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Create a Facebook account

Create a Facebook Account

For this exercise, you will need to:

  1. Create a Facebook account
  2. Add some friends, including me and other SEMLS Learning 2.0 participants.
  3. Become a Fan of the SEMLS Learning 2.0 Page. I recommend that you become a fan of some other pages as well.
  4. Add two or three applications to your profile.
  5. More details on all of these requirements are below.

Create an Account:

  1. Go to www.facebook.com.
  2. Enter your name, e-mail address, password, gender and birthdate. Click the "Sign Up" button.
  3. Enter the letters you see in the CAPTCHA image. Click the "Sign Up" button.
  4. You must check your e-mail to complete your registration.
  5. After clicking the link to complete your registration, Facebook will give you the option of finding friends by using your e-mail address book. You can try finding friends this way or you can click "Skip this step" to proceed.
  6. The next screen will ask you for basic profile information. Fill out this information and click Save.
  7. Facebook will then ask if you want to join a network where you can connect with other people living in the same geographical area. You can join a network or you can click "Skip this step".
  8. The registration process is now complete. You can now click "View and edit your profile" to provide more detailed information in your profile and add a photo.
Becoming Acquainted with Facebook
Facebook can be a little overwhelming when you first join. You may find it useful to read the Getting Started Guide. Below is an overview of the items I want you to focus on:

Friends
Most (not all) of the information you add to Facebook will only be viewable by the people you have designated to be your "friends." Friends is a loose term in the social networking world and rarely carries the same meaning as friends in real life. Some people only designate their real friends and family members as Facebook friends, but most also include colleagues, acquaintances and people they haven't seen since childhood as well. It is entirely up to you to determine who will be your Facebook Friends.

As part of this assignment, I would like you to add Friends to your Facebook profile. You can start with me by going to  http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathy_Lussier/654445418. (You are welcome to remove me as a friend when this class is over. I won't be offended!) When you go to the SEMLS Learning 2.0 page on Facebook closer to the end of the week (more on this below), you will notice that your other classmates have become fans of the page. Add them as friends as well. You can add other people from your work or personal life to your friends list. You can find them by hovering over the "Friends" button on your top navigational bar and then selecting "Find Friends."

News Feed and Wall
Whenever you go to www.facebook.com or you click on the "Home" button within Facebook, you will be viewing your News Feed. This is where you can see what all of your Facebook Friends are up to.

Whenever you click on your "Profile" button in the top navigational bar, you will be accessing your Wall. This is the information that you are sharing with your Facebook Friends. If you want to remove someting from your Wall, hover your cursor to the right of the story and a "Remove" button will appear. Click on it.

Pages
Businesses, organizations, and libraries are not allowed to create personal profiles for themselves. Instead, they create something called Facebook Pages. Other Facebook Users can become "Fans" of those pages and receive updates whenever the business/organization/library posts information on the page.

As part of this assignment, you will need to become a fan of the SEMLS Learning 2.0 Page. In the upper right corner, you will see a search box. Type "semls" in the box and then click the magnifying glass. SEMLS Learning 2.0 page will appear in your search results. Click SEMLS Learning 2.0 to view the page. You can then click "Become a Fan" underneath the SEMLS logo. This is where our class discussions will take place this week.

I encourage you to become a fan of a couple of other pages (there are several libraries with pages and every network in the SEMLS region has a page.) It's a good way to discover how pages can share information with users and will be helpful if you decide to create a page for your library.

Applications
For me, applications are the fun part of using Facebook. Applications give you an opportunity to share certain information about yourself with your friends and can also give you some fun games and quizzes to play while you are on Facebook. There are a couple of places where you can see other people's applications.
  • Once I have accepted your Friend Request, go to my profile by clicking on my name.
  • On the main page of my profile, look at the left sidebar. Under the list of my friends are a few of the applications that I like to highlight on my main profile page. They include a Flickr application where I can display my Flickr photos, a Goodreads application where I can display the books I am reading, a Blogcast application where I can display the most recent posts from my Tech Watch Blog, and a Delicious application where I can display my semls20 bookmarks.
  • Go back to the top of my profile and click on the "Boxes" tab. This is another page of my profile where I have displayed applications. They include some library search boxes, a bunch of games, Facebook gifts that I have received from others, and virtual pets.
  • You will see similar applications if you peruse the profiles of other friends who have been on Facebook for a while.
  • As part of this assignment, I am asking you to add two or three applications to your Facebook profile.
  • In the left sidebar of the Learning 2.0 page, there is a section called "Favorite Pages" where you will find applications that you can add. Many of these applications incorporate tools we have already used in this class.
  • If there is an application you saw on another Facebook user's page, you can search it by clicking on the "Applications" button in the lower left corner and then selecting "Browse More Applications."
  • After searching the application and clicking the link to get to the application's page, click the "Go to Application" to add it to your account. You will need to authorize the application to access your account.
  • After adding it to your account, you may see a button that says "Add to Profile." This is how you can get the application to display on your profile the way mine do. However, this button is not available on every application.
  • Check out this article on Book-related applications.
Facebook Status - You can update your status from your home page or your Profile by typing in the box that says "What's on your mind?" This is a place where you can quickly let people know what you are doing or thinking.

Exploring Further

Optional Exercise - Creating A Facebook Page for Your Library

  1. Create a Facebook Page for your library by going to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and filling out information for your library.
  2. The Facebook Help Center has lots of tips for creating pages.
  3. Take a look at pages for other SEMLS members to get some ideas on what kind of information belongs on the page. I have posted some links on the SEMLS Learning 2.0 page.
  4. Once your page has been created, publicize it with your users so that they can become fans. Here's an example of how one academic library promoted its Facebook page.


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