What is Facebook? By

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1 What is Facebook? By Facebook is probably the best known of the social networking sites. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends, originally as a way for students at Harvard University to get to know each other, it s now believed to have over 750 million active users. Some of its functionality - such as Facebook Connect, a way to sign up to other websites using your Facebook login details - appears across thousands of other websites. Anyone over the age of 13 can use the site and it currently boasts that its oldest user is 103 years old! Many parents and grandparents use Facebook to keep in touch with grandchildren and family around the world. Users create a free account that acts as a profile of them in which they share as much or as little information as they wish. Profiles are usually created using a real name, although some people choose to use an alias or nickname, and are often accompanied by a photograph. Companies and brands are increasingly building a presence on Facebook, and apps such as games and tools used within Facebook are hugely popular. Facebook s key benefits and features Facebook is free to join and free to use. It can be used by anyone wherever they are in the world as long as they have internet access. Facebook users can share messages, video links, photographs and websites. Facebook can be used as an organisational tool for planning and managing event invitations. You can search by name or to find people. By using various privacy settings, users can choose to allow different people to have access to their pages or to deny them this access. Facebook is available 24 hours a day so people can communicate without time zone differences causing a problem. How to join Facebook With Facebook having 600 million users and counting, it s likely that plenty of your friends and family members have a Facebook profile. It s free and easy to join them, and only takes a few moments. Like most social networking sites, Facebook asks each potential user to create a user profile before they can join the worldwide network. This can contain as little or as much information as you want, although there are some mandatory details. Once you ve created your profile, you can also adjust the privacy settings to specify which details you want to be made public. 1

2 You ll need: A computer with an internet connection An account set up and ready to send and receive s Set-up instructions 1. Go to the Facebook website ( Under Sign Up, you will see several boxes that require information such as your name and address. 2. Both the gender and date of birth boxes have information in drop-down lists. Click an arrow to display a list where you can click on the correct data. When you ve filled in all your details and entered your password, click the green Sign Up button. 3. A new window will open, showing some writing (usually nonsense) and an empty box. This is known as a CAPTCHA and is designed to ensure that a human is creating the account, rather than a machine set up for the purposes of spamming or similar. You may come across a few of these as you use the web and some are easier to read than others. In the box, enter the letters as you see them and then click Sign Up again. 4. Facebook will now open your profile and ask you a series of questions to help you get started. Step 1 is designed to help you link up with friends who are already using Facebook. To do this, insert the address that you used to create your profile (if it s a webmail address such as Gmail - mail.google.com) in the box provided and then click Find friends. Facebook will access your contacts, match them up with existing Facebook users and make the latter your friends. If you don t want to do this now or would prefer to do it manually, click Skip this step 5. The next step - Step 2 - is intended to help you build your profile. Remember, people may be searching for Facebook users not just by name but also by school, university or employer. If you ve decided to use Facebook to renew acquaintances, this information could prove invaluable in helping people find you. If you do want to provide this information, complete the boxes and click Save & continue. However, if you decide that you d rather not do this now, click Skip. 6. The third step will ask you to add a Profile picture. You can either click Upload a photo to install an existing photograph that you ve saved on your computer or one that can be accessed from it or - if you have a webcam that takes still images - you could click Take a photo. Many people choose to use a picture of something other than themselves for their profile - for instance, a cartoon or a photo of their children or a favourite pet. If you d rather have nothing, click Skip. If you add a photo, remember to click Save & continue when you re finished. 7. This is the last step before you re ready to start your Facebook adventure! Your brand new Facebook profile page will open with a bar at the top. Click the Go to your mail button. This will open your inbox where you ll find an from Facebook containing a hyperlink. Click on this to verify that you re the person who created the new profile. You ll then be logged into Facebook, ready to experience all that it has to offer. Done! 2

3 How to use Facebook What started as a simple website for Harvard students to make friends has become an enormous social network that spans the globe and offers so much more than a space to upload your holiday snaps and stay in touch with friends. This guide presumes that you ve already set up your profile and invited a few people you know to become Facebook friends but now what? You ll need: A computer with active internet connection A Facebook account and login details Start using Facebook: instructions 1. Sign in on the Facebook website ( using your address and password. Your profile page usually opens with the News Feed, which is a timeline of your friends activity. 2. Take a moment to look at the side panel. This will give you an idea of the variety of activities and functions available. a. Messages are similar to on Facebook - they can be seen only by you and the person to whom you sent it. b. Events could include a party, an informal get-together or even a rally or demonstration. You can be invited to these via Facebook and given the choice to accept, decline or say Maybe. c. Friends - a click on this will let you add more people. It will also show you recently updated information on your existing friends, if it s available. d. Games are available on Facebook. Here you ll also be able to find out which games, if any, your friends are playing online. e. Apps (or applications) are games, quizzes or tools. f. Questions allows you to ask all your friends something and create a poll and then display the answers. g. Photos can be put on to Facebook either individually or you can create Albums. These can be labelled and people within them can be tagged - that is, their names will be attached to any photos in which they appear. This means that, if a friend who is also on Facebook features in a photo and you tag them, this fact will be displayed on their Wall. Privacy settings can determine who sees these tags. h. Groups are collections of people with a common interest. You can view the groups that you have so far joined by clicking here. 3. Start interacting with friends by posting a status update or sharing something. Your status updates will appear on your Wall. This contains posts that you ve made, but also posts that other people have sent to your Wall. At the top of your main home page, you ll see a menu starting with Share: - you can share a number of things from here, but we will start with a photo. Click Photo. 4. You ll be given three options: click Upload a Photo. When you upload a photo, you ll be copying an existing photo on your computer (or sometimes on a USB memory stick or other temporary storage device). 5. To select the photo, click on Browse. 3

4 6. If you haven t changed your privacy settings, you ll now receive a warning advising you that this picture will be seen by everyone. If you want only your Facebook friends to see it, you need to click the arrow next to the padlock and change the settings - see our guide How to stay safe on Facebook ( to find out how. 7. When you ve closed the security box, the browse command will open a folder on your computer such as Pictures for you to choose the image that you d like to add to your page. Click the image name and then click Open. 8. You ll be taken back to the Facebook screen. Underneath the location of the photo that you have just chosen, you ll see a comment box. In this, you can add a caption or comment to accompany the photo. When you re happy with your chosen photo and comment, click Share. 9. The photo and comment will appear almost immediately on your Facebook page. It will also appear on your friends pages. Friends can click Comment and write what they think about your photo (you can also do this to any of their shared photos). How to Like Facebook profiles fall into three categories: individual profiles (like your personal profile), pages (for organisations, brands or artists to keep fans updated) or groups, which are exactly as they sound - spaces for groups of people to unite around a common opinion or experience. Digital Unite has a Facebook page. To stay up to date with our activities and let your friends know that you enjoy what we do, visit our page at and click 'Like'. This action will then appear on your Wall, allowing your friends to see that you like Digital Unite. Chatting on Facebook In the bottom right-hand corner of your Facebook page, you ll see a little window that says Chat. This works like IM (instant messaging) and lets Facebook users talk to each by typing messages in real time. Done! About Omega Omega exists to tackle some of the wider determinants of health, including social and economic issues. We achieve this by providing access to opportunities, information and a range of other non-clinical support. We work with unpaid family carers, people nearing the end of life, the bereaved, socially isolated individuals, the frail and the elderly. Omega's Work Supporting unpaid carers, particularly those looking after people with life-limiting or long-term health conditions Supporting former carers, the bereaved and the isolated frail-elderly Undertaking outreach activity to identify those in need of support Helping to raise standards in end of life care 4

5 Collating and sharing information and resources Collaborating with other organisations to improve quality of end of life care in the community Omega facilitates group sessions, organises social activities and encourages peer support. We work with clinicians, Third Sector organisations, care professionals, expert advisors, businesses, volunteers and others, to achieve tangible improvements in general care and palliative care. We are keen to reach out in new areas and welcome offers of collaborative work. Contact Omega Phone Fax Web Post Freepost RSGB-CYBY-HSCX Omega, London House, Town Walls, Shrewsbury, SY1 1TX 5