Social networking with Facebook
Facebook is currently the most popular social networking site. It allows you to create a profile for yourself, then connect with people you know or who share your interests. You can post photos and videos and interact with other members one-to-one as well as through interest groups.
Alternatives to Facebook
GooglePlus: https://www.plus.google.com
Bebo: http://www.bebo.com
Friendster: http://www.friendster.com
Orkut: http://www.orkut.com
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Watch the Facebook overview video
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Watch the Auslan interpretation of this video
Creating an account
If you have not used Facebook before, you’ll need to create an Account.
Step 1—Go to the Facebook website
Type this web address into your web browser:www.facebook.com,
Step 2—Enter your details
In the section of Facebook page titled Sign Up, type in name, email address, the password you want to use, your gender and date of birth, then click on the Sign Up button.
You may also be asked to answer a security question before signing up.
Step 3—Search for friends
During the sign up process, Facebook can search through your address book on email services of which you’re a member and look for people you know who are already members of Facebook. This step is optional and can be done later.
Click on the name of the email site you use.
Type in your email address on that site, then click on the Find friends button. You may be asked to confirm in a pop-up window.
Step 4—Adding basic profile information
On the next tab you can enter the names of your school, university and an employer, and Facebook will search for other members who are or have been at those organisations. This step is optional and can be done later.
Enter your details then click on the Save & continue button.
Step 5—Adding a profile picture
On the next tab you can upload a photo of yourself for your profile. This step is optional and can be done later.
Click on the Upload a photo link.
In the popup window, find your file on your computer and click Open, then click on the Save & continue button.
Logging in to Facebook
If you already have a Facebook account you will need to log in before being able to access your account.
In the blue ribbon at the top of the first screen that shows when you open Facebook is the Log In section. Enter your email address into the “Email or Phone” box and your password into the “Password” box. Your Facebook page will then load and be ready for you to use.
To log out of your Facebook account go the the blue ribbon at the top of the page and click on the white cog icon at the far right hand side.
This will bring up a dropdown menu. Click on “Log out”. You can then click on the red X in the top right hand corner of the page to exit Facebook.
Your first status update
Step 1—Find the status box
On your Home page or Profile page, look for the status box towards the top of the screen.
Step 2—Type in your status
Click your mouse where you see the words ‘How are you doing?’ and type your message, then press the Enter key on your keyboard.Your status update now displays on your Wall and on your friends News Feeds.
Want to post a photo or video instead?
Above the status box there is an “Add Photos/Video’ link you can click on to add a photo or Video. This will open a box below the link giving you the option to upload photos and videos, or create a photo album, just click on the required link.
Step 1—Click on the ‘Upload Photos/Video’ link.
The status bar changes to allow you to select a photo from your computer. Click on the ‘Browse button’. Then choose the photo you want to use from the files on your computer. Click on the photo you want to use and click Open. Your photo will then be uploaded.
Step 2—Add a comment
Where you see the words ‘Say something about this…’, type a description or comment about your photo, then click the Post button
Finding more friends
People you may know
On your Profile page there is a column titled ‘Find Friends’ which lists Facebook members who are friends of people you are already friends with, so you may know them as well.If you know a person on this list and want to add them to you Facebook friends, you can click on ‘+1 Add friend’ to send them an invitation. You will not be able to access any of their information until they have accepted your invitation.
Searching for friends
You can also find people by searching for them on Facebook using the Search field in the blue ribbon at the top of the screen:
Type in the name of the person you’re looking for and press Enter. A list of matching people displays
Since there are hundreds of millions of people on Facebook, it is quite likely that there will be several people with the same name. You can narrow the search down by putting more information into the Search field, for example, the name of the city or country the person might be in.
Expanding your profile
So far you’ve only recorded very basic profile information about yourself. You can expand your profile to include other information, remembering to only share public information like this:
Step 1—On your profile page you will see your large cover photo and your smaller profile photo. Under these there is a short list of information about you. At the bottom of the list is the word “About”.
Step 2—Edit your Basic Information
Click on “About” and a page will open. On the page you will see a variety of boxes containing different information about you, including “Basic Info, Contact Info and Work and Education. Each of these boxes has an “Edit” box in the top right hand corner. Click on the “Edit” box of any section you wish to update. You can specify all or none of these details - it’s up to you. When you have added the information you want, click on the “Done Editing” box in the top right hand corner.
When you have added the information you want to any of these boxes, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page.
What’s the difference between home, my profile and my wall?
Home
- Your home page,accessed by clicking the News Feed button or Facebook Logo, is your personal view of Facebook, showing the activity of your friends and other information that may be of interest to you.
- Your Home page displays your News Feed, which shows you the status updates that your friends have recently posted on their walls. You can comment on these updates or indicate that you Like them via the 'Like' button.
- Your Home page also displays information such as friends’ birthdays, upcoming events and invitations. Adverts are also shown on the right hand side of this page.
Profile
- Your profile page is the page that your friends see when they look you up. It displays information about you, photos you’ve uploaded and your Wall.
Wall
- Your Wall shows all the status updates you have posted, and anything friends have written directly on your wall. (It doesn’t show status updates your friends have written on their own walls). For that you’ll need to look at their walls directly, or watch your News Feed.
Privacy settings
When using any social networking site it’s always important to think about your own privacy and respect the privacy of others.
Fortunately, Facebook gives you control over what other people on the internet can see. It allows you to specify who can see your status updates, photos, profile information and contact details.
What should you share?
By default, Facebook's privacy settings are quite open. Some people are more than happy to let everyone know what they're doing, but if you don't feel like sharing this information with people, it's worth taking a minute to check your settings.
Deciding what information you share with everyone is a personal matter. Some people are more than happy to let everyone know what they're doing, but we recommend a more cautious approach:
It’s alright to use your own name for your Facebook profile as it’s easier for your friends to find you and in keeping with the open, honest nature of Facebook communications.
Set your privacy settings so that only friends can see everything you post, not ‘friends of friends’.
Don’t publish your or anyone else’s home address or phone numbers.
It’s okay to publish your email address, as long as you only let your friends view it.
Access Facebook’s privacy settings
On the top right of the Facebook screen, in the blue ribbon, click on the white cog icon, then select Privacy Settings.
From this screen, you can change the privacy settings you require by clicking on the “Edit” buttons in the top right hand corner. We recommend “Friends Only”.
Other things to do on facebook
- There are a whole lot of other things you can do on Facebook. We’ve only looked at at a few. You can also:
- Send people messages, like emails, within Facebook
- Start a ‘chat session’ with other people who are on-line at the same time.
- Join a group of people with similar interests.
- Become a ‘fan’ of a celebrity or sporting club by joining a fan page.
- Create a page about an ‘event’ like a party that you can invite your friends to in real life.
- Play on-line Facebook games, participate in quizzes and more…
