Background on Facebook
What is Facebook?
Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social network that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family, coworkers and acquaintances. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook, and in fact, 400 million people are on Facebook. The average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook. So, what are these users doing for 55 minutes per day? More importantly, how can conservative activists use this network to find like-minded activists and organize around a cause digitally? We’re going to tell you, so read on!
Who started Facebook?
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University.
The website’s membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but it later expanded further to include any university student. In late 2005, it was open to high school students, and finally, in 2006, Facebook became available to anyone aged 13 and over with a valid e-mail address.
Facebook was once only available through a computer, however; in 2006 applications became available that make Facebook available through mobile phones, PDAs, iPods and other mp3 devices. There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
Interesting facts about Facebook:
- More than 400 million active users
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- More than 35 million users update their status each day
- More than 60 million status updates posted each day
- More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
- More than 5 billion pieces of content (links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
- More than 3.5 million events created each month
- More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
- More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
- More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
- Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans.
- Average user has 130 friends on the site
- Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
- Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
- Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
- Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
- Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
- Average user is invited to 3 events per month
- Average user is a member of 13 groups
Getting on Facebook
Setting up a Facebook account
So you decided to take the plunge and create a Facebook account? You are not alone. There are over 400 million people on this social networking website! In fact, if Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated country in the world, only behind India and China (impressive or scary, depending on how you look at it).
Steps to creating an account
1 Visit Facebook.com
2. Provide your first and last names, an e-mail address, birthday and gender. Finally, create a password, something you will remember, but tough enough it won’t be easily determined. We suggest using at least 11 digits, with at least 3 numbers, substituting symbols for letters (like “!” for “I”). If you are a married woman, it might be easier for old friends to find you if you use your maiden name for Facebook.
3. Facebook will ask you to complete your profile by asking for your high school, college and employer. You may skip this step, but we encourage you to provide information for one or all of the categories. This will help Facebook users find and identify you.
4. Finally, they will ask you to provide a photo. You can upload a photo already on your computer, use a webcam, or skip this step until you find a picture you like. When selecting an image, remember that Facebook gives you 200px in width and up to 600px in height. If larger, Facebook will crop your image down to fit 200px, keeping the same height ratio. If you do not provide an image, you will get Facebook’s lovely default: The Coolwhip Man.
5. If prompted to add friends from your e-mail contacts, skip over this process for now. We will come back to this later.
Facebook will send you a confirmation e-mail to the account you provided. Once your account is confirmed, you are ready to find your old friends and start making new ones.
Facebook Profile
Re-visit Facebook.com and log in using your e-mail address and the password you created. Once logged in, you will see that Facebook has prepared you to begin finding friends. But, before you do this, we encourage you to begin building your Facebook Profile (the information others will see about you). Click on the My Profile link in the upper left hand corner to get started.
Updating your Profile’s Information
1. Once you have successfully navigated to your profile, click the Information tab next to your image.
2. You will see a series of Edit buttons in the top right corner, start with your basic information first, making sure you pay close attention to what you want to provide and who you want to be. For instance, politicos may choose to be very specific with political belifes. Those wanting privacy may choose to give very little personal information.
3. Continue down the page, clicking the Edit buttons in the top-right of the information boxes. Your personal profile has four different sections: basic information, personal information, contact information, and education and work.
Your profile will be where others come to learn about you, so it is important to be honest. For example, if you enjoy reading, be sure to elaborate on the type of books; we guarantee you will quickly meet a new friend who shares your passion for Harry Potter.
Finding Friends
Now that you have fleshed out your Facebook identity, it is time to start adding friends.
We recommend allowing Facebook to search through your e-mail contacts to find friends who have setup accounts. Facebook will quickly locate them and allow you to connect, or “become friends.” Facebook does not save your e-mail password anywhere, using it only once and deleting it.
You can find additional friends by dropping down the Account link in the top right of your page. Once expanded, you will see the option to Edit Friends. Facebook’s Edit Friends page will allow you several options to find and connect with people you may know online: use your e-mail address book, phone book, or find friends through other instant messaging applications.
Although Facebook has become a phenomenon in America, about 70% of Facebook users are still outside the United States.
Navigation on Facebook
The Layout
Once you have built your profile and have gathered a few friends, it is time to get acquainted with all that Facebook has to offer. Knowing where to find everything on your Facebook account is very important. Not only will it save you time, but most people do not full understand all that Facebook offers. We will start at the very top left corner, with the Facebook logo.
Clicking the Facebook icon will take you back to your home page (we will discuss your Home when we get to the “Home” link in the navigation). To the right of the Facebook icon is three silhouetted icons. The first is a link to your Friend Requests.
Here you will quickly see a list of friends who want to connect with you. In addition, Facebook has added some Friend Suggestions to the list, people who Facebook thinks you will get along with or with whom you share mutual interests.
The next icon is a quick link to your Messages.
Here you will be able to quickly view any private messages a friend or group has sent you. Moving further right, the last silhouetted icon is a quick link to your Facebook notifications.
Here you will see all of the actions that have taken place for your account. From friends posting content on your wall, to friendship requests accepted, to actions taken by your friends, it is all easily and neatly displayed in a glance. Up next is the search box.
This is a very important tool for beginners and newcomers to Facebook. You can quickly search for brands, organizations, and friends via this text box. Simply type in the name of a local tea party, 9/12, or other group/friend to find and connect with them on Facebook. Next to the search box you will see your Home button.
This is one of the most useful areas of Facebook. Your Home page will display a snapshot of important information for you to take advantage of (please note that your homepage is not your profile page, which we will discuss momentarily).
To the left, you will see a list of events, messages, photos, and other things that may require your attention.
Directly below that you can find those friends that are online. This is an interesting feature that allows you quickly chat with friends via Facebook’s chat feature, located at the bottom right of your screen. The pop-up box functions like an instant message feature, allowing you to quickly communicate with others who are online.
Moving to the far right, Facebook displays all requests for your account. From events that friends would like you to attend to groups that would like for you to join, you can look through invitations here. In addition, Facebook uses the space below these requests to display pages that Facebook thinks you would find interesting (more on Facebook pages later).
Your News Feed is an updated list of what your friends are doing and posting. This section is broken up into two portions: Top News and Most Recent.
Top News
This is a live update to what your most popular friends are doing. Those friends that you interact with most will show up in this list. When they post an update, share a photo, link, or video, it will be displayed here. Facebook automatically places the friends you interact with most into this display
Most Recent
Here you will find all of your friend’s updates, regardless of how many times you have interacted with them. When clicking on the most recent button, you will be taken to an updated stream of statuses and other activity by all of your friends on Facebook.
Facebook has broken your news feed into two manageable portions so you can focus on your most valuable contacts or see all of your Facebook friends.
The second text link is entitled “Profile.” Clicking this will take you to your personal profile. Here you can view and edit the information discussed earlier in the guide.
The final link in your navigation is the Account button, which houses a drop down feature that leads to seven more links. These links are discussed on the next page.
Edit Friends
This page allows you to manage your friends. Here you can delete friends, find more, and manage your friends in lists (a feature we will talk more about later).
Account Settings
Here you can edit a multitude of different functions.
You can manage what notifications Facebook sends you, connect Facebook to a mobile device, buy Facebook Ads, and make many other changes. As this is a beginner’s guide, we will not get into the weeds here, but feel free to contact us at Team@AmericanMajority.org with any questions.
Perhaps one of the most overlooked settings in Facebook is your ability to protect your privacy. Privacy is one of the key differentiators of Facebook from other social networking services. Facebook gives you the option to control what others see, right down to individual photo albums, or various pieces of personal information such as your address, phone number, and screen name on instant messaging services. There are several very good resources to help you keep your information private, so we will not go into all of the setting here.
Instead, we will direct you to one of the best and most comprehensive articles on the web. It can be found at the website AllFacebook.com. In addition, they have put together a downloadable Privacy Guide. The article, entitled, 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know can be found here: http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/
Application Settings
Here you can manage how third-party applications will interact with your Facebook information. Settings on photos, events, groups and videos can also be found here. We will not go in-depth here, but will gladly answer any questions you might have
at Team@AmericanMajority.org.
Credits
The fifth link is credit balance; this allows you to link a Credit Card or Mobile Phone account to your Facebook account in order to purchase Facebook gifts or Credits for online games.
Help Center
If you have any questions not answered in this guide, we highly encourage you to use Facebook’s Help Center. There are tons of great articles, questions and answers, and tutorials within this section.
Logout
This should be pretty self-explanatory.
Aspects of your Facebook Account
Wall and Status
To the left of the Information tab we edited earlier, you will find your Wall tab. Your wall is where you and your friends can post content to be shared, such as photos, videos and web links or just a simple message to say “hi.”
Using the box at the top of your wall (see above image), you can easily type a message to share with your friends. This is called “updating your status.” By updating your status, you are sending a message to all of your friends. This is the easiest way to communicate with your contacts within Facebook. In addition to simple messages, you can use the icons below the text field to attach videos, web links to a blog or news stories, and photos (example below shows how to add video).
The area directly below this text box is referred to as your Wall. Your wall houses not only your status updates, but also any of the messages, videos or photos people have shared directly with you.
It is important to note that when you enter something on your own wall, Facebook will insert your name before the message when posted. There is no need to duplicate your name and you can even have a little fun:
1. This is an example of a status update.
2. This is what that status update looks like once posted.
Another example might be, “is at the American Majority training to learn how I can better organize my community for freedom.” Of course, this would appear to others as “Your Name Here is at the American Majority training to learn how I can better organize my community for freedom.” This is one of Facebook’s core features and something you will learn to have a lot of fun with.
Like/Comment
A new feature of Facebook, added in 2009, allows Facebook friends to quickly show support for one another’s content by clicking a button letting the others know that the user liked the content. Facebook’s “Like” button allows you to increase interaction and reduce the need to write out a message. Simply click the word ‘Like’ just below a post:
For instance, if you post that you are attending an American Majority training in Kansas, one friend may comment, “I have attended an American Majority training in the past and learned a lot, enjoy!” while another may simply choose to click the “Like” button, indicating their support as well. This feature is especially helpful for activists who post news stories from various websites and blogs. Fellow activists and friends can quickly click the “Like” button, indicating that they like the content and would like to see more. Less clicks means the content might not be right for the community.
Photos
One of Facebook’s most used features is its ability to allow users to upload and share photos. The photos can be uploaded from your computer, phone, webcam and other devices. You can create and share individual photos or whole albums, but remember that as with most of Facebook’s capabilities, your friends have the ability to comment on your photos once they are uploaded. If you would like to keep photos private, we suggest you do the following:
Go to: Privacy -> Profile -> Basic -> Edit Photo Albums Privacy Settings
Edit privacy settings for each photo you have on your Facebook profile individually. Every single photo can have its privacy settings changed separately. Choose to have everyone see your photo, only networks and friends, friends of friends, only friends or you can customize your privacy settings for each photo.
To upload a photo, you have several options. The two most effective options are mobile and profile.
Mobile Uploads
We will not explore mobile applications here, but do know that if you have a smartphone (Blackberry or iPhone most notably) there are a plethora of options out there. To learn more, visit the link in the bottom-right of your Home page.
You will be taken to a page with information on mobile devices, text messages, and even e-mail updates to your Facebook account. Take the time to explore the material and decide if some of these more advanced options are right for you.
Profile Uploads
Adding photos to your account can be a little daunting at first, which is why we suggest starting with a manual approach through your Profile page. Below you will see an image of our demo account’s Profile. Notice the tab that says “Photos.” This is where we want to focus.
Clicking the tab will take you to a page where you can view all of your photos, organize them, and upload new ones. It is important to note that a photo must be in an album. This can be an album you create, or one automatically created by Facebook. For instance, any photo you have used as your Profile photo (the one other friends will see on your Profile page) will be saved in a photo album entitled, “Profile Pictures.” Keeping everything in albums helps to streamline and order your photos for others to enjoy. Likewise, all mobile uploaded photos will be added to a “Mobile” album for you to organize once you are online and the default photo album for all manually added photos is “My Photos.”
Messages/Inbox
Facebook’s message feature allows you to talk directly and privately with another Facebook user. To access this function, simply click the Message button discussed earlier:
From here, you will be able to quickly access any message sent to you, compose a new message, and view all messages for your account. Messages are a very handy tool. For instance, if you do not want to post a message to your friends’ wall because it is personal or you do not want anyone else to see it, you can send them a personal message instead. This ensures only they see the message. Additionally, you can send a private message to multiple friends. For instance, if you want to send a message to 4 friends in your Tea Party or 9/12 group to set up a carpool to a rally, you can type in each person’s name in the subject line and only those 4 people receive the message. You can also attach photos, links or videos in personal messages.
Notes
The notes section does not offer much purpose in today’s social network, especially with the rise of personal blogs and other technologies that offer much more customization and robust platforms. We will gloss over this function for now, but note (pun intended) that you can use notes to post large amounts of text – like a blog - to share with others. The quick and vast nature of Facebook is not conducive for using such a time consuming function, but we want you to be aware of it, as some might find it useful for re-posting.
One purpose of the blog that you might find interesting is the ability to sync your personal blog to your Facebook via the Notes section. This article provides a great overview and instruction on how to do this: http://www.insidefacebook. com/2009/02/22/how-to-import-your-blog-into-facebook.
Sharing and Interacting
Facebook is known for more than just keeping old friends in touch. It is also one of the most popular (if not the most popular) place for sharing information. More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums etc.) are shared each week via Facebook. It provides a platform for not only sharing the information, but also for interacting with the information. Most news or magazine sites online (i.e. CNN, Politico, People Magazine) allow you to send their stories directly to your Facebook wall or to another friend via Facebook message. Some organizations have this feature on their blog, as well. Facebook has single-handedly increased social sharing, decreasing the information gaps and freeing us from our geographical boundaries.
There are many ways to organize and interact with like-minded people, whether your interest is conservative politics or golden retrievers. Some of the Facebook features that allow users of similar interests to gather in one place are Groups, Events, Fan Pages and Causes. And, in true Facebook interactive fashion, you are able to comment and post content within each of these features. Facebook pages started because Facebook creators noticed that there wasn’t a way for users to connect with music artists, brands or other popular groups in our culture. Now, not only can you connect with your favorite artists and businesses, but now you also can show your friends what you care about and recommend by adding the Pages to your personal profile. There are more than 1.6 million active Pages on Facebook and more than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook! Continue on to learn more about these unique features.
Groups
A group can be thought of an online club—just like you could be a club member at the YMCA or the Republican or Democrat Club in your town. Group pages are usually better suited for a more personal interaction, where only a couple of hundred people would join and interact. Groups are less effective than Fan Pages for most organizations. The biggest disadvantage of a Group is that you must rely on the other members of the group to upload content. The advantage of a Fan Page is that you control what and when items get published, and you can also control who comments. We highly recommend your organization or brand read the Pages section below before making a decision to create a group.
A group can either be private or public—if a group is private, you will need permission to join from the user who created it on Facebook. This setting can be changed at any time by the goup’s creator. To join a group, simply click the grey button next to the group’s name.
To find a group, try using the search box at the top of each page to find organizations by their name or topic. If you are interested in creating your own group, visit the URL below and consider creating your own.
Fan Pages
We highly recommend your organization create a Facebook Fan Page. Why? Well, for starters, a recent study found that the average Facebook user becomes a fan of 2 pages each month. That could be YOUR page!
What is a Facebook Fan Page?
Because American Majority is an organization dedicated to the grassroots, we’ve set up a presence on Facebook to reach people without going through the mainstream media. A Page is essentially a Facebook Profile for your group. Pages allow your organization to publish content and interact with individual much in the same way you do as an individual person. The implications here should be very evident: you can create a culture, interact with members/customers, and build a brand image by engaging with fans one on one. Pages should be used by companies, organizations, products, celebrities, politicians and other entities that need to represent their “brand” on Facebook. The biggest difference is that as an individual, you have friends. As a Page, your organization can accumulate fans.
It is important to note that as a creator of the group’s Facebook Page, you will be invisible to other users. This means that any member of your organization can create and maintain the page without others knowing who holds that administrative responsibility.
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