Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world, used by 800 million people.
It’s often making news headlines, either with concerns about safety or privacy, or because of the antics of its users. It’s also providing a great way for people to stay in touch with their friends and families.
Whatever your opinion of the site, Facebook is here to stay and will continue to play an important role as a communication channel for millions of people and, increasingly, businesses.
The fundamentals of Facebook
Facebook allows you to share information with a network of contacts (known as ‘Friends’), and potentially with a wider network if you choose to allow it.
This information comprises short messages, photographs, videos, website links and similar items. Its use spans generations: teenagers use it to chat with their friendship groups, while grandparents use it to keep up with growing families.
You have considerable control over who sees the information that you publish on Facebook. The organisation has responded to criticism of its approach to personal privacy by adding new privacy levels, although the default option is usually ‘share with everyone’. You need to change this if you want to restrict visibility of your actions to a smaller group of people.
Through Facebook you can also initiate polls, schedule and publicise events, and play games. There is a built in search function, which connects to the wider internet through the Bing search engine.
Organisations, groups and businesses on Facebook
Your club, favourite charity or business can now have its own Page on Facebook. This lets it communicate with fans, supporters or customers who also have Facebook accounts.
This communication can be both to and from followers or customers. Facebook is increasingly becoming another way for organisations of all types to listen to what people have to say about them and to them. It also gives potential for smaller groups and firms to reach a much wider audience.
Facebook continues to change
If you buy a book about how to use Facebook, the chances are it will already be out of date. New features are continually being added and some older functions, which didn’t prove to be that useful, are being withdrawn. While the fundamentals of how it works remain the same, the way it looks has changed quite significantly in just a few years.
Facebook was one of the very first social media websites and these are still early days for this new aspect of the communication revolution. More change, and lots of it, is a certainty.