Social network Facebook

How you can use Facebook

I use this social network both to communicate with friends, relatives who are far away, to keep track of news and interests they share, and to do tasks for my work (I work as a user acquisition manager and run various ads campaigns on Meta accounts (Facebook & Instagram) among others).

Facebook for work: this social networking platform allows me to create pages or groups for the companies and businesses I work with and publish different information on these pages. Such posts and publications can then be promoted in paid ads to attract more followers.

Facebook to answer questions: you can also use Facebook to find different information or answers to your questions.

For example, I want to find a flat to rent or meet people and make new friends in the new city I now live in. For this I can use specialised groups and pages (which I can find using special filters that are available to use on this site) and easily find all the information that is out there in the public domain.

Or I want to find people and read about events in their lives. I can enter data that I have and that can be used to find this person and if s/he has a Facebook profile, if s/he uses the first and last name that I entered earlier and if s/he has an open profile I can see the information that interests me (or if the profile is closed I can knock on the friend's door to this person).

What aspects of Facebook can be personalised

If you have your own personal Facebook profile, you can customise many parts and elements of the social network.

For example, to start with, you can choose the photo you want to set for your profile (profile picture). It is this photo that will identify you on this social networking site. If you leave any comments or rate your Facebook friends' posts, this is the photo that will appear next to these actions.

You can also change the background photo at the top of your page (cover photo).

You have the opportunity to add information (if you wish) about yourself - where you live, where you studied, what your interests are, previous and present jobs and positions, etc.

On your Facebook account, you can see many different areas. Such as "Friends", "Photos", "Videos", "Likes" etc. You have the ability to manage these sections on your page. That is, you can hide them or, alternatively, fill in the necessary information in them. It all depends on what you want people who see your profile to know about you and what content they can view.

On Facebook you can also apply different special frames to your profile picture. This can be a frame with different borders or special signs (symbols). Usually such frames are used to show support for a particular topic.

Connect with other users

If you want or need to find friends, contacts or famous people and you want to find information about them (or their profiles) on Facebook, all you need to do is look for them:

- go to the special search field "Search Facebook" and enter the name and surname of the user in question;

- in “Search Results” you will have a list of several filters you can use to specify your query. For example, if you select the "All" filter, you will be shown all information that might have your query (and a list of people with this name; and posts in which this name is found; videos, pages that might be relevant to be shown; and more);

- if you want to make contact with a specific person, in this case it would be better to select the 'People' filter and Facebook will show you relevant people who match your query.

If there are many people with this first and last name in the list, you can use additional filters to specify your query in more detail. For example, select the city where the person lives; the place where the individual studies (studied) or works (worked); or select to search for who else this person might be friends with.

After that, you can select the person you want, click on the "Add Friend" button and wait for the person to accept your request.

Examples of tools you can use on Facebook

There are so many different tools on this social media platform, which can be used by both regular network users and professionals for whom the Facebook platform is their place of work.

Here are some of them:

- Groups: this tool on your page allows you to both search for new groups of interest to you and view groups you've already been added to.

Alternatively, if you have a wish or an interesting idea, you can create your own group (this is often done by companies in order to gather their users in one place and get quick feedback, for example, or answers to exciting questions about their products or services);

- Marketplace: is a special section of Facebook where ordinary users can post (using different subgroup categories) to sell their products or services. It's a very useful tool if you don't want to get into very detailed statistics of your ads. Because Marketplace will immediately (after the moderator approves your post) show you how many views, saves, shares and the number of times that your commerce profile was followed.

This tool is also useful for those who want to buy something or find a special service for themselves (rent a house, buy second-hand furniture, or other things from regular people).

Key issues related to social media etiquette

Although the Facebook platform is currently the most widespread social network worldwide, you need to keep social media etiquette in mind. After all, the bigger the social network, the more attention is focused on it from different sides.

So, for example, in case you are applying for a serious position in some company which cares about its reputation, the HR manager may check your social media page. And the first place to check would be just Facebook. That's why before you set up your profile or make a post with some information on your page, you need to think very carefully - whether it will not offend anyone, and whether this information will be relevant to all the people who can view it in the future.

However, if you are not using your page for a company, but for your own account, where you post information for friends and contacts, remember also that it should be easy to read and be accurate (because mistakes in text and grammar scare people away), and it should be truthful. If you want to repost a piece of news on your page, check the information first. There are a lot of untrue posts and articles on social media that may not only turn out to be false, but may also be harmful to your followers.