“Facebook: The Pros, Cons, and How to’s” by Joan Y. Edwards

Author, Sandra Warren, asked me if I would write an article about Facebook and tell her what it means to “Poke” someone. I told her that I would be glad to do that.

In this article, I hope to give you information and resources to decide the pros, cons, and how to’s of Facebook.

Here are my thoughts on Facebook Personal Pages:

• On July 10, 2008 I joined Facebook to connect with my family and friends. It’s fun to interact with them here. I share pictures and tell things that I’ve done. I comment on their posts.

I don’t usually post when I’m going away. I post when I return. You can make your posts public or visible only to your friends. I advise you not to tell when you’re going to be away or at home alone.

If information is visible to your friends, it’s visible to their friends, too.

If you don’t know someone, don’t accept a friend request from them.

Keep away from sharing about a personal problem with another person. I believe it is best to talk out problems with them in person. Many people voiced problems they had with a boss or company. The boss fired them. Things you write on Facebook can be used for or against you in a court of law. Don’t write anything you don’t want plastered across the news on television.

Here are a few hints about Facebook personal pages:

• A Personal Page is not for selling your books, other items for selling, promoting yourself as an author, illustrator, etc. Set up what they call a Fan page for that. It is used for businesses, authors, illustrators, musicians, etc.
• Someone can just send me a message or put a remark on my status input (space to tell what’s going on with you).
• There is a section that notifies you when someone wants to befriend you.
• There is a section where you can send private messages to your friends.
• There is a section that lets you know when someone leaves a comment on your post or posts you’ve commented on.
• You can edit what you post. You can delete it, but if it’s already out there, you can’t retrieve it.
• You can change what you add as a comment to another person’s post. Click on the pencil. It’ll ask if you want to edit or delete your comment.
• People on Facebook can see your info and take it with them when they use apps. Facebook lets you choose which information you wish to share when you use apps, games, and websites. Choose carefully.

1. Bio
2. Birthday (Recommended to leave off date, put month not year because of possible identity theft)
3. Family and Relationships
4. Interested in
5. Religious and political views
6. My website
7. If I’m online
8. My status updates
9. My photos
10. My videos
11. My links
12. My notes
13. Hometown
14. Current City (You might want to leave this one blank.)
15. Education and work
16. Activities, interests, things I like
17. My app activity

Here are a few apps you might like:

1. Goodreads Lists your published books and reviews, lists books you read.
2. Rotten Tomatoes This site reviews movies. Fixes their page to show what you like. Your Friends can see what you like. You can see what movies your friends like. Here’s an article by Jennifer Van Grove about it: “Rotten Tomatoes Makes Your Facebook Friends Movie Critics:” http://mashable.com/2010/09/17/rotten-tomatoes-facebook-personalization
3. Cloud Flood If you’re going to giveaway something, use this. Create a link where people can get the free item. After they tweet or post on Facebook, they can download free item.
4. Stumbleupon – video explaining it’s a search engine that only displays relevant information based on your web surfing habits and likes.
5. Sound Cloud You can record different sounds, sing a song, recite a poem, or read a story and others can listen to them on Sound Cloud.
6. YouTube 
7. Game Apps: I don’t do any of the games. However, they have oodles and caboodles of game apps for you to try. If a friend keeps inviting you to a game, you can block all invites for different apps: On your Facebook page, click on the gear symbol on the far right. Then click on account settings. Now on the left click on blocking. Scroll way down to Block apps and check the names of all apps you wish blocked.

Here is information about a Facebook Fan Page (Author, Book, Business, Illustrator, Musician, et cetera):

• On February 1, 2010, I created a Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Y-Edwards-Author/111310278911077. I wanted to lead more people to my blog. I put links to my blog posts. I tell information about my book(s), workshops, etc. There’s a great article written by Sven Hamberg. “Why Should People Follow Me on Facebook:” http://www.qwaya.com/blog/2012-09-17/why-should-people-follow-me-on-facebook/. Sven gave an awesome perspective that people should reap a benefit from liking your Facebook Fan Page (Author, Book, Business, Illustrator, Musician, et cetera).

• I discovered great resources to help you get started on your own Fan page. They are listed below in the section: How to Set Up a Fan Page, Author Page, Book Page, Business Page. Selling books and other items is frowned upon on Personal Pages. Set up you Fan Page for that.
  

Resources:

How to Get Your Facebook Account Set Up

1. Facebook Help: http://www.facebook.com/help/
2. Sign Up for Facebook http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=signup
3. Facebook http://www.facebook.com
4. Kathy  Colaiacovo. “How to Open a Facebook Account:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvcK1SanZrY

 Reasons to Use Facebook and Apps

1. Andrea Vahl. “Top 10 Facebook Apps for Fan Engagement and Building Community:” http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/top-10-facebook-apps-for-fan-engagement-and-building-community/
2. Eric Griffith. “The 30 Best Facebook Apps:” http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389079,00.asp
3. Francis Bea. “Best Facebook Apps:” http://www.digitaltrends.com/guides/the-best-facebook-apps/

 Reasons to Be Careful

1. Andy O’Donnell. “Five Things You Should Never Post on Facebook:”
2. Katie Heaney. “11 Things You Should Never Ever Do on Facebook:” http://www.buzzfeed.com/katieheaney/11-things-you-should-never-ever-do-on-facebook
3. Singyin Lee. “5 Things That Shouldn’t Be on Your Facebook:” http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/5-things-that-shouldnt-be-on-your-facebook/

How to Set Up a Fan Page, Author Page, Book Page, Business Page

1. Brad Cusworth and Sean Bridger. “How to Create a Custom Facebook Fan Page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLzQF1Rg-U4
2. Dana Lynn Smith. “Six Ways Authors Can Promote on Facebook:” www.sellingbooks.com/six-ways-authors-can-promote-on-facebook/
3. Deb Rice. “How Can Authors Use Facebook:” http://debsanswers.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/how-can-authors-use-facebook/
4. Pat Flynn (Pat on Facebook.com) Business Page  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpgx5aXCJzw
5. Pat Flynn Facebook Landing Page (on TIMELINE) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27QnH7XpOW0
6. Phyllis Zimbler Miller. “How Authors Can Use Facebook Pages for their Book Marketing:” http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/how-authors-can-use-facebook-pages-for-their-book-marketing/
7. Robyn Bradley. “9 Reasons Why Authors Should Use Facebook Pages:” http://www.robynbradley.com/9-reasons-why-authors-should-use-facebook-pages/
8. Vanessa Van Edwards. “How Authors Can Use Facebook to Sell Their Books http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=rWCW-Ur6-KQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DrWCW-Ur6-KQ

Thank you to all of you for reading my blog. You light up my life. Please leave a comment. Tell me something you like about Facebook. Ask a question. I’ll try to answer it. Celebrate you.

Thank you, Sandra Warren for giving me a good reason to research and tell you what I think about Facebook.

Celebrate you three times today. Once for what you were, once for what you are, and once for what you hope to become. Celebrate as if you’ve already achieved it.

Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards

Copyright © 2013 Joan Y. Edwards