts on their timeline to see if they've been dropping their own hints about what they want this holiday.

Build A Shopping List with the Save Feature

  • Facebook Pages like The Wirecutter publish great gift guides. If you Like them, you'll occasionally see these gift ideas in your News Feed. Once you come across a post from a Page or friend that contains the perfect gift idea, file it away by using the "Save" function to create a makeshift digital shopping list that you can revisit at any time. Tap on the chevron arrow next to any link, video, event or place to send it to a Saved folder. To access your Saved items, go to Saved in the left column of your News Feed (web) or in the More tab (mobile).

Save Time Buying Gifts

  • Holiday shopping stressing you out? Your Facebook Login can give you one less thing to worry about. Skip the stores and use your favourite apps to score great gifts right from your phone -- think Etsy, Zulily and Frank & Oak. You can log into all of these apps more quickly and easily using your Facebook account -- no need to create a whole new username and password for each app before you can start browsing. Just download and click the blue Facebook button to log in with as few as two taps, and you're that much closer to crossing the last name off your gift list. Plus, logging in with Facebook doesn't let an app post onto your Timeline unless you specifically choose to -- so no Secret Santa spoilers!

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