It’s Easier Than You Think!

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Of all the types of social media out there, Facebook remains my favorite. To me, no other form of social media allows for so much interaction between people. There are a lot of tips online about the technical aspects of Facebook and even a lot of articles about using Facebook for a business. But what if you just want to use it to keep in touch with friends? What if you have a new account and aren’t really sure how what to do with it? Here are my top seven tips for using your personal Facebook:

1. Check it regularly. Picture this scenario: You call your friend and leave a message on their voice mail. Seven days later they call you back and leave a message on your voicemail. How would that work for you? You can’t communicate with someone who isn’t there and doesn’t check there page. How often should you check it? Well, that is up to you, but to get the most out of it, I suggest you try once or twice a day minimum. That doesn’t have to take a lot of time and actually can be done in less than five minutes unless you choose to stay on longer.

2. Post something. Have you ever tried talking to a friend who never said anything? Never shook their head in agreement, never contributed in any way to a conversation? Facebook is a conversation. If you aren’t posting, you aren’t really participating. So occasionally, share a little glimpse of your life. That doesn’t mean you need to share every meal you eat, every single thing that annoys you, or every cute photo that you take. But share something. How often? Well that depends. I like to share things at least a couple of times a week. On the other hand, oversharing gets old fast too. No one has the time to read ten posts a day about your life, no matter how exciting it is.

3. Comment on other people’s posts. If someone speaks to you, don’t you usually respond? The same thing is true on Facebook. You don’t need to comment on every post, but comment on at least a few. If you agree with what someone has written, the least you can do is click the “like” button. “Like” on Facebook is kind of like nodding your head during a face to face conversation. It lets the person know you are listening. On Facebook it lets people know that you have seen and read their post. You now have even more options. You can respond with a heart and other emoticons (pictures) to show anger, laughter, sadness, etc.

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4. Don’t use Facebook as a way to solve your every problem. I once read a post made to a community group where a person asked 5000+ members of the group what they should do about their mail not be delivered properly. Now, what do you suppose the chances of that post helping this individual solve their problem? Zero! She could have made a quick call to her local post office and saved a lot of time and aggravation for herself. No need to have a day long conversation about mail delivery with people who can’t solve the problem in the first place.

5. Facebook is not Google. If you can find the answer with a quick computer search, do it. Don’t ask your Facebook friends to do it for you. Why ask your Facebook friends the phone number of a restaurant when you can look it up yourself?

6. Don’t post cryptic messages. Most everyone who uses Facebook has figured out that some people really like attention. So at first when they see the posts like “What a horrible day this has been,” or the ever popular “I’m so done with people,” or the posts saying you’ve checked in at a medical establishment (but you don’t say what is wrong), it gets people’s attention. You will get some responses and questions and concern. But if you do that very often, most people will just move on and recognize that you crave attention or you are trying to create drama. Let’s face it, most emotionally healthy people try to avoid drama.

7. Post a few pictures. It takes a little effort to upload a photo, but at the very least, get a photo for your cover photo and your profile photo. If you truly can’t figure it out, get help from a friend. But seeing big gray boxes at the top of your page is not interesting. I think one of the best parts of Facebook is that you are able to share photos easily. Of course, you want to make sure you use common sense when posting those photos, but it doesn’t hurt to add some photos to your page at least occasionally. Oh, and check those photos after you upload them. Nothing like seeing a cover photo with every person missing the top of their head!

Facebook can be an amazing tool. Like so many other things in life, to get the most from it, you have to put in just a little effort. But once you do, you may be amazed at how useful it is to communicate with friends and family.