FIGURE 1-3: An example of a Facebook timeline.

Chapter 5 provides lots of detail about the timeline and what you might choose to share there. For now, think of it as a personal web page that helps you share with your friends on Facebook.

      Communicating with Facebook friends

      As Facebook grows, it becomes more likely that anyone with whom you’re trying to communicate can be reached. Chances are you’ll be able to find that person you just met at a dinner party, an old professor from college, or the childhood friend you’ve been meaning to catch up with. Digging up a person’s contact information could require calls to mutual friends, a trip to the white pages (provided you know enough about that person to identify the right contact information), or an email sent to a potentially outdated email address. Facebook streamlines finding and contacting people in one place. If the friend you’re reaching out to is active on Facebook, no matter where she lives or how many times she’s changed her email address, you can reach each other.

      And Facebook isn’t just about looking up old friends to say hi. Its messaging system is designed to make it easy to dash off a quick note to friends and get their reply just as fast. The comments people leave on each other’s photos, status updates, and posts are real conversations that you will find yourself taking part in.

      Sharing your thoughts

You have something to say. We can just tell by the look on your face. Maybe you’re proud of the home team, or you’re excited for Friday, or you can’t believe what you saw on the way to work this morning. All day long, things are happening to all of us that make us just want to turn to our friends and say, “You know what? … That’s what.” Facebook gives you the stage and an eager audience. Chapter 4 shows how you can make short or long posts about the things happening around you and how to distribute those posts easily to your friends.

      Sharing your pictures and videos

      Since the invention of the modern-day camera, people have been all too eager to yell, “Cheese!” Photographs can make great tour guides on trips down memory lane — but only if you remember to develop, upload, or scrapbook them. Many memories fade when the smiling faces are stuffed into an old shoe box, remain on undeveloped rolls of film, or are left to molder in obscurity on your phone’s camera roll.

      Facebook offers three great incentives for uploading, organizing, and editing your photos and videos:

      Chapter 11 shows how to share your photos and videos.

      Planning events

      The Facebook Events feature is just what it sounds like: a system for creating events, inviting people to them, sending out messages about them, and so on. Your friends and other guests RSVP to events, which allows the event organizers to plan accordingly and allows attendees to receive event reminders. Facebook Events can be used for something as small as a lunch date or as big as a march on Washington, D.C. Sometimes events are abstract rather than physical. For example, someone could create an event for Ride Your Bike to Work Day and hope the invitation spreads far and wide (through friends and friends of friends) to promote awareness. You can use Events to plan barbecues for friends as well as to put together a large reading series. Chapter 13 covers Events in detail.

      Joining and creating groups

      Facebook Groups are also what they sound like: groups of people organized around a common topic or real-world organization. One group may be intimate, such as five best friends who plan several activities together. Another group could be practical — for example, PTA Members of Denver Schools. Within a group, all members can share relevant information, photos, or discussions. Carolyn’s groups include one for each kid’s classroom at school, one for her For Dummies editorial team to update how the writing is going, one for women who like hiking and camping in the Pacific Northwest, and one Buy Nothing group for passing along used items with others in her neighborhood. Groups are covered in detail in Chapter 10.

      Whenever you share content on Facebook, you can choose to share it only with members of a certain group. So if you just had a baby and know how much your family is jonesing for new photos, you can share photos with just your family group without inundating the world at large.

      Using Facebook around the Internet

Facebook Photos, Groups, and Events are only a small sampling of how you can use Facebook to connect with the people you know. Throughout this book, you find information about how Facebook interacts with the greater Internet. You might see articles recommended by friends when you go to The New York Times website or information about what music your friends like when you use Spotify, an Internet radio website. Chapter 15 explains in detail the games, apps, and websites that you can use with your Facebook information.

      Many of these websites and applications have been built by outside developers who don’t work for Facebook. They include tools to help you edit your photos; create slideshows; play games with friends across the globe; divvy up bills among people who live or hang out together; and exchange information about good movies, music, books, and restaurants. After you become a little more comfortable with the Facebook basics, you can try some of the thousands of applications and websites whose services allow you to interact with your Facebook friends.

      Promoting a business

      Every day, you interact with your friends and family. You also interact with other people, places and things: a newspaper or magazine, your favorite coffee shop, a celebrity whose marriage