Beginning Facebook
- Brief introduction/description of tool
Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Since September 2006, anyone who confirms themselves to be over the age of 13 with a valid e-mail address can become a Facebook user. Facebook's target audience is more for youths than adults.Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by workplace, school, or college. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better (Wikipedia).
- List various applications for Facebook
- Pages allow local businesses, brands, musicians, and all types of organizations to create a presence on Facebook for free. Users can interact and affiliate as a “fan” of a business or organization in the same way they interact with other facebook user profiles. Once a fan of a business on Facebook, users can share information about that business with their friends.
- Enrollment – Student Recruitment, Alumni Relations, Sports Programs, Events Management, Promotions, Contests, Special events, Campus Life, Emergency Communications, Higher Education Customer Engagement, Ideas (Beebe, 2010).
- Class updates, discussions
- List of various online resources
Register
- Visit http://www.facebook.com/
The registration page will look like the image to the right. Fill out the form with your information, and click the sign up button.
Facebook requires all users to provide their real date of birth to encourage authenticity and provide only age-appropriate access to content. You will be able to hide this information from your profile if you wish.
You are creating a personal account by filling out this form.
*You must confirm your account by clicking on a link sent to you in an email. Check your email now to find this link.
Build Your Profile
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Step 1: Add Friends - networking is so important to Facebook that you are prompted to add friends and find friends before you even finish setting up your profile.
These are steps to completing your profile.
You are offered a list of friends you may know. This is based on your email address. So if others have searched for you with your email address or name, they will pop up as potential friends.
You don't have to add anyone now, but do not ignore them or they will disappear. If you think you'll add them later, just leave them there. Skip this step
- Step 2: Find Friends - You can skip this step too, but this is how it works. If you type in your email address and password, Facebook will access your contacts in your address book and try to match them with Facebook users with the same email address. You will then have the opportunity to either add them as a friend or invite them to join you on Facebook. This only works with webmail email accounts like Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail. You can do this later.
- Step 3: Profile Information - Again the theme is connecting with friends, so the first thing you fill out for your profile is education information. This information will help you find your friends on Facebook. Add your high school, college and company you work for. After you enter this information, you are once again presented with a group possible friends. You can add friends from this list and click Save & Continue or you can skip this step.
- Step 4: Profile Photo - You can upload a photo from your computer if you already have one or take a photo with a webcam you may have attached to your computer. If you don't have either, use your cell phone to snap a quick picture. You can always change it later.
- Step 5: View & Edit Profile (Complete Profile) - Click on the Profile tab at the top to view your profile. And click on Info to edit your info in the following four categories: Basic, Personal, Contact, and Education & Work.
You can fill in as much information as you want depending on who your friends will be. If it's personal, put it all. If it's business related then be selective.
You will be able to determine who can see what when we set the privacy settings later.
Quick Facebook Tour
Set Security Settings
Start with the Settings tab first to get a username, set a security question and Set your privacy settings.
- In the Profile settings, control who can see information on your profile page. In the Search settings, control who can search for you, what they can see, and how they can contact you. In the News feed and Wall settings, control what Recent Activity is visible on your profile and in your friends' home pages. In Applications, control what information is available to applications you use on Facebook.
- Everyone, Friends of Friends, Only Friends are your choices for who can see your information. You can also customize some settings to exclude certain friends or groups of friends.
Add Content: Photos/Albums, Video, Notes
- Either on the Home page or your Profile page, you can add content.
- Just click on the small image below the input box to add a photo, video, event, or note. A dialog box will appear and you can choose and upload your content from your computer.
Break (5 min)
Join Groups with Similar Interests & Learn How to Network
- Type the word groups into the Search window at the top of the page. This will take you to the Groups page where you can search for groups, access your groups or create a new group.
- With Facebook Groups, you can join and create up to 200 groups. Groups can be based around shared interests, activities, or anything you like. The Groups application page displays your recently updated groups as well as groups your friends have joined recently.
Facebook Groups vs. Facebook Fan Page. Which is Better?
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Facebook allows for 2 networking tools: Creating/ joining a Facebook group;Creating/ joining a Facebook fan page. Read the comparison.
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Create a Group - This article tells you how to create a Facebook group.
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Create a Fan Page - It can be a little difficult finding on Facebook where to begin a fan page, so you’ll have to go to the main page for creating a fan page. This article tells you how to create a fan page.