FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK

What is Facebook?

Facebook is a social networking website intended to connect friends, family, and business associates. It is the largest of the networking sites, with the runner up being MySpace. It began as a college networking website and has expanded to include anyone and everyone.

Facebook was founded by 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and originally called the facebook. It was quickly successful on campus and expanded beyond Harvard into other Ivy League schools. With the phenomenon growing in popularity, Zuckerberg enlisted two other students, Duston Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, to assist. Within months, the facebook became a nationwide college networking website.

Zuckerberg and Moskovitz left Harvard to run thefacebook full time shortly after taking the site national. In August of 2005, the facebook was renamed Facebook, and the domain was purchased for a reported $200,000 US Dollars (USD). At that time, it was only available to schools, universities, organizations, and companies within English speaking countries, but has since expanded to include anyone.

Facebook users create a profile page that shows their friends and networks information about themselves. The choice to include a profile in a network means that everyone withing that network can view the profile. The profile typically includes the following: Information, Status, Friends, Friends in Other Networks, Photos, Notes, Groups, and The Wall.

Users are able to search for friends and acquaintances by e-mail address, school, university, or just by typing in a name or location for search. When people become friends, they are able to see all of each others' profiles including contact information. E-mail notifications let users know when new friends have chosen to add them to their list or when someone has sent a message to them within the system.

A popular feature on Facebook is the ability to share photographs uploaded from a phone, camera, or hard drive. As with other private information, users have the option to allow only friends to see their pictures or anyone. There is an unlimited amount of storage available, which is a major advantage of Facebook's photograph sharing capabilities.

Groups can be created by users. These can include anything from grade school connections to hobbies and interests. Groups can be public and available to everyone or private, meaning only those invited can join and view discussions. Similarly, the Events feature allows friends to organize parties, concerts, and other get togethers in the real world. Users can also become fans of everything such as people, organizations, television shows, movies, and musicians.

There are countless applications available to add to a profile. They range from a list of Top Friends to movie compatibility with others, and maps of where users have traveled. These applications are created by individuals outside of Facebook's employment who are known as Developers.

Users of Facebook can share news stories, video, and other files with friends. Most news and video websites have buttons that can be clicked to automatically share the story or video on a feed. The person sharing can make comments about the shared item that their friends will see.

Personal notes can also be written and shared with friends. When sharing an item, users can attach the item to their Wall for all to see, or can tag individual people that they think would be most interested in seeing the item. When a user is tagged, they receive an e-mail notification.

Facebook had a redesign in late 2008, intended to streamline the website and make it easier to see what friends were doing. It has seen outstanding growth since its inception and is poised to maintain its dominance in social networking. In early 2009, Facebook users worldwide were nearly double that of its older competitor MySpace.

Facebook Mobile

Facebook Mobile is a feature that allows a user to access Facebook from their cell phone through text messages, e-mails, downloaded applications or a web browser. Launched in 2007, Facebook Mobile was designed to give Facebook users the ability to view and update their pages on-the-go. 

Status updates, wall posts, and photo uploads can all be done through text and picture messaging, while logging on to the Mobile web site from your phone's web browser allows you to see friends' updates. Many smart phones also allow a user to download a Facebook application, which comes equipped with many of the the same features available on the standard web site. In May 2010, Facebook launched "Facebook Zero," a mobile web site which would acquire no data fees, on over 50 service providers around the world.

As of April 2012, Facebook had over 900 million users, with some analysts predicting that the social media site would reach the one billion user mark later in the year. In the US alone, there were 156 million members in the spring of 2012, with about 70% of all US. Internet users having an account. In May 2011, people spent 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook.

More Facebook facts:

·         Growth of new memberships has slowed in some countries, including the UK and US. Increased growth is found in countries where social media participation has not yet peaked, such as India.

·         In the spring of 2012, Bangkok, Thailand had more Facebook users than any other city in the world, with over 8.6 million accounts. New York was the top ranking US city, with over 3.4 million users.

·         Over 50% of employers in the UK have banned Facebook from their office computers.

What Is Facebook Connect?

·         Facebook Connect was launched in December of 2008. This features allows Facebook users to connect their account with certain applications and third-party websites, often without having to register repeatedly in order to join each site; the user logs in using the Facebook account. In addition to allowing the user to set privacy settings, it allows for the posting of information from each site onto the individual's Facebook page.

·         One of the benefits of Facebook Connect is that, by gathering the information from the profile, it allows for the user to skip the hassle of registering on a different website each time. As long as the user is logged in on Facebook, the site will recognize the user by that ID. Before integrating with the account, the website will ask for the user's permission to connect as well as agreeing to the terms of service.

·         To adjust privacy settings for Facebook Connect, the user must do it through the Facebook account under the “applications and websites” page. This allows users to control what information is available to friends through the third-party sites and applications. Users can choose to share with friends all of their information, some of it or none at all.

·         Third-party websites and applications use Facebook Connect to read the users' friends list and compare it to the users on their site that also use the feature. This is useful for allowing users in common to have another way of discussing and sharing their interests with each other. Depending on the site, users can get reviews from people they know on specific products and places instead of random reviews from strangers.

·         Instead of the user manually posting individual bits of information to their Facebook news feed, Facebook Connect automatically allows the posting of information from the site onto the news feed. While it may seem essentially like the same process, it eliminates quite a few steps. This allows the user to share information easily and more seamlessly.

·         Facebook Connect allows Facebook users on other websites to have real identities attached to their accounts instead of it being anonymous, which creates a more personal experience. When the user changes something on his or her profile, it automatically changes on the third-party website or application as well. The feature helps users connect with friends on a variety of websites without all the extra steps in between.

What Are the Different Types of Facebook Groups?

Facebook has created a variety of ways for people to communicate and share similar interests. One way to connect people with similar interests involve Facebook groups, which are pages dedicated solely to one idea, entity, person, place, or thing. Facebook groups can focus on anything the creator of the page wants to focus on, and the group page can be customized by the creator to accomplish certain goals or to simply facilitate discussion. Facebook groups have become a marketing tool on the most successful social networking site in existence.

Some Facebook groups focus on a particular product, and the page is therefore used as a marketing tool for a company or corporation. Such groups often include updates on products, special offers, and general discussion about the company. Promotional pictures, logos, and slogans are common on such pages, as are links to external websites where group users can purchase products, find more information, or access other facets of the company's brand.

Other Facebook groups are simply places where people with similar interests can communicate. The group can be a broad category, such as "rock music," or the name of a particular band. Fans of such music can come together to network, become friends, discuss prominent themes within the topic, and share photos, links, and other information.

The privacy settings on Facebook groups are customizable. The pages can be made public or private, which allows the creator to control who sees the content of the page. Most marketing pages, such as pages of companies, artists, and businesses, are generally set to public so that anyone with a Facebook account can join. Other groups, such as local groups or organizations, a group of friends, or other personal pages, can be set to private so that only those Facebook users who have been invited to join the page can view the content.

Activists have also taken advantage of Facebook groups to mobilize contingents of people for a variety of causes. Around election times, groups urging people to vote are quite common; environmental causes have groups on Facebook; political activists have taken advantage of the social networking tool to encourage people to join the cause. Groups on Facebook are virtually limitless, with causes and companies of all sorts taking advantage of the free service that gives them access to an audience at no charge. Groups on Facebook do not require much commitment from users, as they can join or leave a group whenever they want.

How Does Facebook Work

network isn’t just something that will help you connect with old flames, but it can also help you to connect with your clients and your customers and share interesting content you find online. The business world has changed as a result of Facebook, and that means you need to catch up quickly in order to make the most of this tool.

The Inner Workings of Facebook

Many people don’t think much about, “How does Facebook work?” They just post information, interact with other people, and enjoy themselves. But there is more to it. Facebook operates by looking at the similar connections people share. When you’re connected with Friend A, for example, and Friend B is connected to you, Facebook will suggest that Friend A and Friend B also become friends online. This networking helps to connect people all around the world.

Helping Facebook to Work for You

Facebook is a tool that allows you to connect with others in a variety of ways. At the basic level, you will connect with other users via your email account. You will be asked to enter in your email information (don’t worry – they don’t save this information). This will bring up a list of people who are in your email contacts. You can then choose to add these people as Facebook friends. The other person will get a request from you to verify or to ignore your request. This is how you get connected.

You can also use the Friend Finder, which is to the right of the screen, and Facebook will suggest people with whom you might want to be friends. You might know these people, and you might not. They are chosen based on with whom you have already connected.

Fun on Facebook

You can send notes to other friends, write on their walls, and play games with other friends on your account. This allows you to create as interactive of a relationship as possible. You can join groups, ‘like’ certain things, and also customize your profile as well as read the profiles of others. Taking some time to play with the many features on Facebook will help you to begin to create the experience you want. You can use Facebook for purely social reasons, or you might want to create a group page or a business fan page.

How Facebook Can Work for Your Business

Facebook can also be an effective way to inexpensively promote your home or small business, too. You can set up a Facebook page that promotes your business, and then put a badge or link to your Facebook page on your LinkedIn profile, on your website and/or blog and invite people to “like” (formerly, become a fan of) your Facebook business page. (See the About Home Business page for an example.)

Is it Time to Put Facebook to Work for You?

Today, getting onto Facebook will help you to become a part of a conversation that has been taking place for the last few years. Many Facebook fanatics start and end their day on Facebook. If you’ve been asking yourself, “How does Facebook work?”, maybe it’s time to see for yourself. Get into the discussion and you will find you are not only able to keep up with what's going on with your family and friends, but meet new people, cultivate new contacts and find lots of useful information you might not have otherwise found.