In general, especially when you're just starting out, we lean towards suggesting that you add everyone you know and care about as a friend. Family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, teammates, classmates — add ’em all. Adding more friends will make your News Feed more interesting, and Facebook will learn over time whom, exactly, you find most interesting.
On the flip side, we do not recommend adding people you don’t like as friends. Yes, we mean that one person from your last job who was always super nice to you but secretly drove you insane. Or that second cousin twice removed who always asks you inappropriate questions about your love life. Don’t feel obligated to click Add Friend simply because you know someone.
Chapter 8 provides much more information about the nuances of friendship and how to know whom to add.
Filling out Your Profile Information
Getting your timeline set up is not a requirement for using Facebook. In fact, your timeline is something that gets built up over time (and doing so is covered in Chapter 5), so we won’t give you such a Herculean task right away.
However, a few basic pieces of information will help you find your friends on Facebook, as well as help your friends identify you when you send them a friend request. This information consists of your current workplace, current city, any schools you’ve attended, and your hometown. Especially if you have a common name, this information can really help someone who is regarding a friend request figure out if you are in fact Jane Smith from Portland (whom the person definitely wants to be friends with) or Jane Smith from Seattle (not so much).
To add this basic profile information, follow these steps:
1 From your Home page, click your name on the left sidebar.This takes you to your profile.
2 Click the About tab.It is located below your name. Clicking it takes you to the About section of your profile, which is likely empty at this time.
3 Click Add a Workplace, Add a High School, or Add a College.Clicking one of these options opens an interface for typing the name of your workplace, high school, or college, respectively.
4 Start typing the name of your workplace or school.Facebook autocompletes, or attempts to guess at what you’re typing as you type. So, for example, if you start typing mic, Facebook will display a list of possible company matches — Microsoft, Michelin, Michael Kors, and so on.
5 Select your workplace or school when you see it appear on the autocomplete list.If your workplace doesn’t appear in the list, simply finish typing its name and press Enter.
6 (Optional) Add more details about your work or school.You can add information such as your specific job title, major, or graduation year.
7 Click Save.The blue Save button is at the bottom of the section you're editing.
To add your hometown and current city from the About section of your profile, click Places Lived on the left side of the page (below Work and Education). You can then click to add your current city and hometown the same way you added your work and education information. You can also edit this information from the Overview section.
Chapter 3
Finding Your Way Around
IN THIS CHAPTER
One of the best things about Facebook is the number of options available. You can look at photos, chat with friends, message friends, read updates from friends … the list goes on and on. What does get a little confusing is that there’s no one way to do anything on Facebook. Depending on the page you’re on, you’ll see slightly different things. And depending on who your friends are, you’ll see slightly different things. Using Facebook can’t exactly be broken down into ten easy steps.
However, you can learn to recognize the elements that are more constant. Starting from when you log in, you will always start on your Home page, which is where you’ll find one of Facebook’s most defining features, News Feed. Although your News Feed is always different (more on that later) the Home page has a few constants that are detailed in this chapter. If you ever find yourself lost on Facebook (it happens; trust us), click the Home icon or the Facebook logo (in the top bar of any page) to go to the Home page, where you’ll be able to reorient yourself.
Figure 3-1 shows a sample Home page. This chapter details the elements of the Home page that you're likely to see, too: menus, lists, and icons that take you to other parts of the site. Some of these can be found no matter where you are on Facebook, some appear only when you’re on your Home page, and some will be there, well, sometimes. Learning about these lists, menus, and icons helps you understand how to find your way around Facebook and enables you to work with some of Facebook’s features and options.
FIGURE 3-1: Your Home page may look a little like this.
Checking Out the Top Bar
Given all the exciting things happening on the Home page, you might not notice the top bar at first. It is, after
