Quick Facebook Setup & Feature Summary

What Is Facebook?

Facebook is a social network where individuals use personal profiles to share text posts, photos, videos, and links and engage with friends, family, and communities through reactions, comments, and shares.

Businesses use dedicated Facebook Pages instead of profiles to post updates, run ads, and offer support, while users connect further through features like News Feed, Timeline, Groups, Events, and Messenger.

Core Concepts to Know

• News Feed: The main stream where posts from friends and pages you follow appear.
• Timeline: Your personal history of posts and tagged content on your profile.
• Status/Post: Any content you share, including text, photos, videos, and check-ins.
• Friends & Followers: Mutual connections (friends) and one‑way followers for high‑profile accounts.
• Pages & Groups: Pages for brands; Groups for communities around shared interests.
• Events, Stories, Notifications, Messenger: Tools for organizing, sharing ephemeral content, staying informed, and chatting.

How Facebook Works & The Algorithm

Facebook’s goal is to show content you are most likely to enjoy and interact with, mixing posts from friends, groups, and pages with targeted ads in your News Feed.

The algorithm uses signals like your past reactions, comments, shares, dwell time, and page follows to rank posts, replacing the older purely chronological feed with a personalized order.

How to Use Facebook (Step-by-Step)

1. Sign Up for a Facebook Account

• Go to facebook.com and enter your first and last name, email or mobile number, password, birthday, and gender.
• Click Sign Up and confirm your email or phone to activate the account.

2. Set Up Your Privacy Settings

• Click the top-right menu arrow, choose Settings, then Privacy to control who can see your past and future posts, who can find you, and who can send friend requests.
• Adjust those options so only the audience you want (for example, “Friends”) can view your activity and profile details.

3. Personalize Your Profile

• Profile photo: On your profile, click your picture to upload an image from your computer or existing Facebook photos.
• Cover photo: Click the camera icon on the cover area to choose or upload a wide banner image.
• About info: Use the About tab to add work, education, places lived, contact info, family, and life events.

4. Like and Follow Public Pages

Use search to find brands, public figures, teams, and media outlets, then Like or Follow their pages so their posts appear in your News Feed.

5. Review Your Timeline

Your Timeline on your profile shows your posts, photos, and posts you are tagged in, forming a chronological record others can usually see based on your privacy settings.

6. Add Friends on Facebook

• Use the Find Friends tab or search bar to look up people and send friend requests.
• Optionally import contacts from email or phone to discover people you know.

7. Post on Facebook

At the top of your News Feed or profile, use the “What’s on your mind?” box to share text, links, photos, GIFs, stickers, locations, polls, questions, and more, choosing an audience for each post.

8. Add Photos and Videos

• On your profile’s Photos tab, upload photos or videos, create albums, and organize content.
• Use Facebook Live to broadcast in real time with descriptions, tags, and optional polls.

9. Connect with Friends via Interactions and Messenger

• React & comment: Like or use other reactions, comment, and share posts you see in your feed.
• Messenger: Open Messages or the Messenger app to chat, create group chats, send media, and make voice or video calls.

10. Review and Customize Your News Feed

From the top-right menu, open News Feed Preferences to prioritize certain friends or pages, unfollow noisy accounts, reconnect with people, and hide unwanted apps or posts.

11. Discover Additional Facebook Features

• Events: Find and RSVP to online or in-person events from friends, pages, and groups.
• Groups: Join communities around hobbies, locations, or topics and participate in discussions.
• Watch: Browse and watch longer-form videos, shows, and creator content.
• Marketplace: Buy and sell items locally and by category, similar to classified ads.
• Games: Play social games, often with friends, directly inside Facebook.

Making the Most of Your News Feed

Because the feed is algorithmic, your engagement shapes what you see next: interacting with certain friends, pages, and groups surfaces more of their content over time.

Using tools like unfollow (without unfriending), See First, and content preferences gives you strong control over how personal, business, and entertainment posts appear.

Next Steps and Optimization Ideas

Once the basics feel comfortable, explore Facebook for Business tools, ad campaigns, and creator features if you want to promote a brand, side‑project, or content series.

For personal use, periodically revisit privacy and notification settings, prune old posts or public info, and fine‑tune your Groups, Events, and Marketplace participation to match your interests.