Let's Get Started

Let's Get Started

The following lessons are delivered in bite size chunks to help you complete a specific Facebook task.

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Exploring the Facebook Home Page

Exploring the Facebook Home Page

The Home page displays all of your Friends’ recent thoughts and Facebook activities. Whenever your Friends update their status, it appears in the News Feed on your Home page. The News Feed chronologically streams this information down the middle of the Home page.

Review the interactive below to learn more about the features on Facebook's Home page

What Can You Do on Facebook?

What Can You Do on Facebook?

Applications and Features

Think of Facebook as a huge social network connecting people. These people, or members, of Facebook use the site for various reasons but mainly as a form of communication. Facebook offers many ways to communicate, with various applications and features that can enhance your Facebook experience. You can play games, send gifts, create photo albums, and more. We'll go into each application in detail later, but for now, here are the highlights:

Events

Do you have a birthday party to plan? Need to announce your engagement party? Want to plan a class reunion? The Events application allows you to plan an event and invite your Facebook Friends and your friends who are not on Facebook. If you're looking for an Event, Facebook can help with that also! You can search for local or national events to attend. You can keep up with your guest list, view the RSVP list, and even include a map to your event.

Photos

The Photos application makes it easy for users to upload, share, and comment on the pictures you upload. With the Tag feature, there is no need to email your Facebook friends the pictures you took of them. You can simply use the Tag feature to identify a friend and the picture is automatically sent to their wall. If you don't like the idea people being able to tag you and display pictures of you, you can always change your Account Settings (don't worry, we'll get to that in a later lesson).

Gifts

Gifts are icons that you can send to a Friend along with a message. There are thousands of different types of gifts you can send ranging from a cupcake to a puppy. Gifts start at a dollar which buys you 100 credits towards a gift.

Groups

Are you a member of a Fraternity, Sorority, or a national or local organization? Do you feel passionate about a particular cause like breast cancer awareness? It's highly likely that you will find a group to join on Facebook that matches your interests or affiliations. You can search for and join groups or create your own.

Notes

Notes are just another way to blog or communicate with your Friends. Everyone finds different uses for Notes. Some use them to post questions and start a discussion board and some use them to display a subject-based list. For example, recently Facebook users from all over started posting their 25 Random Things list. There were several versions of this but the point of it all was to list 25 things people may or may not know about you. Sharing this note prompted others to start their note and it spread like wildflowers throughout the Facebook community.

Videos

The Video application allows you to upload your mobile videos, YouTube videos, or any other video as long as it is an approved video format.

Chat

If you're not looking for it you may miss the Chat feature. It is another way to communicate with your Friends on Facebook. If you are familiar with other Chat programs like AIM or Yahoo! Messenger, it works the same except you can only chat with other Facebook members.

Wall

The Wall is the center of your profile where all the action takes place. This is the location where your Friends see your updated status, photos, videos, thoughts, and anything else that is added to your wall. People can post comments to your Wall and you can post comments back to their Wall which is called Wall-to-Wall.

Beyond the Basics

Beyond the Basics

• You can create several different accounts using separate email accounts. You may want to do this if you want to have a personal profile and a professional profile.
• You can only use an email account once to create a Facebook account. Multiple profiles can not be attached to one account.
• It's a good idea to set your Privacy Settings (see Lesson 3) before you start adding Friends and joining Networks.

To Sign Up for an Account Face Book

To Sign Up for an Account

1. Go to www.Facebook.com
2. Enter your name, email address, gender, date of birth, create a password, and click the Sign Up button.
Sign Up Page
3. Once you click Sign Up you will have to enter the information from box 1 into box 2 for a security check. Doing this just proves to Facebook that you are indeed a human and not some machine trying to create fake accounts. Click the Sign Up button.
Security Check
4. You will need to confirm your email address before moving on. This just confirms that you signed up for this account and not someone else. Click Go to [name of your email provider] to confirm. This will take you to your email account.
Confirm Email
5. You'll receive an email from Facebook with directions on how to confirm your email address. Once you've confirmed your email address, your account is valid. Congratulations! Just enter your password to get started!
Create Password

How to create an account

How to Create an Account

In this lesson you'll learn how to create an account but be forewarned - Facebook can be very addictive! All jokes aside, it's a great tool for networking and keeping in touch with people. Let's get started!

Watch the video (2:24). Need help?

Create a Account Face Book

Create an Account

It's time to create your Facebook Account so you can connect with your family, friends, co-workers, and more! It's easy to sign up and remember, it's FREE!