Getting Started with Facebook

Posted by Tama on 2 December 2009

Tags: interwebs, social media, facebook

I  am currently working on a number of online projects involving Facebook in one form or another so I thought it would be a good idea to give those of you unfamiliar with the functioning of Facebook a guide to getting started.

Facebook - what is it good for?

Absolutely nothing! I mean, it's a social networking website allowing people to communicate with people they know in a number of ways. It is the most popular social networking website in the world with over 300 million active users and the second most visited website in the world after Google.

The strength of Facebook is users have complete control over who can see what you post so you have the freedom to share with as many, or as few people as you feel comfortable with. This is the major difference from other forms of mass communication such as blogs or forums which are (generally) open to the public

Some ways people use Facebook;

• To communicate with their friends using privates messages or online chat
• To keep their friends up to date with their activities (known as "Status Updates")
• To track down friends they have lost contact with
• To share photos, video, and links to other websites
• To organize events
• To promote or discuss causes
• To waste vast amounts of time playing online games

With that out of the way let's look at the Theoretical side and the Practical side of Facebook. If you're champing at the bit to get started just skip to the Practical part.

The Theoretical

Where Facebook Fits Into Communication

In the digital age there are multiple ways to communicate with other people. It is useful to think about communication as active and passive (or somewhere in-between.) The most active form of communication we have as human being is talking face to face, especially if we're naked in bed at the time. From then on communication becomes more passive due to cultural constructs (an incoming phone call holds more importance than a TXT) and technological constraints which prevent people from using the body language and voice inflection we rely on for clear communication.

Most Active Communication

• Talking to someone face to face
• Video conference
• Phoning someone
• TXTing someone
• Writing someone a letter
• E-mailing someone
• Mailing a newsletter or group e-mail
• Posting on Facebook
• Leaflet drop or unsolicited group e-mail
• Posting in an existing website or online forum
• Posting on your own website
• Yelling about something in your basement

Most Passive Communication

As you can see Facebook is on the more passive end of the scale but that's not necessarily a bad thing. There are many situations where this level of communication is very useful indeed;

Say I have a new bicycle or just discovered a really good article on a website I want to share with my friends. I could e-mail everyone on my contact list, but the fact is only a small number of them will care and some might even take offense at me cluttering up their Inbox. I could post something on my website but that would only work if my friends regularly visit it.

Facebook makes a nice middle ground for putting out this sort of information in a semi-direct way which people can engage with or ignore at will. It is also stored in a meaningful way which means if a friend thinks "I wonder what Tama is up to" they can visit my Facebook page and read back through the past posts I have made to find out.

Trust + Communication = Social Media

What differentiates social media such as Facebook (or Twitter etc.) is it operates on interpersonal trust. The corporate influences behind mainstream media have become glaringly apparent to much of the public over the past few decades and now people often question why they should believe/ act on/ buy something rather than simply accepting it as fact from the media.

People generally listen to and trust their friends and family, which is why interpersonal trust is so valuable. So when choosing a product or understanding a current event or issue they are far more likely to form an opinion around what people they know and trust say over random media commentators.

The flipside of this is if people start behaving out of character or forcefully recommending products their trust takes a hit. This is something the marketers are still grappling with but luckily you don't need to worry about that.

Keeping Your Thoughts Private-ish

As mentioned in the introduction Facebook gives people control over who can see their personal information and posts. This can go from "Everyone" through to "Friends Only" (which is the default setting).  This allows people a semi-private online place to talk about things that matter to them.

While people may not be keen on talking about something personal (like a new relationship) on their blog for the whole world to see with Facebook they can let their friends, and only their friends know what's going on in their lives. For this reason the concept of "Friends" is the most important facet of Facebook because who people identify as "Friends" directly effects who can access their information.

The Practical

Now we've got the theory out of the way let's get started.

Sign Up to Facebook

First up you need to sign on to Facebook, which is very straightforward. Visit www.facebook.com and follow the instructions on the homepage under the Sign Up heading.

1. Use your real name, or at least a nickname which your friends would recognise you with. If you want to use a fake name you've completely missed the point of Facebook (trust + security + communication) and should stop right now.
2. Also use your real gender and birthday, you can hide (or partially hide) these from people, so don't stress about your friends knowing how old you are.

Step 1 - Find Some Friends

Step 1 will normal give you the option of connecting to your webmail (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc) and identifying people on your contact list who're already on Facebook. This is a good easy way to add lots of Friends to your account but the downside is that just because someone is in your e-mail it doesn't necessarily mean they are a genuine friend rather than someone who stiffed you over an online auction. So be careful about selecting everyone off the cuff rather than selecting people on a case by case basis.

Step 2 - Your Schools and Workplace

Step 2 gives you the opportunity to put in your (high) school, university/ college/ polytech and workplace. Entering these in will give you a list of classmates and workmates who are on Facebook with the option to add them as Friends. It's completely up to you about whether you enter these in but it is often a worthwhile exercise.

Step 3 - Upload a Photo

Step 3 asks for you to upload a photo. Choose a nice clear photo of your face which people will recognise, or at the least something representative of you and your personality. Your photo will appear next to your activities and many people will use it as a visual reference so having a photo which isn't of you gets in the way of people interacting with you. Again we're back to the principal of trust.

Just a note that the general public will be able to see your photo so make sure it's not too embarrassing or personal. You don't need to upload a photo right away so if this seems all to hard or scary skip this step and come back to it later.

You're Ready To Go - Now What?

Yes, that is it - you're ready to go. So now what? First up spend a bit of time filling in your profile information. You can select how much detail you want to be shown so if you want to hide your gender or birthday (or at least remove the year) you can do it here.

There's a lot of menus and options on the Facebook so if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed check out this helpful guide: http://hubpages.com/hub/facebookforbeginners (although Facebook sometimes changes its layout so this will become out of date.)

People who you've requested as Friends will need to accept before you can see their information. This might take a day or more so don't worry if your Facebook starts off looking quite empty. Once people have accepted you as a Friend your "News Feed" will start to fill up with what your friends are up to which leads us to the next big step.

Interacting on Facebook

This is the biggie and there's absolutely no rush here. The best approach is to start off simple and work your way up until you find a level to be comfortable with.

1. Spectate: First up just have a look around at what your friends are up to, what photos they're posting, and how their friends comment and interact with them. There's no rush, take as long as you like.
2. Like: Facebook allows you to signal your approval of a friends status, photo, link, video etc. by clicking "Like". This is an excellent way of giving feedback without having to think of anything witty or interesting to say. It also gives positive feedback to your friends and lets them know that you're around and interested in what they're up to.
3. Comment: If a friend of yours posts up something which tickles your fancy or draws a reaction from you why not let them know with a comment? Maybe they've put up some photos of their kids who've grown up heaps since you last saw them, maybe they're sick at home, maybe they've linked to a video that made your day. Click "Comment" and write a short comment about what they've posted.
4. Status Update: The main way people interact on Facebook is by posting Status Updates to their "Wall" by using the "Publisher" (normally a box containing "What's on your mind?"). These are normally one or two sentences about what they are up to or how they are feeling. A good start is something along the lines of "Finally on Facebook, still getting my head around it" which is bound to get some sympathetic responses and tips from your friends.
5. Link to websites: When you come across an interesting article, amusing video, insightful blog post, or something else you'd like to share with your friends you can link to it from your Facebook Wall. Posting link should automatically create a thumbnail and description of the website along with an "Attach" button to add it to your post.
6. Upload some photos or a video: Clicking in the "Publisher" (normally a box containing "What's on your mind?") should produce a number of small buttons allowing you to uploading photos, video, events, or links. You can use these to share photos of your holidays, parties, or just random photos of what you're up to.

Of course there's a lot more ways of interacting on Facebook but if you've got this far you're off to a good start. And if you didn't get the whole way through the list above don't worry about it, not everyone contributes to Facebook, some just spectate.

Facebook Pages

My main reason for writing this guide is because I've started to use Facebook "Pages" for a number of projects with groups of other people who aren't confident or experienced with Facebook.

A "Page" is a way of giving a business, group or cause a presence on Facebook. People become "Fans" of Pages and then posts on that Page will appear to you. Pages are a great way of organising groups with common interests and can be used to post upcoming events or discuss things of common interest.

To find a page type something relevant into the search box at the top of the screen and click "Pages" in the left-hand column next to your search results. To become a Fan of a Page click the "Become a Fan" button. Once you are Fan of a Page you can visit it by typing in the name in search box (it will autocomplete the fullname) or going to Profile -> Info

Importantly Pages offer the ability to have "Discussions" which are mini forums and often a far better way to talk about things online than using group e-mails and "Reply to All".

Summary

Facebook is a powerful online tool but it doesn't need to be overwhelming or scary. Dip your toes in and follow through the Interacting on Facebook steps until you find a mode you're comfortable with. Have fun!

And finally, our friends at The Onion let us in on what Facebook is really used for: