How to Use Facebook: Tips for Newbies

So you’re ready to join the 750+ million people on Facebook? Great! There are a number of things you can do to make Facebook safer, control your privacy, find your friends, and customize your experience. Here are a few of the key things you should know.

Security

Make sure you’re using browser encryption. Go to Account Account Settings Settings Account Security. By choosing to “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible” you’ll reduce the risk of someone stealing your password or eavesdropping on you over a wireless network. In the same settings window you’ll see options to notify you if an unrecognized computer or device tries to access your Facebook account. This is useful if you use one or two computers that access your account, but it may become a pain if you use random computers in many locations.

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Privacy

Facebook is about sharing with others, but you may not want to share everything with everyone. There are ways to determine who can see what by going to Account Privacy Settings. You can fully customize your privacy settings through Customize Settings so your data is shared only with a select group of people.

For each type of information you share, you can choose Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or Customize. Customize allows you to choose specific people who can see your data, and allows you to hide your info from specific people as well.

Another part of being social is connecting, and Facebook allows you to determine how others can connect to you. In Account/Privacy Settings/Connecting on Facebook choose View settings to limit if people can search for you on Facebook, send you friend requests or messages, or see your friend list.

Friends

Facebook is no fun without your friends and family, so add as many of them as you’d like to be in touch with.

You’ll see a People You May Know section on the right side of your Facebook page, which is how Facebook suggests connections based on what it knows about you. Click See All and you’ll get a larger list. For a more directed search, click on Find Friends at the top of your screen. You’ll have the option to search for friends by name or by email, from other email accounts you own (Facebook recognizes over 2500 sources) or imported from a CSV file or Outlook.

If you’ve added people you no longer want on your Friends list, choose Account/Edit Friends. There’s a dropdown at the top of the page to choose which friends you’d like to view, and you can ‘X’ out any of them you’d like to remove.

The Account/Edit Friends page is also where you can create “Lists” to better organize your friends. You can create lists for high school friends, another for neighbors, others for work or your organizations, as many as you want. Just Create a List, and choose who you’d like to add.

Customization

Seeing lots of stuff you’d rather not in your News Feed? You can get rid of it! If you hover over an item in your feed, you’ll see a little ‘X’ appear in the upper right corner of the item. Click the “X” and choose “Hide this post” or “Hide all by xxx” and you can get rid of the stuff you’d rather not see.

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