Use Facebook

With over 1 billion users, the chances are pretty high that most of the people you know use Facebook. From chatting with friends and sharing your opinion, to creating events and making new friends, Facebook is one of the most important aspects to many people’s social life. Follow the steps below the jump to get your own profile up and running or see the sections listed above for more specific help!

Steps

Building Your Profile

  1. Fill out the Sign Up form. You will need to enter your first and last name, your email address, your birthday, and your gender. You will also need to come up with a password. Facebook accounts are free.
    • You will log in to Facebook with the email address you provide.
  2. Click the Sign Up button. You will need to enter the captcha phrase to prove you’re human. After clicking Sign Up again, the account creation process will begin.
  3. Add a friend or two. Before you begin creating your profile, Facebook will suggest people to add as friends. If you don’t recognize them, feel free to skip to the next step of the process. You will then be asked if you want to scan your email accounts for any other Facebook users. Again, you can skip this process if you’d like and just add friends through Facebook itself later.
  4. Enter in your education and current employer. This is completely optional, but will help others find and connect with you.
  5. Add a photo of yourself. It’s called Facebook for a reason! You can upload a photo from your computer or take a photo of yourself using your webcam.
  6. Verify your account. Once you’ve finished the account creation process, you will be taken to your Newsfeed. At the top of the page, you will see a message notifying you that an activation email has been sent to the address you signed up with.[1]
    • Open the email and click on the verification link. You will need to enter the code that is included in the message.
    • Once your account is verified, you can begin using Facebook.
  7. Fill out the rest of your profile. Click the “Edit Profile link underneath your picture in the top-left corner. Add the information that you want to share. You can add a lot of information to your Facebook account. Some profile options include:
    • Relationship Status
    • Hometown
    • Current Home
    • Favorite Quotes
    • Religious Views
    • Political Views
  8. Set the privacy options for each piece of information you add. When you add information to your profile, you can click the Privacy button to the right of the entry. This will allow you to choose who can see what you’ve shared. You can share with your Friends, the Public, and specific lists (groups) of friends.

Setting Your Privacy Options

  1. Click the Gear icon in the top-right corner of the Facebook page. Click the “Privacy Settings” option to open the Privacy Settings and Tools page.
  2. Review your available options. This menu will allow you to change the basic privacy settings that affect your whole Facebook account. Because of the social nature of Facebook, people tend to post a lot of personal information. Customizing your settings can help you keep personal information private. Be sure to review this section carefully so that you know who can see what.
    • You can set the default for who can see any future posts you make (this can be changed for individual posts when you make them).
    • You can change who can send you a friend request. By default, this is set to Everyone, but you can change it to Friends of Friends, which means that the person who sends the request has to be Facebook Friends with someone on your Friends list.
    • You can change who can look you up by email address and phone number.
    • You can tell search engines to not link to your timeline. This will prevent your timeline from showing up in web searches.
  3. Check your Timeline and Tagging settings. In the left menu underneath the Privacy option, click Timeline and Tagging. This menu will allow you to control who can post to your timeline, who can see things on your timeline, and how you want tagging to be managed.
    • Tagging is the act of adding links to other people in photos and posts.

Adding Friends and Family

  1. Search for people to add. Facebook is all about making connections. Whether it’s keeping in touch with your cousin across the country or catching up with an old schoolmate on the other side of town, your Facebook experience will improve by adding connections.
    • Enter a person’s name, email address, or phone number into the search bar at the top of the page. This will return a list of results. Click the result from the list, and then click the “Add friend” button. This will send a message to the person asking to confirm your friend request. You can include a personalized message with your friend request.
    • When the other person accepts the request, you will become friends with them and will have access to their timeline.
  2. Use the “People I may know” tool. When you click the Search bar, the first option will be “People I may know”. Click on this to open a list of people that you may know, based on people your friends know. This tool becomes more useful after you have a few friends added.
  3. Organize your friends with Lists. You can create custom lists, or groups, of friends that let you easily share with specific people. In the left menu, hover your cursor over the Friends heading and click MORE. This will open a list of your Friends Lists.
    • Click the “+Create List” button to create a new list. You can create lists to help separate family from friends, and business from both.
    • Enter the list name and add some members. As you type names, you will see suggestions for matches. This will let you quickly add multiple people.
    • You can add new and existing friends by clicking the Friends button at the top of their profile and selecting the list you want to add them to.
  4. Respond to friend requests. As you start connecting with other people on Facebook, you’ll start receiving friend requests from other users. You can see your pending requests by clicking on the Friends icon on the top of the Facebook screen.
    • Next to each request you will see the number of mutual friends you have with that person.
    • You can click the person’s name to see their basic profile.
    • Click the Confirm button to add the person as a friend, or the Not Now button to ignore the request.
  5. Unfriend people you no longer want to connect with. If you no longer want to stay connected with someone, you can unfriend them so they no longer have access to your information and posts. To do this, click on the friend to open their profile, click the Friends button at the top of their page, and then select Unfriend.

Making and Sharing Posts

  1. Share what’s on your mind. To make a post, click the field at the top of your Newsfeed or Profile. You can start typing what you want to share. When you are ready to post, click the blue Post button.
    • Click the Privacy button next to the Post button to choose who can see your post.
    • Typing in a “@” symbol followed by a friend’s name will bring up the option to tag that person in your post. They will receive a notification that you’ve tagged them in your post.
    • Add a location to your post by clicking the Pin icon at the bottom of the post box.
  2. Comment on a friend’s post. In your newsfeed, you will see a list of your friends’ posts. Underneath each post will be a box with your profile picture and a text field that says “Write a comment”. Click the field to add your comment. You can tag other users in your comment just like you would a regular post.
    • You can “Like” a post to show that you think it is a good post worthy of being seen. Posts that get Liked end up at the top of your friends’ newsfeeds more often, and can help posts spread across Facebook.
  3. Share a link to another site. You can link to material all over the web by using your status update. Simply paste the URL for the site you want to link to and you will see a preview appear below the text field. You can then delete the link and the preview link will remain.
    • You can link just about anything, including YouTube videos, blog articles, images, and more.
  4. Like pages on Facebook. You can search for artists, musicians, businesses, organizations, and more using the Facebook search bar. You can then “Like” these pages to receive updates on your newsfeed when they are posted. A lot of times, you can receive deals and early releases by being a Facebook fan.

Uploading Photos and Video

  1. Click the “Add Photos/Video” button at the top of your newsfeed. This will show two options: Upload Photos/Video and Create Photo Album. Clicking on either of these will open a file browser where you can browse for photos and videos on your computer.
    • You will be given the option to add additional photos after you select your first one.
    • You can tag friends and write a comment or description of the photo(s).
    • This method makes your photos a post on your timeline.
  2. Create a photo album. If you choose the Photo Album option, you will be able to upload multiple photos into one album. The album editor will open and you will be able to give the album a name and a description.
    • You can also add a location for the album.
    • If you want to add the photos at their original quality, click the High Quality box at the bottom of the album editor. Your uploads may take longer.
    • Click the “+Add More Photos” button to find more photos on your computer to add to the album.
  3. Delete photos you’ve uploaded. If you want to remove a photo that you’ve uploaded, you can do so from the photo manager. Click the Photos link in the left menu underneath your profile picture. This will open up all of your photos and albums.
    • Navigate to the photo that you want to delete.
    • Click the pencil button in the top-right corner of the photo preview. This will open a menu. Click the “Delete This Photo” option to remove the photo from your uploads.

Creating and Attending Events

  1. Create an event. Facebook allows you to create events which you can then send out invitations for or make public. To create an event, click the Events link in the left menu. At the top-right corner of the Events page, click the “+Create Event” button.
    • Set a name for the event.
    • Add details about your event. Let guests know what to expect or bring.
    • Set the date for the event. You can use the calendar button to open a calendar and choose a date. You can also specify a start and end time.
  2. Set your event privacy. Before you click Create, set the privacy to the settings that best suit your needs. If you’re throwing a birthday party you probably want to keep it to invite only, but if you’re throwing a concert you’ll probably want to set it to Public.
    • If you choose Invite Only, you can choose to allow guests to invite others.
  3. Send out the invites. If your event is Invite Only, then it’s time to send out the invitations. Click the link to “Invite Friends” and a window with all of your Facebook friends will appear. Check the box for each friend that you want to send an invite to.
    • You can invite people after the event is created as well.
  4. Manage your event. Once your event has been created, you can visit in in the Events menu. On your Event page, you can post messages to the people that are attending, change the date and time, invite more people, and more.
  5. Respond to event invites. If you’ve received an event invite, you will see it in your Notification window. You will have a few different options on how you’d like to respond to the invite. You can say you’re going, say “Maybe”, or decline the invite.

Chatting with Facebook Friends

  1. Click a friend’s name from the right menu. This will open a small chat window at the bottom of the page. You can send messages to other Facebook members, even if they are not online.
  2. Add more people to your conversation. If you want to create a group chat, click the Friends icon with a “+” sign at the top of the chat window. You can then designate additional people that you want to add to the chat.
  3. Send files through chat. Click the Gear icon and select Add Files. This will open a file browser where you can browse for files on your computer. The file size limit is 15 MB.
  4. Review your past chats. Click the Messaging icon at the top of the Facebook page and then click “See All” at the bottom of the list. This will open your Inbox. Use the left frame to scroll through all of your past messages.
    • To archive a conversation, hover your cursor over it in the left frame and then click the “X” icon that appears. This will remove the conversation from your Inbox. The conversation will still exist on the Facebook servers.

Staying Safe and Healthy on Facebook

  1. Treat other people well and stay safe. Remember not to give out personal information to strangers, and make sure you treat everyone with the courtesy and respect they deserve.
  2. Defeat your Facebook addiction. If you feel like you have a problem spending too much time on Facebook, this article can help you get it under control.
  3. Avoid wasting time. Facebook can be a massive time sink, and is especially damaging to productivity at work. Follow this guide to stay on task. If you can’t stay away, you can block access to your account for the times you are supposed to be working.
  4. Stop Being Addicted to Zynga Games Have you been playing too much Farmville? This article will help wean you off those addicting Facebook games.
  5. Permanently delete your Facebook account. If you decide if Facebook is no longer right for you, this article will show you how to permanently delete your profile.

Using Facebook for Your Business

  1. Get more fans for your Facebook page. If you have a Facebook page for your business, organization, art, or anything else, follow this guide to gain more fans. More fans will mean more exposure for your work.
  2. Advertise on Facebook. Facebook is a powerful tool that you can use to Leverage Your Facebook Business Page to Boost Profits and Brand Awareness to millions of potential customers. This guide will show you how to get started.
  3. Add Facebook Like to Blogger. If you use the Blogger blog service, you can add a Facebook like button to your blog, which can help you drive more traffic to your blog. Follow this guide to learn out how.

Facebook Help

Doc:Internet Safety Rules,Facebook Tips and Tricks


Tips

  • This article offers tips on how to react and what you can do should you feel someone is stalking you on Facebook.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/help/188157731232424
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