FACEBOOK - 101
INTRO TO FACEBOOK
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Chances are, if you're not on Facebook already, then you're likely to be getting on
it pretty soon. Whether it's your kids or your next door neighbor (or those old
friends you just reunited with at your high school reunion), folks around you have
been hounding you to sign up, set up a profile, and start "social-networking" with
all your friends, and their friends, and so on. Truth is, social-networking sites such
as Facebook (and MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, etc) are increasingly turning into the
first place people go when they get on the Internet, as these services offer e-mail,
chat, music players, photo sharing, and so much more beyond just staying in touch
with your Friends.
But the best (or worst) part about Facebook is all the people from your past who
come out of the woodwork (we're talking grade-school past). All this means you'll
want to look your very best on your Facebook profile, and make the best use of all
that the service has to offer, which is why we've come up with 25 tips that'll
optimize your social-networking experience. Try 'em out by clicking on 'Next'
below, and if you've got any tips we've missed, please let us know!
Use a current profile picture
• While Facebook allows you to post as many pictures as
you like, and tag yourself in pictures that your friends
have taken, the Web site only allows you one profile
picture, so make it count. You may very well have some
potential suitors on the Web site, so be sure to portray
yourself as accurately as possible. A clear, well-lit
picture of you will help you to put your best foot
forward, particularly if it's a portrait or captures you in
the midst of one of your favorite activities. And you
might ought to refrain from using one of the pictures
from that New Year's Eve party, as your profile picture
is accessible to everybody on Facebook, even with the
privacy settings engaged.
Don't overdo your 'Interests'
• With your 'Interests' section, you really have two routes
lying before you. Taking the first route would be to fill this
space with some kind of witticism, since asking somebody
to sum up what most interests him or her in life on a
Facebook profile is slightly ridiculous. A decent example
would be to respond, "Facebook," for instance. The
snarkier, the better, really. The second route would be to
list the interests that best differentiate you; it's understood
that you enjoy "chillin' with friends" and "reading a good
book," so get more descriptive. Instead of "chillin' with
friends, say, for example, "eating fried chicken livers while
watching football with the boys." Instead of "reading a
good book," respond with, "Victorian British literature."
Don't underestimate the importance
of your 'Favorite Music' section
• As any self-respecting music geek knows, one's musical
taste says a lot about somebody, so be judicious in listing
your favorite bands in your profile's 'Favorite Music'
section. A thorough music section, mentioning your
appreciation of Gene Vincent, might make the difference in
whether or not that cute rockabilly girl (or guy) responds to
your message. Don't be yet another one of those people
that says, "I like pretty much everything." Get specific,
giving artist names (and, if you're up to it, album titles).
One tactic that seems to be popular is to sort your iTunes
according to the "Play Count" or "Last Played" tabs, and
then copy down what you find. These tips – save the last
one of course – also apply to your Favorite Movies and
Books sections.
Invite All of Your Actual Friends (and Family)
• For those of us who grew up in the pre-Facebook era, it's
sometimes tough to reach out to old friends and say (in a smarmy
voice) "will you be my Facebook friend?" But it's something we
should all get over, because the flurry of social-networking only
starts getting good when you have a size able community of folks
you know and like that are also out there making new friends and
contacts. it just means you'll get more cool stuff in your in-box, and
also means you're more likely to hear from some random person
you went to grade-school with (or maybe an old flame), which, to
be honest, is kind of the most moving thing about socialnetworking (reconnecting with long-lost folks, that is). This writer is
even getting to know far flung members of his family that he
wouldn't otherwise have much rapport with if it were not for
Facebook.
Don't add random friends
• We have a hard time understanding the
mindset of wanting to send friend requests to
perfect strangers in faraway places, but plenty
of people do it. If it happens that you stumble
across somebody on the Web site whose
profile piques your interest, it is best to send
that person an introductory message. You
wouldn't ask a stranger to lunch without
speaking with them first, would you?
It's okay to decline random 'Friend'
requests
• Inevitably, you will receive friend requests
from folks that you've never laid eyes on or,
frankly, don't like all that much. In those
instances, you are well within your rights to
decline friend requests. No, really, it's okay.
Just ask this etiquette expert.
Make friend suggestions on behalf of
new members
• When you become friends with somebody new to
Facebook, you will get a prompt asking you to make
"Friend Suggestions" on behalf of the newbie. Scroll
through your list of friends, and select the folks that
are also friends of the new user. Notifications will be
sent to those you select, informing them of the new
friend's presence on the site. This is simply the nice
thing to do, the Facebook equivalent to baking a pound
cake for your new neighbor. As for indiscriminately
selecting your friends, regardless of whether they
know your new friend or not, please refer to the
previous "Don't Add Random Friends."
Know the difference between
suggested friends and friend requests
• This one may seem like a no-brainer, but it can be a
challenge to tell the difference between "Suggested
Friends" that your other Facebook pals are
recommending, and actual people who are asking to
be your friends (known as "Friend Requests"). So, to be
clear: Suggested Friends are at the top of your pending
Friend request page and Friend Requests are on the
bottom half. Make sure you read the headers (each
begins with "You have __number friend...") on each of
those sections clearly. It's not the end of the world, of
course, but do you really want to be one of those folks
who invites random strangers to be your friend?
Do write on your friends' "Walls"
• Possibly even more so than messaging, the Wall feature is
the cornerstone of interpersonal communication on
Facebook. That being the case, Facebook etiquette requires
that you write on friends' walls periodically. As the Wall is
there for the whole world to see, though, it is best to follow
some simple guidelines. When writing on a friend's Wall,
don't leave personal information ("I got a new phone: (205)
555-1234."), sensitive correspondence ("Hey, man. I'm
sorry to hear about your aunt passing away."), or
incriminating stories ("I was just thinking about that time
we got arrested in Tijuana. You remember that??"). Keep
Wall postings light-hearted, leaving the other stuff for
messages, or -- better yet -- e-mail.
Make sure to use the privacy settings
• While many of us have been freaked out by the
stories of potential employers snooping around
on job candidates' Facebook profiles, there's
really nothing to worry about with Facebook's
privacy settings. By clicking on the Settings, and
then Privacy Settings, at the top of your
homepage, you can put limitations on who is, and
who is not, able to view different parts of your
profile. Just make sure you purge those New
Year's photos before you accept your boss's
friend request.
Manage your online profile, because potential
employers and college admissions may be checking
• In the early days of the 'book, you didn't really have to worry about
everyone having access to your friend lists, photos, profile, etc...
Now, anybody can join the site, and we're not surprised to hear that
college admissions departments and employers are using Facebook
as research for applicants, thanks to its treasure trove of
information on people. While you don't have to be incredibly
uptight and formal about it, it's probably a good idea to fill out your
education, work, and interests on your profile, because it just could
snag you that job interview.
On the cautionary side, use a bit of common sense when posting
images and messages to the site. It's probably best not to post
those pictures from that crazy party last weekend -- you know, that
one that you don't fully remember.
Update your 'Status'... occasionally
• Let your friends know what or how you're doing with
Facebook's 'Status' feature, the speech bubble situated
near the top of your home page. Folks often use the feature
to concisely and quickly inform their friends of personal
goings on ("John Doe is now happily married to Jane."),
current events ("Jane Doe is excited about the outcome of
the Alabama-LSU game!") and – of course – non-sequiturs
("John Doe is a maniac, a maniac on the floor.") While
friends' Status updates can be fun to read, their humor
decreases as their frequency increases. We don't need to
know about your every move; one update every few days is
certainly sufficient. And please keep your Status updates at
least relatively interesting. Nobody cares to read: "John
Doe is going to take a nap."
Download these apps
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Folks on Facebook have become application-happy over the last several months, festooning their
pages with more software bells and whistles than a reindeer-and-referee convention. While many
of them are disposable, these three applications are worthy of your profile's valuable real estate:
iLike: This Facebook-friendly app allows you to select your favorite songs from iLike's massive
library, post them on your own profile and dedicate them to your friends. By playing its included
music trivia game, you have a chance to win free music.
Where I've Been: Asking you to list the states, provinces and countries you've visited, lived in and
wanted to go, this application then generates a world map, color-coded according to your answers.
With Where I've Been, you can keep track of your friends' travels, as well as get a visual image of
where you have been, yourself.
Mob Wars: Recruit your friends into your own "mob" and vie to be the mafia boss of Facebook.
Millions of hardcore gamers and bored office-workers alike join ranks to hustle, steal and kill in
their struggle to get to the top. As our friends who use it have said it's quite addictive, and as we
have work to do, we haven't taken the plunge quite yet.
Don't download these:
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While fun can be had with some applications, there are others that – right away –
strike us as bad ideas. Here are three of the worst.
OBGYN Souvenirs: This app gives you the opportunity to post a picture of OBGYN
equipment on a friend's profile as a "gift." That's a gift we'd take back to the store.
Who Is Better?: This application asks you to determine which of your friends is the
best at a particular activity. We can see nothing good coming of this.
How To Knw That U R In Love??: This app's description reads: "Here we are going
to explore deep inside ur heart and see if it's true that u r in love or lets stop."
We'd really rather not.
TerraPresents: With this app, you can post images of rocks on the profiles of your
friends. Unless you happen to be deeply involved in a community of geologists, we
wouldn't recommend this one.
Kissletoe Gifts: A promotion for an upcoming attempt to break the world's record
number of people kissing at one time, Kissletoe Gifts just creeps us out.
Don't use the 'Poke' function, ever
• While Facebook's infamous Poke function is relatively
straightforward in its operation, its intended use is a
mystery. When looking at another person's profile, you
have the option of "Poking" them. If you do Poke said
person, a notification will show up on their page, informing
them that you did, in fact, Poke them. That's it. When
Facebook first started, "Poking" seemed to be a kind of
cautious precursor to a flirtatious message, kind of like a
furtive glance before eye contact and a smile. But, then it
dawned on us: Isn't a flirtatious Facebook message cautious
enough? At this point, "Poking" somebody is pretty much
considered to be either creepy or just plain confusing. Let's
just leave it at sending messages and wall posts, okay?
Get on Facebook from other places
• There are other ways to stay in touch with your
Facebook contacts while not actually being on
Facebook. Instant Messaging programs such as Adium
(for Mac), for example, let you add your Facebook Chat
friends right into the mix with all your AIM, Yahoo!
Instant Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger
friends. This means you not only get to talk live with
your Facebook friends while using your favorite chat
program, but that you also can get instant status
updates flashing on your screen as soon as your friends
post them. For other apps that'll help you manage and
visit your Facebook prfile, be sure to check out the
Switched/CNET downloads area.
Access Facebook from your phone
• Just because you're not on your computer
doesn't mean you can't get the latest status
updates on or correspond with your friends. Both
the iPhone and BlackBerry offer mobile-specific
applications that let you interface with Facebook
right on your handset (the iPhone app even lets
you chat live with other Facebook friends). For
anyone who doesn't have those two phones,
Facebook offers a less graphics-intensive mobile
version of the service at m.facebook.com.
Add your blog, Twitter account, and more to Facebook
• Do you have a blog? Use Twitter? Many Facebook
apps have been built to allow you to pull in
content from all over the Web. Instead of
manually posting your latest blog post into
Facebook as a note to share with your friends,
you can set up an app to automatically share your
newest posts whenever they go live on your site.
The more you update, the more your friends will
keep coming back to your page, which is kind of
the essence of social-networking.
Create and invite 'Friends' to 'Events'
• If you're hosting a party, going to a football game,
putting on an art show, or something of the sort,
Facebook has you covered. Create a Facebook
Event for your happening and enter all the
pertinent information. Once you've done that,
you can invite folks from your friend list, as well
as via e-mail, and designate whether your event
is open to all of Facebook, a particular network or
just your friends, or whether it is only open to
those you invite. If you're throwing a surprise
party for somebody, then use the latter option.
Do 'tag' your friends in pictures
• When you post a new picture, or just come across
one a friend has posted, for that matter, you have
the opportunity to "tag" the folks that appear in
it. By doing so, you include that image in that
particular friend's "Photos of..." section. This
function is a particular boon to friends who do
not own cameras and might not otherwise have
many pictures on the site. Your buddy will always
be grateful for a tagged picture, unless, of course,
it features him with his eyes closed or was taken
when he was going through that awkward tryingto-grow-a-moustache phase in junior high school.
Edit your 'networks'
• In your account settings, you can set up additional
networks. Just what is a network and why should you
care? It can be a group of folks from places as far flung
as your school(s) or company to your region, city, or
hobby, and adding networks lets you manage your
privacy settings on the site. By selecting your networks
(e.g. Stanford and San Francisco), you'll then be able to
set your profile's visibility within different networks -for example, you can let people in your city see partial
contact information, while you can give full access to
everyone from your college.
Fine-tune your e-mail notification settings
• As any Facebook veteran will tell you, it's well worth your
time to adjust your e-mail notification settings so that
you're not flooded with hundreds of Facebook updates as
you begin to use the service. Click the account menu and
then 'notifications,' and you'll be greeted with a huge list of
Facebook events. Sick of receiving an e-mail every time
someone sends you a message? Switch the radio button to
'off,' and you won't have to worry about it ever again. In
case you've totally caught the Facebook bug and are
looking for nonstop updates, go to the 'Mobile' tab and
activate your phone -- you'll now be able to receive friend
requests, messages, status updates, and more on your cell
phone
Make a page for your business, club,
band, candidate, pet...
• With Facebook's Page Manager application, you can
create a Web page for – well – just about anything,
from your social club to your rock'n'roll band, from
your favorite politician to your favorite puppy dog.
Once you've started and customized your page, you
can keep watch over the page's Web traffic and even
promote it on the Web site, with the ability to target a
specific demographic of Facebook members. Due to
the ever-increasing number of those members, a
Facebook page – and an advertisement, to boot –
really could bolster the number of your business's
customers, your bands' fans or your candidate's
supporters.
Be Wary of Scammers
• As with any other popular place, Facebook (and other
social-networking sites) has its share of evildoers -namely, in the form of spam e-mail and Facebook
messages and random messages posted on your wall.
How to stay safe? We recommend typical online antiscam best practices such as not opening any links or
files in any e-mail messages or Facebook messages
from folks you don't know. Also, be skeptical of links
posted on your wall that don't seem legit (in other
words, from random sites you've never heard of).
Set up your News Feed preferences
• Assuming you've added a couple friends on the site, you've probably
started to notice the never-ending 'News Feed' on the home page
pumping out updates on your friends' activities. If you're like us, you may
have grown tired of seeing when friends add new apps or when that old
friend from middle school posts slightly embarrassing poetry.
You have several options. First, hover your mouse to the right of a note
within the news feed, and you'll see a pencil icon pop up. Clicking the icon
reveals the option to read more or less about the person posting the
update, which lets you adjust the frequency that you hear from certain
people.
You can also scroll down to the bottom of your feed and edit feed options
by clicking on 'Options for News Feed.' Sick of status updates? Just drag
the equalizer-esque button all the way down. Don't want to miss any of
the photos uploaded by your friends? Drag it to the top.