Facebook For Dummies book cover

Facebook For Dummies

Overview

Be a new face on Facebook!

If you're new to the Facebook user community, don't be shy: you're joining around 2.7 billion users (roughly two-and-a-half Chinas) worldwide, so you'll want to make sure you’re being as sociable as possible. And with more functionality and ways to say hello—like 3-D photos and Video Chat rooms—than ever before, Facebook For Dummies is the perfect, informative companion to get and new and inexperienced users acquainted with the main features of the platform and comfortable with sharing posts, pictures (or whatever else you find interesting) with friends, family, and the world beyond!

In a chatty, straightforward style, your friendly hosts, Carolyn Abram and Amy Karasavas—both former Facebook employees—help you get settled in with the basics, like setting up your profile and adding content, as well as protecting your privacy when you want to decide who can and can't see your posts. They then show you how to get involved as you add new friends, toggle your newsfeed, shape your timeline story, join groups, and more. They even let you in on ways to go pro and use Facebook for work, such as building a promo page and showing off your business to the world. Once you come out of your virtual shell, there'll be no stopping you!

  • Build your profile and start adding friends
  • Send private messages and instant notes
  • Share your memories
  • Tell stories about your day
  • Set your privacy and curate your news feed

Don't be a wallflower: with this book you have the ideal icebreaker to get the party started so you can join in with all the fun!

Be a new face on Facebook!

If you're new to the Facebook user community, don't be shy: you're joining around 2.7 billion users (roughly two-and-a-half Chinas) worldwide, so you'll want to make sure you’re being as sociable as possible. And with more functionality and ways to say hello—like 3-D photos and Video Chat rooms—than ever before, Facebook For Dummies is the perfect, informative companion to get and new and inexperienced users acquainted with the main features of the platform and comfortable with sharing posts, pictures (or whatever else you find interesting) with friends, family, and the world beyond!

In a chatty, straightforward style, your friendly hosts, Carolyn Abram and Amy Karasavas—both former Facebook employees—help you get settled in with the basics, like setting up your profile

and adding content, as well as protecting your privacy when you want to decide who can and can't see your posts. They then show you how to get involved as you add new friends, toggle your newsfeed, shape your timeline story, join groups, and more. They even let you in on ways to go pro and use Facebook for work, such as building a promo page and showing off your business to the world. Once you come out of your virtual shell, there'll be no stopping you!

  • Build your profile and start adding friends
  • Send private messages and instant notes
  • Share your memories
  • Tell stories about your day
  • Set your privacy and curate your news feed

Don't be a wallflower: with this book you have the ideal icebreaker to get the party started so you can join in with all the fun!

Facebook For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Facebook is one of the dominant social networking sites in the world. Facebook lets you share photos, videos, links, status updates, and much more with your friends. As you discover how this social networking site works, use this handy reference to help you find people on Facebook, communicate with friends, and figure out what to do as soon as you log in. [caption id="attachment_285229" align="alignnone" width="556"] © Kaspars Grinvalds / Shutterstock.com[/caption]

Articles From The Book

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Facebook Articles

How to Search on Facebook for a Specific Person

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The search box at the top of Facebook's site allows you to search for a specific person by name. You can use it to find people you're already friends with and you just want to go to their timelines, or to find people you aren’t friends with yet. But basic search can be a little confusing because Facebook auto-completes the names that you type and assumes you’re trying to get to your friends’ timelines. If you’re the type of person who is used to pressing the Enter key to begin a search, this can send you to friends’ timelines when you meant to search for someone else named James, for example. Read on to learn better strategies for finding people on Facebook.

You can also use the search box at the top of the site to find posts, pages, groups, events, and even things your friends have liked.

Two basic ways to use Search in Facebook

You’ll wind up using search two basic ways. The first way is if the name of the person you’re looking for (or at least someone with the same name) appears in the auto-complete menu. You can accomplish that sort of search following these steps:
  1. Begin typing the name you're looking for in the search box.

    Pay attention to the people who appear in the autocomplete menu. Facebook displays first your friends and then friends of friends. There’s a good chance that you may find the person you’re looking for in this menu.

  2. If you see the name in the autocomplete menu, use your mouse or arrow keys to highlight the person you're looking for.

  3. Click the name or press Enter.

    This brings you to the person's timeline, where you can verify that you know the person and add them as a friend.

Use "See More" for a further search
  1. Type the person's full name in the search box.

  2. Click See More at the bottom of the search menu.

    The search menu expands to reveal new options for search. So, if you type Jane Smith and then click See More, you can now either search People Named Jane Smith, Pages Named Jane Smith, or Places Named Jane Smith.

  3. Click the People Named option.

    A blue friend icon is next to this option. A search results page appears with larger previews of people’s profile pictures and timeline info. The right side of the page also has options for narrowing your search using fields such as Gender, Employer, Current City, and so on.

  4. Use the fields on the right side of the page to zero in on your actual friend.

    This might be information like where your friend works or where they're from.

  5. When you find the person you’re looking for, add them as a friend.

Facebook Articles

How to View Tagged Photos and Videos of Yourself on Facebook

Photos and videos of yourself int this context refers to photos and videos in which you're tagged on Facebook. Tags are ways of marking who is in a photo — the online equivalent of writing the names of everyone appearing on the back of a photo print. Tags are part of what make Facebook Photos so useful. Even if you don’t add lots of photos, other people can add photos of you. Photos you’ve been tagged in might be scattered across your friends’ Timelines, so Facebook collects all these photos in the Photos section of your Timeline. You can get there by clicking the Photos tab underneath your cover photo. The Photos section defaults to showing Photos of You. You can also view photos you’ve added (Your Photos) or albums you’ve added (Albums). The Photos of You section shows the most recently tagged photos at the top of the page. As you scroll down, you see older and older photos of yourself. This is a great place to take a trip down memory lane, and also to make sure that you’re aware of all the photos of you that are out there.

If you’ve been tagged in a photo and you don’t like that tag, you can always remove the tag by clicking Options from the photo viewer and choosing Remove Tag. Then that photo will no longer be linked to your Timeline, and it won’t appear in the Photos of You section of your Timeline either.

If there’s a photo or video you don’t want on Facebook at all, even after you’ve removed the tag, get in touch with your friend and ask him to remove it. If you think it’s offensive or abusive in any way, you can also report the photo and ask Facebook to remove it.

Facebook Articles

Safety Tips for Buying and Selling on Facebook

While Facebook tries to take some of the guesswork out of buying and selling your used items online, the fact remains that you will be interacting with someone you don’t know. Here are a few basic safety tips to keep in mind:

  • Watch out for scammers: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t let people upend your common sense. There is no reason someone selling something or buying something from you will ever need your passwords, credit card numbers, or anything like that. You should never transfer money to someone until you have the item in your hands and have checked to make sure it is as advertised.
  • Use cash or person-to-person payment methods: You can use Facebook to make payments (if both people are using debit cards), or other apps where the money immediately gets moved from one account to another. Checks can be faked or bounced. Cash is probably your best bet.
  • Try to meet in neutral locations: If possible when arranging to sell someone something, try to meet in a neutral, public location. This makes both people feel safer about, you know, meeting someone from the internet. Let someone know where you’ll be and who it is you are going to meet.
  • Give out your address judiciously: Of course, a neutral location might not be possible, or worthwhile to you, especially if you’re selling something small. So don’t give out your full address to someone until they’ve committed to coming to pick up your item. And if something about them sets off your Spidey sense, don’t force yourself to meet them!