Facebook for Grown-Ups

Michael Miller has written more than 100 non-fiction how-to books in the past two decades, including Que’s Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computer Basics, Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource, and Windows 7 Your Way. He is also the author of Que’s Facebook Essentials video and Pearson Higher Education’s Introduction to Social Networking textbook.   Mr. Miller has established a reputation for clearly explaining technical topics to non-technical readers, and for offering useful real-world advice about complicated topics. More information can be found at the author’s website, located at www.molehillgroup.com.

Introduction     1

How This Book Is Organized     2

Conventions Used in This Book     3

Get Ready to Facebook     4

Part I: Getting Started with Facebook–and Social Networking    5

1 Welcome to Facebook: It’s Not Just for Kids Anymore     6

What Social Networking Is and How It Works     6

What Is a Social Network?     8

Why Do People Use Social Networks?     8

What Other Stuff Does a Social Network Do?     10

Who Uses Social Networks?     10

How Did Social Networks Develop?     11

Say Hello to Facebook     12

Things You Can–and Can’t–Do on Facebook     14

Things to Do     14

Things Not to Do     16

Why Grown-Ups Use Facebook     17

Social Networking Do’s and Don’ts     19

Do These Things     19

Don’t Do These Things.20

2 Signing Up and Getting Started     23

Before You Sign Up     23

Creating a Facebook Account     24

Find Friends and Complete Your Profile     25

Filling Out Your Profile     29

3 Getting Around the Facebook Site     37

What’s What and What’s Where on Facebook     37

Signing In     37

Welcome to the Home Page     38

Profile Pages     41

Navigating the Facebook Toolbar     42

Searching Facebook     44

Signing Off     46

Part II: Facebook for Friends and Family    49

4 How to Find Old Friends–and Make New Ones     51

How Facebook Helps You Reconnect     51

Why Friends Are Important     53

Making Friends with People You’re Already in Contact With     54

Finding Friends You Email     54

Finding Friends You Instant Message     56

Finding Co-Workers     57

Searching for Long Lost Friends     58

Finding Former Co-Workers     58

Finding Former Classmates     59

Searching by Name or Email Address     60

Accepting Friend Requests     61

Exploring Facebook’s Friend Suggestions     62

Finding Friends of Friends     63

5 Visiting Friends and Family on Facebook     67

Catching Up with the Facebook News Feed     67

Viewing the News Feed     67

Viewing More Updates from More Friends     70

Viewing Only Status Updates from Your Friends     71

Hiding Friends You Don’t Like     71

Hiding Updates from Applications and Games     72

Commenting on Friends’ Posts     73

Liking What You See     74

Sharing a Posted Attachment     75

Getting to and Getting to Know Your Friends’ Profile Pages     76

Displaying a Profile Page     76

Navigating a Profile Page     77

Reading the Wall–and Leaving Your Own Comments     79

Viewing Your Friends’ Personal Information     80

Looking at Photos     81

Viewing Other Tabs     82

6 Keeping Tabs on Your Kids     85

Making Your Children Your Friends     85

What to Do If Your Kids Hide from You on Facebook     86

Viewing Updates Without Being a Friend     86

Viewing Updates as a Friend of a Friend     86

Creating a Surreptitious Identity     87

Using Facebook to See What Your Kids Are Up To     89

Using Facebook to Contact Your Grown Kids     90

7 Organizing Your Friends List     93

Creating Friends Lists     93

Editing Your Lists     95

Displaying Status Updates from List Members     97

Deleting Custom Lists     98

Getting Rid of Unwanted Friends     98

Blocking Unwanted Users     99

Part III: Keeping in Touch with Facebook    103

8 Updating Your Friends on What You’re Doing     105

What Is a Status Update?     105

Where to Update Your Status     107

How to Update Your Status     108

Posting a Simple Text Update     108

Attaching a Photo     109

Attaching a Video     110

Attaching an Event     111

Attaching a Link to Another Web Page     112

Tagging a Friend in a Post     113

Determining Who Sees Your Status Updates     114

Setting Universal Status Privacy     115

Setting Who Can View Individual Updates     117

Deleting an Accidental Status Update     118

Deciding What to Write About     118

Employing “Facebook Grammar”     121

9 Exchanging Private Messages     125

Understanding Facebook’s Private Messages     125

It’s Just Like Email–Except It Isn’t     126

Readingand Replying to Messages     127

Deleting Messages     129

Sending a New Message     130

Adding Attachments to a Message     131

Attaching a Picture     131

Attaching a Video     132

Attaching a Web Link     133

10 Chatting with Your Kids–Live     137

What’s Chat–and Who Uses It?     137

Understanding Instant Messaging     137

Welcome to Facebook Chat     138

Who’s Chatting with Whom?     139

Who’s Online to Chat With?     139

Doing the Chat Thing     141

Managing Your Chat Settings     143

Part IV: Sharing Your Life on Facebook    145

11 Sharing Family Pictures     147

What’s Good–and What’s Bad–About Sharing Photos on Facebook.147

Facebook Photos: The Good     148

Facebook Photos: The Bad     148

So Is Facebook Good for Photo Sharing, or Not?     149

Creating a Photo Album     151

Uploading New Photos     152

Editing, Moving, and Deleting Photos     154

Tagging People in Your Photos     155

Sharing Photos with Others     157

Managing Your Photos and Albums     158

Viewing Other People’s Photos     160

Viewing Photos and Photo Albums     160

Adding Your Comments     162

Tagging Yourself in a Photo     163

Sharing a Photo     163

Printing a Photo     163

Downloading a Photo     163

Downloading Multiple Photos     164

12 Sharing Home Movies     167

The Ins and Outs of Sharing Videos on Facebook     167

Shooting Videos for Facebook     167

What to Upload     168

Editing Your Videos     169

Uploading Your Videos     169

Displaying the Video Tab     170

Uploading a Video File     170

Recording a Webcam Video     172

Editing Video Information     174

Sharing Uploaded Videos.175

Posting YouTube Videos     177

Watching Your Friends’ Videos     180

Watching a Video in the News Feed     180

Watching a Video on Its Own Page     181

Viewing Your Friends’ Most Recent Videos     182

13 Sharing Birthdays and Events     185

Why You Might Like Events     185

Searching for and Attending Events     186

RSVP’ing to Events     188

RSVP’ing from the Event Page     188

RSVP’ing from a Status Update     190

RSVP’ing from an Email Invitation     191

Creating New Events     192

Viewing Your Events     194

Celebrating Birthdays     194

Part V: Doing More with Facebook    197

14 Personalizing Your Profile Page     199

What Can You Personalize on Your Profile Page–and Why Would You Want To?      199

Choosing What Posts to Display on Your Wall.200

Changing Other Wall Settings     201

Changing Your Profile Picture     203

Customizing the Tabs on Your Profile Page     205

Managing Sidebar Boxes     206

Adding New Boxes     206

Rearranging Boxes     207

Deleting Boxes     207

Editing What You See in Sidebar Boxes     207

Editing Your Profile Information     208

15 Becoming a Fan     213

Understanding Fan Pages     213

The Fan Page as Fan Club     213

Liking a Page     215

Navigating a Fan Page     215

Finding Fan Pages     216

Creating Your Own Fan Page     217

Create a New Page     218

Invite Others to Become Fans     219

16 Meeting Others in Groups     221

Understanding Facebook Groups     221

Group Activities     222

Running the Group     223

Finding and Joining Groups     224

Viewing Your Groups–and Your Friends’ Groups     225

Participating in a Group     226

Creating Your Own Group     228

Group Administration     229

Access Levels.229

Group Features     229

Creating the Group     229

Customizing Your Group     231

Letting Others Know About Your Group     232

17 Networking for Business–and for Jobs     235

Understanding Facebook Networks     235

Joining Your Work Network     236

Networking Professionally     237

Finding Other Business Professionals on Facebook     237

Managing Your Professional Contacts     238

Networking via Facebook Groups     239

Job Hunting on Facebook     239

Reworking Your Profile     240

Becoming a Fan of Potential Employers     241

Asking for a Job     241

18 Finding Fun Games and Applications     243

Understanding Facebook Applications     243

Discovering Applications and Games     246

Browsing for Apps     246

Searching for Apps     247

Using an Application or Game     247

Viewing and Managing Your Applications–and Those Your Friends Are Using     249

Viewing Your Applications and Games     249

Managing Your Apps and Games     250

Apps for Grown-Ups     252

19 Using Facebook on the Go     257

Connecting from Your iPhone     257

Viewing the News Feed     259

Posting a Status Update     261

Posting a Picture     262

Viewing Friends’ Profiles     265

Checking Messages     265

Chatting with Friends     266

Connecting from Other Smartphones     267

Connecting via Text Message     269

20 Buying and Selling in the Facebook Marketplace     273

Understanding the Facebook Marketplace     273

Shopping for Something to Buy     275

Browsing the Marketplace     275

Searching the Marketplace     277

Viewing an Item Listing     278

Sharing and Commenting on a Listing     279

Contacting a Seller–and Buying Something     280

Selling Your Own Stuff     281

Listing an Item for Sale     281

Ending Your Listing     283

Part VI: Basic Facebook Housekeeping Chores    287

21 Keeping Some Things Private     289

Understanding Facebook Privacy     289

Changing Facebook’s Privacy Settings     291

Sharing Your Personal Information–or Not     291

Setting Custom Sharing Options     293

Hiding Your Information from Other Websites     295

Removing Unwanted Fan Pages     297

What to Keep Private–and What to Share     298

22 Managing Your Facebook Account     303

Changing Account Settings     303

Controlling When and How Facebook Contacts You     306

Leaving Facebook     307

Index     313