Facebook Tutorial

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© 2010 Teach to Fish Digital, LLC

What is Facebook? One of the most popular websites in the world, Facebook is the preferred social media network of millions. Over 460,000,000 people have created Facebook profiles, and people spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook connecting with friends, sharing information (web links, news stories, photo albums, notes, etc.) and interacting with their favorite companies, brands and personalities. Facebook users can send messages to one another and provide their friends with “status updates” or short posts about what they are doing, thinking, feeling, reading, etc. Initially created as a network for college students, today Facebook welcomes anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address. Demographics While many view Facebook as a site that caters specifically to young adults, the highest growth rate among Facebook users is with the 55+ age range.

Nearly 56% of Facebook users are female. Users can also indicate relationship status, family connections, education level, employer(s), and other pertinent interests such as music, books, movies, television and activities. Visibility to these attributes can be controlled by the individual with privacy settings. Advertisers can select specific demographics and interests when purchasing Facebook advertising.

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Age Distribution (United States)

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54,270,540

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Gender Distribution (United States)

Male Female

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About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States. More than 70 translations are available on the site.

How to Create a Facebook Profile Creating a Facebook account takes seconds. All that are required include first name, last name, email address, account passwords and date of birth. Once this information has been provided, Facebook will invite you to find friends based on contacts you already have via your existing email account. You can also list your high school, college/university and current employer so that Facebook can match you up with others from your alma mater and workplace. Finally, upload a picture to initiate your profile. Each step after the initial name, email and date of birth can be skipped and modified later.

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25,909,280

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176,161,100

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Global Audience

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Facebook Home Page / Wall Once your account is created and confirmed at the email address provided, you are redirected to your Home page (also known as your Wall). Here is where you can view content from friends and the companies/communities you like. To start, your Home page will provide basic information to get started in building your profile. In addition to 1) helping you find friends from your email address contacts, Facebook provides detailed information about: 2) filling out your profile information including interests and preferences so that your friends can learn more about you, 3) activating your mobile phone to send and receive updates from Facebook, 4) finding people you may know by searching by name or email address, and 5) controlling the information that is shared by adjusting your privacy settings. On the left-‐hand side of your Wall you will find a number of links. These are native to every Home page and can be edited based on personal preference. 1. News Feed – a listing of status updates and recent

information from your friends and the pages/groups you like.

2. Messages – Direct messages sent to you from others on Facebook (most often your friends). Messages cannot be viewed by anyone else on Facebook and are similar in format and privacy to an email message.

3. Events – A list of events which you plan to attend or those to which you have been invited. Facebook users can create events and invite their friends to attend. Keep track of birthdays and special occasions, and access a record of past events with this feature.

4. Photos – A collection of photo albums and videos posted by you or your friends. Here you have the ability to upload new photos or video

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to Facebook and share with friends. 5. Friends – A record of your current friends list with recommendations on how to find

more based on your friends’ connections. 6. Applications – A listing of available applications and utilities on Facebook that you can

use to simply pass the time or accomplish important tasks. Sample applications include horoscopes, family tree tools, quizzes and popular Facebook games like Mafia Wars and Farmville. Applications are organized by category and by clicking on a specific application, you can learn more about how to interact with it.

7. Games – Similar to the games available under the applications link, Facebook provides a

number of word games, card games, arcade games and puzzles. Facebook users can play games online and then share and compare results with friends.

8. Groups – These are collections of people on Facebook who have common interests in a certain topic, place or activity. For example, there are groups that support political parties, professional sports teams, and various causes. Groups allow people to post thoughts and comments, upload relevant photos and videos and share in a discussion about a specific interest similar to a forum or online message board.

9. Notes – When you or your friends want to share a viewpoint, personal story or review with each other in a format similar to a post or short article, you can create a note. Notes provide ample room to offer greater detail than is allowed in a typical status update. Notes are shared with friends and others can comment on a note that has been created just like a blog post.

10. Links – When Facebook users create a status update, they have the ability to attach a photo/video or reference an event, cause or web link (see below). The links page provides a collection of all the recent status updates from you and your friends that have included links.

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More on the News Feed Facebook users have the option of viewing status updates from friends and pages/communities they like in one of two ways:

A. Top News – Top news is a collection of status updates from your friends that are arranged based on your level over interaction with those specific individuals. Facebook has created an algorithm that measures your unique behaviors (likes, comments) in relation to your friends on Facebook or the pages and communities you like. If you tend to comment or like a specific person’s status updates more than some of your other friends, that person’s updates are more likely to show up in your Top News feed. Those friends and pages with which you do not interact regularly are less likely to appear in your Top News feed.

B. Most Recent – This is simply a chronological list of updates from your friends and the pages you like. Updates appear as they are posted.

Privacy Settings At any time, Facebook users can update “Privacy Settings” by selecting the “Account” tab in the upper right-‐hand corner on Facebook. Only name, profile picture, networks and gender must be visible to everyone. Here are a few key attributes of the Facebook Privacy Settings. 1. Basic information: Update

name, profile picture and networks.

2. Sharing on Facebook: Controls for what information is shared with friends, friends of friends and everyone else. The option to customize these settings is available.

3. Applications & Websites: Adjust the information that is shared about you on applications and third party websites. Users can opt out of sharing information outside of Facebook (e.g. pages you like, articles you share, content you recommend) with a single click.

4. Block Lists: Select individuals with whom you would like no interaction on Facebook. Once someone is added to your block list, that person cannot see any of your information.

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Status Update Anatomy The following update was made by a Facebook page owner. This is how it appears in the news feed. Status updates from individual profiles are very similar.

1. Profile/Page Image 2. Profile/Page Name 3. Post Text 4. Web Link Image – When posting web links, images from those web pages referenced in

the link can be selected and shown in the status update 5. Web Link Title & Description – Photos, videos, events, etc can also be posted as part of a

status update 6. Post Time Stamp 7. Social Links – Choose to like, comment and/or share the status update 8. Like Tally – Includes link option to view all those who liked 9. Comment Tally – Includes link option to view all comments 10. Sample Comments 11. Comment Field – An area to submit your own comment for this status update

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Facebook Groups & Causes Groups and Causes represent two ways to share information about specific subject matter with like-‐minded individuals. In both instances, conversations and discussions take place apart from status updates and Wall posts. Groups Most information that is posted on Facebook is shared with one’s friends and connections. For topical updates, questions, discussion and debates for smaller segments of the Facebook population, there are Groups. Facebook Groups allow you to share thoughts and ideas with people often outside your circle of friends in the context of a single topic. Primarily centered around common interests such as knitting, photography or tattoos, several Group pages exist for the purpose of discussing business interests, arts and entertainment genres, politics or unique sports and recreation activities. Facebook users can search and find groups according to their interests, join groups and create new groups. Causes Facebook Causes provide non-‐profit organizations and individuals looking to raise awareness and funds for an issue with a platform to educate the public, garner support and identify potential influencers. There are hundreds of Causes currently on Facebook that are organized into categories like Animals, Education, Health, Public Advocacy, etc. Facebook users can “Join” a cause by showing support and sharing information with their friends. Certain causes also allow for donations in which transactions take place online

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Facebook Pages In addition to personal profiles, businesses owners and managers can create Facebook pages. Pages are designated for businesses, organizations, brands, products, artists and public figures. They allow companies and brands to communicate and share information back and forth with customers and fans. Many page administrators share information on Facebook pages such as news announcements, event invitations, special discounts or coupons and company-‐specific photos and video. Prior to mid-‐April of this year, individuals could “Become a Fan” of a page. Currently, Facebook users can “Like” a page to become connected with it and receive updates from the Page in their news feeds. There are two kinds of Facebook pages: Official Pages and Community Pages. Official Pages – Created by representatives of a business, product or brand, official pages are available to corporate entities, artists and public figures with notoriety. Facebook has developed the “Official Page” title because at one time, there were several unofficial pages created by fans that would take on a mistaken corporate identity. Community Pages – Facebook users can also create community pages to support a particular activity, cause or ideal. Community pages can be created manually be Facebook users, but others are created as an aggregator of conversation about a specific topic. Facebook users can “Like” these pages and participate in discussion. To explain the difference further, “Sony Playstation” has an official page. Meanwhile, there is a community page for “playing Playstation” in which different games, relevant content and the simple act of “playing Playstation” are discussed. When a Facebook user likes the official page, page updates like the one on the right will show up in her news feed. If that same user likes the community page, that activity will appear in her “likes and interests” in her public profile (see below).

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To create a Facebook page, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.

Customizing Your Page After choosing which kind of page to create, you can begin customizing your page with a logo, information, photos, video, links and custom tabs developed with Facebook’s own coding language. Primary Image/Logo Facebook defaults to a question mark as your page’s first picture. To change this, simply hover your mouse over the question mark and a “Change Picture” link will appear (1). When you click that link, you will be given the option to upload a picture, take a picture with a webcam if available, or choose a picture from an album (2). Select the option that works best for your page.

Page Description & Info Once you have selected and/or uploaded your page image or logo, you can add some additional information about your page. There are several areas to do so. The first are the page desicription and info tab. The page description is simply a short, one-‐line note about

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your page and what it is about. The info table allows for greater detail such as address, telephone number, hours of operation, website link, and parking instructions. As the page administrator you can choose to fill in as much or as little of this information as you deem necessary.

General Settings Other general page settings can be adjusted on the Wall tab. Here you can select the “Settings” (1) and determine how posts should be presented on your page’s main Wall. You have the option of showing just posts from you, or posts from you and fans of the page. Select the large plus sign to the right of all the tabs (2) on your page to include more available tabs. You can add tabs for events, photos, video, links, notes, discussion or custom tabs with promotional content.

Edit Page To customize your page further, add new page administrators, designate placement of custom page content and find new page applications, select the “Edit Page” option under your page’s picture. This page will serve as a dashboard for you and other page administrators where you can access detailed settings, page insights or usage statistics, additional Like button code for your website and important links for page guidelines and helpful instruction.

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Promoting Your Page Several organizations have utilized a Facebook page to provide customer service, gain valuable audience research and generate a positive return on investment. To do the same, your page must have a loyal following. There are three primary ways to promote a page: suggest it to friends, use social plugins or create a Facebook advertising campaign. Suggest to Friends – Page administrators and connections alike can suggest a page to friends. Simply click the “Suggest to Friends” link below the company or product logo. A window will appear that will allow you to select the friends to which you would like to suggest the page. Each friend selected will receive a message encouraging them to Like the page. Social Plugins – Facebook has developed a number of social utilities that can be placed on websites other than Facebook.com. You can view an entire list of available social buttons from Facebook at http://developers.facebook.com/plugins. Like buttons, Like boxes and recommendations can be placed on your site. Each of these plugins is personalized to the individual visitor. When people click on or interact with these plugins, they automatically update their own status and their friends can view their activity from Facebook. The Like button alone can be positioned next to a product for sale online, a news article, a photo gallery, an online video, etc. Advertising – Facebook’s primary revenue source is advertising. Thousands of companies pay per click or on a per impression basis to show their ads to a targeted audience.

• Ads include a headline, text description, image and a web link. That link can go to another website or the advertiser’s Facebook page.

• Advertisers can target by location, demographics (age, gender, language), education level, workplaces, and specific interests/likes.

• Advertisers can also choose to target those who already like their Facebook page, those who do not and those who are friends of people who like the page.

• Ads can be purchased on a cost per click or CPM basis. Average cost per click varies between 40¢ and $3.00 depending upon the competitive nature of the advertisement and target audience. Advertisers can set a daily budget to control click costs.

• Facebook provides metrics on how many impressions, clicks and actions (new likes) each ad produces in a campaign as well as related costs. Campaign creative (text and images) can be edited at any time to improve performance.

Facebook Tutorial

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Transcript of Facebook Tutorial