Facebook has inverse quite a bit since I offset signed upwards for an account in 2008. Dorsum so, Facebook was nonetheless called "The Facebook", and my bio literally said, "Check out my MySpace, it'due south waaaay better than my Facebook."

Needless to say, Facebook has evolved at breakneck speed since my middle school years, and it'll keep adapting at a swift pace for equally long equally it exists.

If you demand a refresher on how to utilize Facebook for marketing your business organisation or you desire to sign up for a personal account, check out this in-depth explanation of how to utilize the near popular social media network in the world.

Free Resource: How to Reach & Engage Your Audience on Facebook

In addition to sharing their own ideas, users can engage with the content other people share on Facebook by reacting to it with a similar, a express mirth, disapproval, and even a hug. Comments and shares are additional ways users tin can interact with each other'south content.

Facebook for businesses works similarly, except businesses have Facebook Pages not profiles like individual users do. Businesses tin can use their Facebook Pages to appoint with existing customers, target new customers, and administer client support.

To fully empathize Facebook and how information technology works, you lot'll desire to become familiar with mutual terms used on the platform. Hither is a list of central Facebook terms and what they mean.

Profile

The Facebook profile is where your information will live. Your name, photo, hometown, workplace, education history, and then on can all be added to your contour. You can make your profile as public or individual as you desire by disabling the data you don't desire publicly visible.

Facebook profile example for a beginner

Newsfeed

This is the place where all of your friends' posts will announced. You'll also run across updates from concern pages that you lot've liked. Your posts will as well announced in the newsfeed where your friends tin can meet them.

Timeline

Often confused with a newsfeed, the timeline is your personal record of all the posts you've shared and posts y'all've interacted with. While y'all won't usually come across friend'south status updates hither, at that place is ane exception — if they've tagged you lot in a postal service or a photo, it'll announced on your timeline. Your friends can see your timeline by default if they search your name unless y'all've set your privacy settings to do the contrary.

Algorithm

The algorithm is an elusive concept. Substantially, the algorithm is a serial of computations that Facebook's servers practise every second to decide what content you want to run into, interact with, and click on side by side. The algorithm uses dwell time (how long you lot view a post), engagement, page likes, posts, and more to determine the type of content you might like to see. Over fourth dimension, the algorithm gets amend at determining what content to show you.

Status/Mail service

The two terms are often used interchangeably, but "post" is the term Facebook uses to describe something you share on the newsfeed. Text, images, videos, and location are just a few of the types of posts you can share to the newsfeed for your friends to see.

How to write a status or post for a facebook beginner

Friends

These are people you've either sent a request to and they've accustomed or people who take sent yous a request and you've accepted. Unlike other social networking sites that let someone to follow you lot without you following them dorsum, Facebook'southward friend organisation requires both you and the other person to be friends with each other. A personal business relationship for an individual cannot have more than 5,000 friends (and it's non a good idea to make a second Facebook profile to become around this rule).How to view Facebook friends for beginners

Followers

Facebook has a follower option as well. When you add together new friends, you automatically follow them (and they follow you, as well). This is Facebook's way of adding this new friend to your newsfeed and making sure you encounter their posts (at to the lowest degree for a fiddling while unless you terminate engaging with them). For individuals who exceed v,000 friends on their personal Facebook profiles, people tin opt to follow them instead to stay upward to date on their posts. Keep in mind, while Facebook automatically follows your friends for you, you tin manually unfollow them without unfriending them. This action removes these individuals' posts from your newsfeed. If you do this, you'll need to search your friends individually and surge their timelines to catch up on their latest posts.

How to follow and unfollow a friend on Facebook

Groups

Facebook users with like interests might find it helpful to create a grouping on the platform. A group is a community of users who interact with each other based on various topics set by the grouping's admins and other users. Just individual users tin exist added to groups — pages cannot be part of Facebook groups. Admins have a broad range of permissions they can enable or disable to have the group role in a particular style.

Example of a Facebook private group called the millennial check in

Pages

Businesses utilize Facebook Pages to create a presence on the social network. Pages are not individual Facebook users — recollect of them equally profiles for businesses. They tin can mail service updates, images, videos, and all the other types of content that profiles tin. Notwithstanding, they take an advantage — Facebook Pages have the ability to connect to Facebook for Business concern and run ad campaigns.

Example of a Facebook page featuring GoFundme

Events

With so much community happening on Facebook, individual users and businesses accept the option to advertise events. The events tin accept RSVPs, create a guest list, and share the date time, and location of the event. Events can be virtual through a video platform or they tin can be in person with a physical location.

Example of a Facebook event featuring a few dozen people in small boats at the 4th annual mega tube float

Messenger

Instead of a direct messaging platform in the native Facebook app, Facebook Messenger exists as a carve up application so users tin conversation one-on-one or in a private grouping setting. When using Facebook.com on a desktop figurer, the messenger is accessible through the native Facebook website.

Facebook messenger button for beginners

Story

Like Instagram stories, Facebook stories are another way individual users and business pages can connect with their friends and followers. Stories are short pieces of content that are visible for just 24 hours. Later on 24 hours, the stories disappear from the newsfeed.

Facebook stories for beginners

Notification

Represented by the bell icon in the 3rd circumvolve beneath, a notification informs yous when a friend engages with your posts, photos, videos, or timeline, yous'll receive a notification that explains what they engaged with and when. Friend requests will besides appear here.Facebook notifications for beginners

Now that you have an idea of what Facebook is and how it works, here's a handy guide to using Facebook.

How does Facebook Work?

Facebook is powered by an algorithm that is able to learn each user's preferences and interests. Then, the algorithm displays content like images, status updates, and videos posted by friends and businesses that the user might be interested in. The goal for Facebook is to get users to engage with, consume, and share content.

Along with this, Facebook runs advertisements for businesses and these ads are sprinkled in betwixt organic content shared by your friends on the news feed. The ads are tailored to your interests so y'all run into what the algorithm thinks you might be interested in based on content yous've interacted with in the past. This is called behavioral targeting.

How the Facebook Algorithm Works

In the past, Facebook used a chronological timeline. This means that the posts on your newsfeed were listed in the club in which they were most recently shared by your friends on the platform. If your mom posted three hours ago and your best friend posted five minutes ago, y'all'd see your best friend'southward post first, so your mom's. Nonetheless, that all changed in September 2011 when Facebook officially announced that it was doing away with the chronological newsfeed and replacing it with a more personalized experience. Rather than seeing your friends' posts in the order they were shared, you lot now see the content Facebook'southward algorithm thinks you'll enjoy the nearly. This newsfeed is nonetheless effectually today.

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Learn how to reach and engage your Facebook concern page's audience with the help of this in-depth guide.

1. Sign upwardly for a Facebook business relationship.

To sign up for a Facebook business relationship, follow these three like shooting fish in a barrel steps.

  • Visit Facebook'due south website.
  • On the homepage, enter your commencement proper noun, last name, mobile number or electronic mail, new countersign, altogether, and gender.
  • Click Sign Upwardly.

Facebook sign up screen that shows new users how to sign up for Facebook

2. Ready up your privacy settings.

After you've signed upwards for a Facebook account, you can accommodate your privacy settings to control who can meet your profile and information. Follow these four unproblematic steps to alter your privacy settings.

  • Click on the downward pointing arrow that's located on the top right corner of any Facebook page.
  • Click Settings.
  • In the left sidebar, select Privacy.
  • Set who is allowed to see your past and future posts. You can also control how people can find and contact you lot.

How to change Facebook privacy settings for new users

Odds are, there's probably someone on Facebook who has the aforementioned name as you lot. To differentiate yourself from these people and help your friends and family unit detect you on Facebook, personalize your contour by adding a profile picture, cover photograph, and some personal information.

3. Personalize your profile.

Picking a Profile Picture show

  • Go to your profile and click on your profile movie.
  • To pick your profile picture, choose a photo that y'all're already tagged in on Facebook, ane that y'all've uploaded to Facebook, or a photo from your calculator. Y'all tin besides add a frame to your profile picture.

How to update your profile picture on Facebook

Choosing a Cover Photograph

  • Click the camera push on your cover photo, which is on your profile.
  • To choose your comprehend photo, y'all can choice a photo from your Facebook profile, a pick of Facebook'due south own encompass artwork, create a collage, or upload a photo from your computer. You lot tin too reposition or delete your current cover photo.

How to choose and change a cover photo for Facebook beginners

Updating Your Profile

  • Click the Most department on your profile folio.
  • In this section, y'all can fill up in information nearly your piece of work and education, the places you lot've lived, contact and basic info, family and relationships, details about yous, and life events.How to update your profile and about sections on Facebook

4. Like and follow public pages.

On Facebook, you can follow and get updates from your favorite brands, celebrities, sports teams, and publications. The all-time style to do this is by searching for them on Facebook and liking or post-obit their public folio, which will have a blueish verified check mark next to their name. After yous like or follow their page, yous'll start to see their updates in your news feed.

How to find like and follow public pages like HubSpot on Facebook

five. Review your timeline.

Your timeline is a digital log of your Facebook activity in opposite-chronological order. Your status updates, uploaded photos and videos, and the photos y'all're tagged in will appear on your timeline.

How to find and view your Facebook timeline

6. Add friends on Facebook.

There are three ways you can add friends on Facebook. You can either search for them, notice them in the Find Friends tab, or import a list of contacts from your email, iCloud, or telephone.

To find friends on Facebook, go to your contour, select the Friends tab, and tap the Detect Friends push button. You'll see a list of friend requests from other people and a list of people y'all may know that you lot tin add equally a friend on Facebook.

If you upload a list of contacts onto Facebook, you can add your friends equally you sort through each of your contacts.

How to add friends on Facebook for beginners

7. Post on Facebook.

The main purpose of Facebook is to aid friends and family connect with each other. And the best way to connect with your friends and family is by updating them about your life with status updates. To share a Facebook status, get to the text box at the top of your news feed page or on your profile page.

With condition updates, you can share text with 15 different colored backgrounds, photos, videos, GIFs, stickers, and links.

Yous tin also share other types of posts, like:

  • Feeling/Action: Share how you're currently feeling or what you're currently doing.
  • Check In: When you lot visit a urban center, location, or place, check in and let your friends know where you're at.
  • Tag Friends: If you're hanging out with your friends, tag them in your status and share what you're doing.
  • Tag Effect: If you're at an event, you can tag it in your status and share what event you're attending.
  • Ask for Recommendations: If you merely moved somewhere or you're almost to visit a location, you tin can ask your Facebook friends for recommendations on where to go.
  • Poll: Ask your Facebook friends what their opinion is on a certain topic.
  • Support Nonprofit: Choose a nonprofit organization of your choice and share information technology through your status. Your Facebook Friends can so select the donate button to support the chosen organisation.
  • Answer a Question: Choose a predetermined question to answer or create your own question to respond and share it with your Facebook friends.
  • Lists: Cull a predetermined topic to make a list for or create your own topic and share it with your Facebook friends.
  • Facebook Stories: All the content that you tin can share through a status update is shareable through your Facebook story. You can also upload content to your stories past clicking the Add to Your Story push button on the right sidebar. Additionally, yous can spotter all your friends' Facebook Stories past clicking on their flick in the Stories section, which is also located on the correct sidebar on your abode page.

8. Add photos and videos.

On Facebook, you tin add photos, videos, albums, and alive video broadcasts to your profile for all your friends to see.

Uploading photos or videos

To upload photos or videos to your contour, follow these iv simple steps:

  • Go to your Profile.
  • Select the Photos tab.
  • Select Add Photos/Video.
Upload pictures or videos from your computer.How to upload new photos and videos to Facebook

Creating photograph or video albums

To create a photo or video album, follow these four unproblematic steps:

  • Get to your Profile.
  • Tap the Photos tab.
  • Tap Create Anthology.
Upload pictures or videos from your figurer.How to create a new photo or video album in Facebook

Facebook Live

To do a live broadcast on your Facebook business relationship, follow these three elementary steps.

  • In the box that says What'due south on your mind?, select Alive Video.
  • One time you select Live Video, you can write a clarification about your broadcast, tag people in it, add a feeling or action, check in to an effect, support a not-profit, or add together a poll. Y'all can also championship your alive circulate or tag a video game if you're live streaming someone or yourself playing a video game.
  • Select Go Live when yous've finished describing your live broadcast.

How to go live on Facebook for beginners

9. Connect with friends.

On your news feed, you'll see updates from your friends, family unit, or public pages you lot follow. To collaborate with them, yous can like and react to their posts, share content on their timelines, and communicate with them through text or video chat.

Similar, Comment, Or Share

If you like someone'southward post, give them a thumbs up, comment on their mail service, or share information technology.

Other Reactions

If your Facebook friend'due south mail service evokes a stronger reaction in yous than a like, you can too express that you dearest, laughed, are amazed, sad, or angry at their post past holding downwards the Like button.

Facebook emoji reactions

Sharing Content on Your Friends' Timelines

Anything you tin mail on your status, you can also post on your friend's timeline.

Facebook Messenger

To chat with your friends or public pages on Facebook, use Facebook Messenger. You can access it by borer the Messages button at the top correct corner of any Facebook page or selecting the Letters push on the left sidebar of the abode page.

How to use Facebook messenger

Next, select New Message and type in your friend or brand's name that yous desire to connect with. Facebook Messenger also lets you create group chats by clicking on New Grouping. After that, all you accept to do is name your grouping and add the friends you lot want to include in the group.

How to send a new message in Facebook messenger

When you message your friends or group on Facebook Messenger, you can upload pictures, videos, and files from your computer, besides as stickers, GIFs, emojis, and accept pictures and videos from your estimator'due south or phone's camera.

Y'all tin can also view Messenger on its own page, where you tin search for past conversations and manage your settings. To view Messenger on its own page tap the Letters button in the top right corner of any Facebook folio and and so tap the Meet All in Messenger button.

How to find Facebook messenger

To instant message your friends' who are logged onto Facebook at the same fourth dimension equally you, tap the Chat button on the lesser of whatever Facebook page and strike up a conversation with your friends who are online.How to view messenger conversations on the main Facebook screen

Telephone and Video Calling

When you accept Messenger open up on its ain page, you can search for whatever of your friends or groups, click on their name, and tap the phone or video chat button to call them.

How to chat through Facebook messenger

10. Review your newsfeed.

Your news feed is a curated feed of posts from your friends, family, and public pages y'all follow that Facebook'south algorithm thinks y'all'll be interested in. You'll also run into ads from brands who recall you lot'll enjoy consuming their content or products.

To customize your news feed, tap the downward pointing pointer in the upper right corner of any Facebook page and tap News Feed Preference.

From there, you can prioritize whose posts you'll see first, unfollow people and groups to hide their posts, reconnect with people and groups you unfollowed, observe public pages that friction match your interests, and hide apps from your news feed.

11. Discover additional Facebook features.

Facebook isn't just a platform for viral content and connection. Information technology's also a hub for community communications, video streaming, marketplaces, and games.

Events

The Events page on Facebook will testify you lot any upcoming events that are popular with your Facebook friends or accept been set up by the groups you belong to. Yous tin also find events based on their engagement, location, and category.

To detect the Events page, select the Domicile push button. So, on the left sidebar, you'll see the Explore section, where you lot can select Events

Facebook event in Bartlett, TN for an outdoor spring crafts fair

Groups

The Groups page on Facebook will evidence you lot which groups yous manage and belong to. You tin also detect groups to join based on Facebook's suggestions and a ton of other categories.

To access the Groups page, tap the Dwelling house button and so on the left sidebar, you lot'll run across the Explore department, where you can click Groups.

How to find and see a group on Facebook

Facebook Spotter

On the Facebook Lookout platform, you tin can lookout videos from the shows you're post-obit and search for other shows and videos.

To access Facebook Scout, select the Abode button. So, on the left sidebar, you'll run across the Watch button right under the Marketplace button.

How to view groups in one page on Facebook

Market

Not only does Facebook compete with Netflix in the streaming industry, merely they besides compete with eBay in the marketplace industry. With Facebook Marketplace, you tin browse for all kinds of products, join groups to buy and sell products with people in your area or who share similar interests, shop for products sold from different shops, shop past category, and sell your ain products.

To access Facebook Market, select the Habitation button. Then on the left sidebar, you lot'll see the Marketplace button right nether the Watch button.

Facebook marketplace for beginners featuring a table, a house, and a studio apartment for sale

Games

Facebook Games is 1 of Facebook's best features. They host a huge collection of massively popular games, and you lot can browse the most popular games on the platform by top charts and categories. Y'all can even play most of the games with your friends, likewise.

Facebook games for beginners Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Free Resource: How to Reach & Engage Your Audience on Facebook

Originally published Apr 14, 2021 7:00:00 AM, updated August 27 2021