Signing Up for Facebook

Take that step...

No matter what social media platform you choose, the first step is signing up. Because Facebook is probably the best known and easiest to learn, let's use it as our first.

1. Go to www.facebook.com, and the following screen appears:

Notice the blue bar across the top of the screen. Use that section to sign in when you visit Facebook in the future.
It is a common mistake to attempt to log in by entering information in the most obvious text boxes on the page. Instead, look up; log in at the top.

2. For now, focus on the Sign Up section: 

3. Provide the requested information, and click Sign Up.

NOTE: Consider signing up with your email address instead of your mobile phone number. A stray email solicitation is less of an intrusion than an unwanted phone call or text message.

Congratulations!
You’ve just joined Facebook. That wasn’t that scary, now was it?

Why would I ever want to join Facebook?

What's the big deal?

Social media has become the way people stay in touch with each other. Nearly 75% of people with Internet access have Facebook accounts. I know what you’re thinking. Doing it because everyone else is doing it isn’t a very good reason for much of anything. However, the sheer number of folks who have Facebook accounts means you probably know a good number of people you can connect with. And while the younger crowds are leveling off on their use, use among the 50+ crowd continues to grow.

Keeping in touch with family
Facebook is a simple way for families in various parts of the world to feel more connected. Grandparents can more easily watch their grandkids grow, and they can share their lives, even from afar, and unlike videoconferencing, participants need not be online at the same time.

If for no other reason than to see pictures of the kids and grandkids, Facebook is a great tool for mature adults. While most of society isn’t ready to give up the tangible, hold-it-in-the-lap, family album, Facebook has become a quick and easy place to share photographs with family and friends; and with powerful cameras in nearly every phone along with no need to have film developed, more pictures are taken now than ever before. 

Keeping in touch with friends, old and new

Just as you can easily keep up with your family on Facebook, you can keep up with friends, share pictures, and carry on conversations. Facebook allows you to efficiently keep up with a larger number of friends than you could through traditional methods – and at your own pace.

With more and more middle-aged and senior folks joining Facebook daily, it’s likely many of your friends have already joined and are just waiting for you to join them. This influx also increases the chance that someone you haven’t heard from in years is on Facebook and looking for you. The rekindling of old friendships and sharing memories of earlier times can be truly rewarding and sometimes life changing.

Doing business

Facebook has become a major way businesses stay in contact with their customers. If you have a small business, it’s practically crucial to be on social media. Your customers expect your presence.

But even if you don’t own a business, you DO engage in business. If you’re a fan of a business, they want to know. If something has gone awry, businesses are anxious to help right the wrong, and Facebook is often one of the tools they use to work toward a resolution. They want to keep you happy as a customer.

Why not just pick up the telephone?
Well, you certainly can do that. You can also write a paper letter or even an email message.
Time, though, can be an issue. If you’re seven time zones removed from your loved ones or from a company you do business with, finding a time everyone is available can be a challenge.

Facebook allows each party to respond immediately or at his or her convenience. It may not be as immediate as talking on the telephone, but it’s timely; and it may be more efficient if one party needs to investigate or research before responding. With the telephone, this would require long periods of being on hold or multiple phone calls.

And don’t discount the social aspect of Facebook. Most telephone conversations are just between two people. A Facebook conversation, on the other hand, has the potential to be between you and one friend, you and a group of your friends, or you and all of your Facebook friends. The ability for more people to be involved makes the edventure more fun.

Just wait until your birthday and you see your in-box full of greetings from people wishing you the very best.

What if I don’t want everyone to see everything I do?
Some folks believe that anything you post on Facebook is there for the whole world to see. By default, that is true, but Facebook provides numerous settings to narrow your audience down to exactly who you want it to be, whether that IS the whole world or just your niece and nephew.

Why not?
In the end, Facebook, like so many things in life, is what you make it. With a little thought, it can be a great way to stay in touch with family and friends and to do business. Edventures in Social Media aims to be your source to make your experience a wise and enjoyable one.

What is social media?

Defining the term
Numerous Web sites and dictionaries offer their own definitions for the term social media. If you find yourself with a few spare moments, you may want to use Google to search for definitions.

For Edventures in Social Media, the term refers to various sites and services where the users create the content. The service is the social media platform; the content is made up of entries from everyday users… folks like you and me.

It is important to remember that even though you and I create the content on social media sites, we are not really the customers for those sites; we use their sites, and in doing so, we provide the content that makes people want to visit those sites. The real customers for social media sites are the advertisers who want to grab our attention and sell us something.

Major social media platforms
The major examples are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Blogs, and so many others. Even services like TripAdvisor and Yelp are becoming quasi-social media platforms.

What is the difference?
Let’s start with just two of the majors. The differences can be quite involved.

Facebook
Facebook began on college campuses and quickly became a platform for college students to connect with one another and make friends. Through the early years, Facebook opened itself up to larger groups of people, and now anyone is welcome to set up a profile, and many younger uses deem it uncool and have moved on to other platforms.

Facebook is the long-time biggest player. Today it is often the social media platform where people first dip their toes to test the waters, largely because it is one of the easiest to use. Its massive popularity makes it the platform Edventures in Social Media uses for examples.

Twitter
Twitter is referred to as a microblogging site. It allows uses to craft messages of up to 140 characters. As Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Brevity is also the soul of Twitter. Enforcing the character limit in Twitter can be challenging, but generally results in better-crafted messages. Similar to the restrictions of a Haiku poem, Twitter messages can become brilliant because of, not despite, the limitations.