A Facebook Overview - A Getting Started Guide

Summary

Love it or hate it, Facebook is the largest social networking platform on the internet at present, and with 400 million active users, it cannot be ignored. Quick and simple to join, Facebook gives you the ability to link up with your real-life friends and communicate with them in a fun and easy way.

Features

Perhaps one of the reasons why everyone seems to love Facebook so much, is the fact that there are so many different ways to use it. Once you have filled in as much or as little personal data on your profile as you like, you can search for people you know and 'add' them as friends. They consequently get sent a friend request and can choose to allow or ignore your request. Once you have connected with your friends, there is a range of ways in which you can communicate with them. For example, you can write a quick post on their 'wall', which is a public notice board on their profile or alternatively you can write something more personal to them in a private message which they alone can read.

However, Facebook provides you with the ability to do a lot more than communicating with your friends. On your profile you can alter your personal status, which will also appear in a news stream on all of your friends' homepages when they log in to Facebook. This is a very quick and easy way of letting all of your friends know what you are up to or how you are feeling. You can also use Facebook chat, their instant messaging function in order to have a private online chat with friends who are also logged into Facebook at the same time.

One of the most popular aspects of Facebook is that it lets you upload photos onto the site, which you can bring to your friends' attention by 'tagging' them in the photo - they can then comment on the ones they like or dislike. For lots of people, this alone is a reason for getting onto Facebook as it is a way of sharing digital images with lots of people very easily - rather than sending them all by email for example.

Limitations

Obviously for a lot of people - in particular those who are new to social networking - the issue of privacy is a great concern. Facebook has come under fire in the past for allowing some private information to be publicly accessible. However it has responded well to criticism and users now have full control over their privacy settings so that they can adjust the amount of information that is available to the public and how much is available only to people who are their friends on Facebook.

Other problems that people have encountered are far more trivial. For example, users can be tagged in unbecoming photos by their friends. However, these can easily be de-tagged if you resolve that you do not want other people to see them.

Facebook is a very large site, with so many different functions and applications that it can be overwhelming and essentially off-putting for some. In contrast, the extent and variety of time-wasting opportunities on Facebook can become a diversion in the office for others and may even develop into a detrimental addiction.

Conclusion

Facebook has so many different functions that it is impossible to give details about them all in depth here. Whilst this may be intimidating to the uninitiated, once you have spent a bit of time getting to grips with the different social networking opportunities that Facebook offers, you may well find yourself agreeing with those who say that today, it is an essential tool.

This article is one of a number of resources, reviews and guides with information on the major social networking sites available today, which can be found at Social Media Forum.

For articles and discussions on all the different aspects of social networking go to http://www.social-media-forum.com.