How to Use Facebook: A Beginner’s Guide

Since I first signed up for an account in 2008, Fb has modified fairly a bit. Again then, a big majority of individuals have been nonetheless asking, “What’s Fb?” and my bio actually stated, “Try my MySpace; it’s method higher than this.”

Over time, the social media big has developed at breakneck pace and sure will proceed to adapt swiftly for so long as it exists.

In the event you want a refresher on use Fb for advertising and marketing your small business otherwise you need to join a private account, check out this in-depth explanation of use the most popular social media network on the planet.

Right here, we’ll give attention to the fundamentals.

Desk of Contents:

What’s Fb?

Fb is a social media community that connects folks worldwide by means of a web based platform. By sharing content material like textual content standing posts, photos, movies, and exterior hyperlinks like weblog posts, Fb customers can contribute concepts and be a part of conversations with others who share the identical or completely different pursuits. It additionally provides teams, occasions, a market, and dwell streaming.

Along with sharing their very own concepts, customers can interact with the content material others share on Fb with likes, feedback, shares, and reactions similar to amusing, disapproval, and even a hug.

Fb works equally for advertising and marketing, besides companies have Facebook Pages, not profiles like particular person customers do. Companies can use their Facebook Pages to have interaction with present clients, goal new clients, and administer buyer help.

Why use Fb?

All of us possible know the stature of Fb, however does it dwell as much as the hype? For entrepreneurs, it actually does. Let’s break down a few of its greatest advantages.

It’s price environment friendly.

Anybody with web and an e mail tackle can join Fb and make the most of Pages, Teams, Occasions, Market, and the whole lot else it provides.

It’s free and pretty simple, however optimizing it for enterprise does take a bit extra time and a focus.

Study extra about organising a Fb Web page in The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing.

You could have entry to a large, numerous viewers.

As of April, Fb has over 3.06 billion monthly active users worldwide, making it the most well-liked social media platform by actually thousands and thousands. That’s roughly 40% of the world inhabitants, so, as a enterprise, there’s likelihood your target market shall be on Fb.

Source

Our research found that older generations, like child boomers and Gen X, think about it one among their high two favourite platforms total. In the meantime, youthful shoppers, like millennials and Gen Z, frequent it for occasions and Facebook Marketplace.

It helps quite a lot of content material mediums.

Along with useful connection instruments like Teams and Market, Fb additionally permits customers and companies to publish quite a lot of various kinds of content material.

Completely different folks prefer to eat content material in numerous methods, so diversifying your content material combine will be integral to getting your advertising and marketing messages heard.

Fb helps sharing:

• Textual content
• Picture/Photographs
• Video
• Stay Video
• Gifs

As they share the identical mother or father firm, it’s additionally simple to share Instagram posts on to a Fb Web page and incorporate conversations by way of Messenger right into a advertising and marketing technique.

Clearly, HubSpot is just not shy about exploring all the choices:

There are strong advert capabilities.

Regardless of robust competitors from TikTok and even its sister community Instagram, Fb stays the social media platform with the second-highest advert ROI for entrepreneurs, according to our recent report.

Entrepreneurs additionally stated Fb Adverts provide the second-best viewers focusing on instruments out of all social media platforms, shedding out to YouTube by just one%. That is no shock, contemplating it lets you target folks primarily based on behaviors on and off the platform.

With natural influence on social media changing into more and more troublesome, companies want reasonably priced and efficient advert choices, and Fb provides a few of the finest.

Study extra about Fb Adverts and do them efficiently in these assets:

However is Fb nonetheless fashionable?

If its enormous variety of month-to-month lively customers hasn’t already answered this query — sure, Fb continues to be extremely popular.

Whereas its utilization could wane amongst youthful generations who go for visual-focused platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, Fb nonetheless welcomes about two billion users daily.

Many of those customers are members of older generations with extra monetary stability and disposable earnings than their youthful counterparts, which is nice information for companies. Fb can be the third most visited web site on the planet, following solely Google and YouTube.

However why precisely?

Why Folks Like Fb

Fb is interesting to most people for most of the identical causes it’s interesting to entrepreneurs and companies.

It’s free and fairly simple to make use of, and it permits them to share and interact with all kinds of content material from each their family members and other people world wide.

Along with these, one among my favourite options of Fb is the flexibility to get granular in regards to the viewers of each single factor you publish. You can also make posts:

• Personal: Seen to solely you
• Public: Seen to anybody who visits the web page, on or off Fb.
• Seen to pals
• Seen to pals minus particular people
• Seen to particular pals
• Seen to particular lists you create

In my expertise, it provides the most customizable publish privateness settings of any social media community.

After all, Meta itself will all the time be capable to entry your knowledge — which has gotten it into sizzling water over the years — however it actually enables you to management what different customers can see.

Fb Phrases to Know

To completely perceive Fb and the way it works, you’ll wish to turn into accustomed to widespread phrases used on the platform. Here’s a record of key Fb phrases and what they imply.

Profile

Even in the event you solely wish to use Fb to market your small business, it’s important to arrange a private profile.

A profile is the place a person’s private info lives. It consists of their identify, picture, hometown, office, schooling historical past, and so forth relying on their privateness settings.

You can also make your profile as public or personal as you need utilizing the identical viewers choices we talked about earlier.

Pages

Pages are usually not particular person Fb customers however fairly profiles designed particularly for companies or organizations. They embrace fundamentals like your:

• Trade/Class
• Enterprise Overview/Historical past
• Contact Info (i.e., web site, cellphone quantity)
• Enterprise Hours (if relevant)
• Emblem and Branding

Relying on the category you choose when organising your web page, Fb will suggest sections (the tabs on the high of your web page), however you’ll be able to typically add or take away further ones as you want.

That stated, whether or not it’s a restaurant, a web based pet weblog, or a software program firm, any and all companies, manufacturers, and public figures can arrange a Fb Web page.

Like private profiles, companies can use Fb Pages to publish textual content updates, photos, movies, hyperlinks, and occasions. They will additionally hook up with Facebook for Business and run ad campaigns.

Notice: Already a HubSpot buyer? Click here to integrate your HubSpot account with Meta Ads.

With it, you’ll be able to:

• Create focused audiences that sync together with your Fb Adverts
• Generate Fb Lead advertisements inside HubSpot and routinely sync results in the CRM
• Monitor advert success and affect in your backside line utilizing varied attribution views
• Managing advert campaigns alongside your different advertising and marketing efforts ensures a constant narrative to your viewers.

Newsfeed

That is the place all the posts from your pals or companies you “like” or comply with” will seem. What exhibits up right here is usually determined by Facebook’s algorithm, which considers previous engagement, publish recognition, and advertisements. (Extra on that shortly.)

Your posts can even seem within the newsfeeds the place your pals and followers can see them.

Timeline

Typically confused with a newsfeed, the timeline is a file of all of the posts made or interacted with particularly by an individual or enterprise. It seems on Pages and profiles as “posts.”

If another person tags you, it’ll seem in your timeline as effectively. Nevertheless, if somebody tags your small business, it would seem on the “Mentions” tab in your Web page.

Your folks can see your timeline by default in the event that they search your identify except you’ve set your privateness settings to do the opposite.

Algorithm

The algorithm is an elusive idea. Primarily, the algorithm is a sequence of computations that Fb’s servers do each second to find out what content material you wish to see, work together with, and click on on subsequent.

The algorithm makes use of dwell time (how lengthy you view a publish), engagement, web page likes, posts, and extra to find out the kind of content material you wish to see.

Over time, the algorithm supposedly will get higher at figuring out what content material to point out you, however with all of the noise on the platform, most companies discover it is best to run advertisements for content material they really need seen.

Put up/Standing

“Put up” is the time period Fb makes use of to explain one thing you share on the newsfeed. Textual content, photos, movies, and site are only a few kinds of posts you’ll be able to share on the newsfeed to your pals to see.

Posts developed from “Statuses,” which initially solely allowed customers to share textual content updates about what they have been doing or what was on their thoughts in that second.

Buddies

These are folks you’ve both despatched a request to and so they’ve accepted or individuals who have despatched you a request and also you’ve accepted.

Not like different social networking websites that permit somebody to comply with you with out you following them again, Fb Profiles require each you and the opposite individual to be pals with one another to be able to interact.

A private account for a person can’t have greater than 5,000 pals (and it’s not a good suggestion to make a second Facebook profile to get round this rule).

Followers

Followers are individuals who have opted to obtain updates from a selected web page or profile.

Whenever you add new pals, you routinely comply with them (and so they comply with you, too). That is Fb’s method of including this new buddy to your newsfeed and ensuring you see their posts (not less than for a short while except you cease participating with them).

Fb additionally permits you to “unfollow” people with out unfriending them.

This motion merely removes that particular person’s posts out of your newsfeed. In the event you do that, you’ll want to go looking your pals individually and surge their timelines to atone for their newest posts.

For people who exceed 5,000 pals on their private Fb profiles, folks can choose to comply with them as an alternative to remain updated on their posts.

For enterprise pages, anybody who connects together with your web page is a Follower. Up to now, these could be individuals who “preferred” your web page on Fb.

Teams

Fb customers with related pursuits may discover it useful to create or be a part of a gaggle on the platform.

A Fb Group is a group of customers who work together with one another primarily based on varied matters set by the group’s admins and different customers.

Solely particular person customers or private profiles can be a part of, not enterprise pages, however businesses can certainly create groups.

Members can share textual content updates, pictures, movies, and extra simply as they’ll to their private timeline, besides posts will solely be seen to different group members.

Occasions

With a lot group taking place on Fb, particular person customers and companies have the choice to publish and promote occasions.

Occasions share the date, time, and site of the occasion, in addition to description and ticket info if relevant.

They will additionally settle for RSVPs, present a visitor record, and permit customers to ask their pals. Occasions will be digital or in individual with a bodily location.

Messenger

Messenger is Fb’s native direct messaging platform. It permits customers to carry personal one-on-one or group conversations. Messenger will be accessed by means of Instagram or a separate app that may be added to third-party web sites.

When utilizing Fb.com on a desktop pc, it’s accessible by means of a popup inside the platform.

Companies can use Messenger to speak privately with people to discipline questions, provide customer support, and even run advertisements.

Story

Like Instagram Tales, Fb Tales seem on the high of the platform on each cell and desktop and are seen for simply 24 hours. After 24 hours, the content material disappears.

Tales will be made instantly from the Fb app or shared from present tales on Instagram.

Notification

Represented by the bell icon within the third circle beneath, a notification informs you when a buddy engages together with your posts, pictures, movies, or timeline; you’ll obtain a notification that explains what they engaged with and when.

Additionally, you will obtain notifications of Group and Occasion exercise in addition to buddy requests right here.

Now that you understand what Fb is and the way it works, right here’s a useful information to utilizing it.

Notice: In the event you use HubSpot, you may as well hyperlink your Fb account to the platform and observe engagement in social inbox.

You may as well create key phrase monitoring streams to your social workforce and set off e mail alerts to gross sales when folks point out a selected key phrase.

Quickly, you’ll additionally be capable to use AI insights to know market sentiment and keep up to date in your model popularity instantly out of your inbox.

How does Fb work?

Fb is powered by an algorithm that learns every person’s preferences and pursuits. The algorithm then shows content material like photos, standing updates, and movies posted by pals and companies that the person may be fascinated about.

The objective for Fb is to get customers to have interaction with, eat, and share content material.

As well as, Fb runs ads for companies, that are sprinkled between natural content material shared by your pals on the newsfeed.

The advertisements are tailor-made to your pursuits, so that you see what the algorithm thinks you may be fascinated about primarily based on content material you’ve interacted with prior to now. That is known as behavioral targeting.

How the Fb Algorithm Works

Up to now, Fb used a chronological timeline. Because of this the posts in your newsfeed have been listed within the order through which your pals most just lately shared them on the platform.

In case your mother posted three hours in the past and your finest buddy posted 5 minutes in the past, you’d see your finest buddy’s publish first, then your mother’s.

Nevertheless, that each one modified in September 2011 when Facebook officially announced that it was eradicating the chronological newsfeed and changing it with a extra personalised expertise.

Moderately than seeing your pals’ posts within the order they have been shared, you now see the content material Fb’s algorithm thinks you’ll take pleasure in probably the most. This newsfeed continues to be round as we speak.

1. Join a Fb account.

To join a Fb account, comply with these three simple steps.

• Go to Facebook’s website.
• On the homepage, enter your first identify, final identify, cell quantity or e mail, new password, birthday, and gender.
• Click on “Signal Up.”

2. Arrange your privateness settings.

After you’ve signed up for a Fb account, you’ll be able to modify your privateness settings to regulate who can see your profile and knowledge. Comply with these 4 easy steps to alter your privateness settings.

• Click on on the downward pointing arrow on the highest proper nook of any Fb web page.
• Click on “Settings.”
• Within the left sidebar, choose “Privateness.”
• Set who’s allowed to see your previous and future posts. You may as well management how folks can discover and phone you.

Odds are, there’s in all probability somebody on Fb who has the identical identify as you.

To distinguish your self from these folks and assist your family and friends discover you on Fb, personalize your profile by including a profile image, cowl picture, and a few private info.

3. Personalize your profile.

Choosing a Profile Image

• Go to your profile and click on in your profile image.
• To select your profile image, select a photograph that you just’re already tagged in on Fb, one that you just’ve uploaded, or a photograph out of your pc. You may as well add an ornamental body to your profile image.

Selecting a Cowl Picture

• Click on the digicam button in your cowl picture in your profile.
• To decide on your cowl picture, you’ll be able to decide a photograph out of your Fb profile, choose Fb’s personal cowl art work, create a collage, or add a photograph out of your pc. You may as well reposition or delete your present cowl picture.

Updating Your Profile

Click on the “About” part in your profile web page.

On this part, you’ll be able to fill in details about your work and schooling, the locations you’ve lived, contact and fundamental information, household and relationships, and life occasions.

One of the simplest ways to do that is by looking for them on Fb and “liking” or “following” their public web page, which may have a blue verified verify mark subsequent to their identify.

After you “like” or “comply with” their web page, you’ll begin seeing their updates in your newsfeed.

5. Evaluation your timeline.

Your timeline is a digital log of your Fb exercise in reverse chronological order. Your standing updates, uploaded pictures and movies, and the pictures you’re tagged in will seem in your timeline.

6. Add pals on Fb.

There are 3 ways you’ll be able to add pals on Fb.

You may both seek for them, discover them within the “Discover Buddies” tab, or import a listing of contacts out of your e mail, iCloud, or cellphone.

To search out pals on Fb, go to your profile, choose the “Buddies” tab, and faucet the “Discover Buddies” button. You’ll see a listing of buddy requests from different folks and a listing of individuals you might know you could add as a buddy on Fb.

In the event you add a listing of contacts onto Fb, you’ll be able to add your pals as you kind by means of every of your contacts.

7. Put up on Fb.

The primary goal of Fb is to assist family and friends join with one another. And one of the simplest ways to attach together with your family and friends is by updating them about your life with standing updates.

To share a Fb standing, go to the textual content field on the high of your newsfeed or profile.

With standing updates, you’ll be able to share textual content with 15 completely different coloured backgrounds, pictures, movies, GIFs, stickers, and hyperlinks.

You may as well share different kinds of posts, like:

• Feeling/Exercise: Share the way you’re presently feeling or what you’re presently doing.
• Examine-In: Whenever you go to a metropolis, location, or place, check-in and let your pals know the place you’re at.
• Tag Buddies: In the event you’re hanging out with your pals, tag them in your standing and share what you’re doing.
• Tag Occasion: In the event you’re at an occasion, you’ll be able to tag it in your standing and share what occasion you’re attending.
• Ask for Suggestions: In the event you simply moved someplace otherwise you’re about to go to a location, you possibly can ask your Fb pals for suggestions on the place to go.
• Ballot: Ask your Fb pals what their opinion is on a sure matter.
• Assist Nonprofit: Select a nonprofit group of your selection and share it by means of your standing. Your Fb Buddies can then choose the donate button to help the chosen group.
• Reply a Query: Select a predetermined query to reply or create your individual query to reply and share it together with your Fb pals.
• Lists: Select a predetermined matter to make a listing for or create your individual matter and share it together with your Fb pals.
• Fb Tales: All of the content material you could share by means of a standing replace is shareable by means of your Fb story. You may as well add content material to your tales by clicking the “Add to Your Story” button on the precise sidebar.

Moreover, you’ll be able to watch all your pals’ Fb Tales by clicking on their photos within the “Tales” part, which can be positioned on the precise sidebar on your property web page.

8. Add pictures and movies.

Along with textual content statuses, you’ll be able to add pictures, movies, albums, and dwell video broadcasts to your profile.

Importing Images or Movies

To add pictures or movies to your profile, comply with these 4 easy steps:

• Go to your profile.
• Choose the “Images” tab.
• Choose “Add Images/Video.”
• Add photos or movies out of your pc.

Creating Picture or Video Albums

To create a photograph or video album, comply with these 4 easy steps:

• Go to your Profile.
• Faucet the “Images” tab.
• Faucet “Create Album.”
• Add photos or movies out of your pc.

Fb Stay

To do a live broadcast on your Facebook account, comply with these three easy steps.

• Within the field that claims “What’s in your thoughts?”, choose “Stay Video.”
• As soon as you choose “Stay Video,” you’ll be able to write an outline about your broadcast, tag folks in it, add a sense or exercise, verify in to an occasion, help a non-profit, or add a ballot. You may as well title your dwell broadcast or tag a online game in the event you’re live-streaming gameplay.
• Choose “Go Stay.”

9. Have interaction with pals.

In your newsfeed, you’ll see updates from your pals, household, or public pages you comply with. You may interact by liking and reacting to their posts, sharing content material on their timelines, and speaking with them by means of textual content or video chat.

Like, Remark, or Share

In the event you like somebody’s publish, give them a thumbs up, touch upon their publish, or share it.

Different Reactions

In case your Fb buddy’s publish evokes a stronger response in you than a like, you may as well categorical that you just love, laughed, are amazed, unhappy, or indignant at their publish by holding down the Like button.

Sharing Content material on Your Buddies’ Timelines

Something you’ll be able to publish in your standing, you may as well publish in your buddy’s timeline.

Fb Messenger

To speak with your pals or public pages on Fb, use Fb Messenger. You may entry it by tapping the “Messages” button on the high proper nook of any Fb web page or choosing the “Messages” button on the left sidebar of the house web page.

Subsequent, choose “New Message” and sort within the identify of the buddy or model that you just wish to join with. Fb Messenger additionally enables you to create group chats by clicking on “New Group.” After that, all it’s important to do is identify your group and add the buddies you wish to embrace within the group.

Whenever you message your pals or group on Fb Messenger, you’ll be able to add photos, movies, and information out of your pc, stickers, GIFs, and emojis, and take photos and movies out of your pc’s or cellphone’s digicam.

You may as well view Messenger by itself web page, the place you’ll be able to seek for previous conversations and handle your settings. To view Messenger by itself web page, faucet the “Messages” button within the high proper nook of any Fb web page after which faucet the “See All in Messenger” button.

To immediate message your pals who’re logged onto Fb concurrently you, faucet the “Chat” button on the underside of any Fb web page and strike up a dialog with your pals who’re on-line

Cellphone and Video Calling

When Messenger is open by itself web page, you’ll be able to seek for any of your pals or teams, click on on their names, and faucet the cellphone or video chat button to name them.

10. Evaluation your newsfeed.

Your newsfeed is a curated feed of posts from your pals, household, and public pages you comply with that Facebook’s algorithm thinks you’ll be fascinated about. You’ll additionally see advertisements from manufacturers who suppose you’ll take pleasure in consuming their content material or merchandise.

To customise your newsfeed, faucet the downward pointing arrow within the higher proper nook of any Fb web page and faucet “Information Feed Choice.”

From there, you’ll be able to prioritize whose posts you’ll see first, unfollow folks and teams to cover their posts, reconnect with folks and teams you unfollowed, uncover public pages that match your pursuits, and conceal apps out of your newsfeed.

You may as well “mute” or “unfollow” people, teams, or pages instantly from particular person posts.

11. Uncover further Fb options.

Fb isn’t only a platform for viral content material and connection. It’s additionally a hub for group communications, video streaming, marketplaces, and video games.

Occasions

The Occasions web page on Fb will present you any upcoming occasions which can be fashionable together with your Fb pals or have been arrange by the teams you belong to. You may as well discover occasions primarily based on their date, location, and class.

To search out the Occasions web page, choose the Residence button. Then, on the left sidebar, you’ll see the “Discover” part, the place you’ll be able to choose “Occasions.”

Teams

The “Teams” web page on Fb will present you which ones teams you handle and belong to. You may as well uncover teams to hitch primarily based on Fb’s solutions and lots of different classes.

To entry the “Teams” web page, faucet the “Residence” button. Then, on the left sidebar, you’ll see the “Discover” part, the place you’ll be able to click on “Teams.”

Fb Watch

On the Fb Watch platform, you’ll be able to watch movies from the exhibits you’re following and seek for different exhibits and movies.

To entry Fb Watch, choose the “Residence” button. Then, on the left sidebar, you’ll see the Watch button below the “Market” button.

Market

Not solely does Fb compete with Netflix within the streaming trade, however it additionally competes with eBay within the market trade.

With Fb Market, you’ll be able to browse for all types of merchandise, be a part of teams to purchase and promote merchandise with folks in your space or who share related pursuits, store for merchandise bought from completely different outlets, store by class, and promote your individual merchandise.

To entry Fb Market, choose the Residence button. Then on the left sidebar, you’ll see the Market button proper below the Watch button.

Video games

Fb Video games is one among Fb’s finest options. They host an enormous assortment of massively fashionable video games, and you may browse the most well-liked video games on the platform by high charts and classes. You may even play a lot of the video games with your pals, too.

Make pals with Fb.

Even in the event you’re not utilizing Fb personally, Fb advertising and marketing will be immensely highly effective for companies of all types.

Use our information to get comfy with the platform and begin exploring how you need to use its varied options and large attain to make contact together with your target market.

Editor’s notice: This publish was initially revealed in October 2018 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.