Five Basic Facebook Questions

September 5th, 2008 mlovings Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

In our first interview, Vicky Hennegan definitely provided food for thought as to why “blogging” and other new Web technologies are helping to form new bonds between parents and their children. Our first interview also included the “5 Steps Toward Technology and Social Media Use” which Vicky feels are an essential base for us to have as we build our technical knowledge and technology skills.

We have invited Vicky of Remarkable Parents back to discuss Facebook, one of the most popular social media services on the internet. It has recently been gaining exposure as a social tool useful to an extremely wide audience.

In this interview, we will begin by walking through Five Basic Facebook Questions, then we will look at some basic Facebook features including (Status Updates, News Feed, Facebook Chat (Instant Message client), My Blog, Blog Network, & Groups) and we will end with a few Facebook Tips & Tricks.

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MacKenzie: Can you give us a brief history describing the background of Facebook? How it got started, how people use it, and who the original creator was?

Vicky: Below I have answered 5 Basic Facebook Questions. This will give readers an idea of the original intention of the application as well as it’s evolution over the last few years.

5 Basic Facebook Questions

1. How did Facebook start?
   Facebook was begun by Mark Zuckerberg a Harvard University student. Initially Facebook was available to only Harvard University students. In a fairly short period of time, Facebook would go through four additional iterations, each time giving new audiences access to this web-based application.

   The second expansion made Facebook available to other Ivy League University students, while it’s third iteration allowed it to add further to this base age group by including all university students. The fourth iteration expanded the age group to include high school students and the final iteration made it available to anyone over the age of 13 years old. The final iteration was when Facebook began to really become a main stream social tool with the diversity to appeal to a wide audience.

2. Why was it named Facebook?
   It’s name refers to the printed, paper face books that are made available in some American colleges and prep schools. Leave it to some young whipper-snapper to go ‘old school’ on all of us parents and use a name that not only makes sense, but that has to do with such classic elements as print and paper.

   The original printed face books purpose was to provide incoming students, faculty, and staff with a way to get to know the other people on campus.

3. What is Facebook?
   
   Facebook is a social networking web site that was officially launched in February, 2004 and is privately owned by Facebook, Inc. A Facebook account is free and registration can be completed in less than five minutes!

   Within a Facebook account you have a basic profile of information, called your Profile. The following are some of the Profile fields: location, interests, relationship status, birthday, hometown, political views, religious views, activities you enjoy, your interests, favorite music, favorite tv shows, favorite movies, favorite books, favorite quotes, and your contact information. Note: You can leave any of these fields blank.

4. How many people are on Facebook?
   
   Facebook has more than 40 million users with 200,000 new user’s joining each day.

5. What are the basic features that come standard with Facebook?

   Photos: Gives you the ability to add/upload photos. Photos can also be added to Albums. Your Friends will then have access to these photos and/or albums.

   
   Video: Gives you the ability to add/upload Video to your Facebook profile.

   Groups: Gives you the ability to create a Group for your site or for various other reasons. (examples of Groups could be “American Cancer Society’, “Cub Scout Pack 1354”, “St. Mary’s Choir”). You also have the ability to join Groups. After you join a Group, they will be able to send you Events for that group.

   Events: An Event is a specific thing that occurs on a specific date at a specific time. (examples of Events could be “Heritage Family Tree Class”, “Amanda’s 16th Birthday Party”, “Lincoln School PTA Meeting”).
   

   
   After an Event has been created, an invitation can be sent for the Event to anyone on your Friends/that Groups list. The receiver of an Event invitation will be prompted to RSVP. Possible RSVP replies include Yes, No, or Maybe. Note: An RSVP response can be changed at a later date.

   Notes: Gives the author the ability to write free form text, which can be a note, a list, a letter, or anything else. Notes can be tagged, which means a tag can be created that could include the names of people referenced in the note or people referenced in a photo. You can add other elements to a note, including photos and URL link, such as Remarkable Parents. Notes can also receive comments.

MacKenzie: What is your favorite Facebook application and why?

Vicky: One of my favorite applications on Facebook are the Status Updates. A Status Update is a short update of about 30 words.

The Status Updates box (see Figure 2 – Step 2) will show me the Status Update information for two or three of my Friends, depending on the length of each update, which can include a url (example www.facebook.com).

You also have the ability to see All Friends –> Status Updates (see Figure 2 – Step 2, Step 3) which will show you how to access this screen.

The screen is what the All Friends –> Status Updates screen (see Figure 3) looks like.

MacKenzie: What are a few more of your favorite Facebook applications and why?

Vicky: I would have to say the News Feed and Facebook Chat are two features I find very useful.

The News Feed lists the new applications, photos, links, video, notes, and such that my Friends have been doing or participating in on Facebook.

A definite plus is the fact that I can usually read my entire News Feed in less than 4 minutes!

Another feature I really like is Facebook Chat, which is an instant message client.

If one of your Friends is using Facebook at the same time you are, you can chat using Facebook Chat.

To find out who is online, there is an indicator at the bottom of the Facebook screen. It will show you how many people currently have Facebook open, which is the Online Friends (7) below.
You can then double-click on the individuals name and a chat box will open. Note: They should have an ‘active’ (green circle) as their status.

MacKenzie: Is Remarkable Parents available on Facebook and can web sites be setup on Facebook?

Vicky: I have My Blog Remarkable Parents Blog as a Facebook Blog and then I have a Group Remarkable Parents Group. The Group will be for our readers to socialize with each other, while the Blog will have articles available from the web site.

There are advantages to setting up your Blog as My Blog, particularly if you want it to automatically add new articles from your web site to your Facebook Blog page.

If you want to add our Blog to your Blog Network you would go to Remarkable Parents Blog and choose “Join Blog Network”.

Then from any page in your Facebook, you will have access to the Blogs you have added through the Blog Networks icon (see Figure 5c – Blog Networks).

Once a blog has been added to your Blog Network, you can read articles from the blog, while your in Facebook. This is so convenient and also saves time.

You just to the application for the Blog Feed (see Figure 7 – Blog Feed) and then double-click the article that interests you.

Some of the blog articles for Remarkable Parents includes:

• Who Taught My Kid That Four Letter Word?
• How Using Social Media Has Helped Me Be A Better Dad
• Missing Children Alerts on Twitter – Twitter for a Social Cause
• Keeping Kids Safe – Part 1: Parental Control Software Explained

Facebook Tips & Tricks

Finding Friends/Contacts on Facebook

Facebook will try to help you look for your friends and loved ones. It will offer to import your contacts from your email application and use that information to find people that you know. When it has finished, it will tell you who it was able to find and not able to find.

You may not want to add all your email contacts to Facebook, you will have the ability to choose the people that you want to import and to have access to your Facebook information. I believe that they give you a list of your email contacts and you put a check in the check box to indicate the people that you want to import.

Remember however, that they have access to a lot of information about what you do, where you comment, and what Groups you join. Give yourself some time and start off slowly.

Add-On Applications for Facebook

There are thousands of add-on applications that can be added to Facebook. Some are very helpful, many however are not that great! Ask other people which ones they like or read articles on the ones your interested in installing before you take the plunge.

You can get yourself in a mess with too many add-on’s that aren’t worthwhile. They may not only become irritating to you, but also to your friends.

Interact and Have FunHave fun with it and remember social media is about interaction and strengthening relationships. Be a good friend and comment on other peoples photos, pictures, links, notes, and other communication. People are taking the time to add these photos, videos, ect.. so if you know them, leave them a short comment.

After you get to know peoples interests better, you may find yourself posting an article, not for yourself, but for a friend who has that interest.

Accepting or Denying a Friend RequestIf you don’t know someone and they send you a Friend Request, send them a response asking them how they know you. Most people won’t mind answering and letting you know. Don’t Friend people you don’t know unless you plan to be very open with the information you will be posting.

Have lots of fun!