Edublogs Live

“This post was written by Sue Waters”

Regardless of your personal feelings towards Facebook it is the preferred method of social networking for many people. But are you using Facebook to your advantage?

This session was designed to help both people new to using Facebook and more experienced users get more out of using Facebook.

It was based on taking participants on a tour of Larry Ferlazzo’s relatively new Facebook account to demonstrate the different ways educators and bloggers can use the power of Facebook to connect with others.

The following is just a summary of the points covered in the session. To learn more watch the Elluminate recording.

Steps Involved

Setting up Facebook is no different from setting up your account on any other social networking site. Below is a simple diagram to remind you of these steps.

Organising your avatar and profile information

Always start by uploading an avatar (photo of yourself). I try to use the same avatar across all social network sites so that people can easily recognise it’s my account (there are a few Sue Waters in the World ).

Profile information, like on other sites, is really important. People check your profile really quickly so you only have limited time to give them the right feel for who you are.

Make the message on your profile consistent with all your other social networking sites, be short while telling them enough information to know what you are about.

Changing your settings

On twitter you can decide if your tweets are:

1. Public – anyone can see your tweets
2. Private – only your friends can see your tweets

Facebook is similar. You have the option to decide how much of your profile others can see depending on your comfort level.

For example you can limit viewing of your profile to:

• mostly friends – only those who you have added to your Facebook account
• Anyone – this means anyone who looks at your public profile can see what you are allowing them to see

This is my public Facebook profile which is set to everyone can see most of my profile.

Connecting with friends

There are numerous ways you can connect with friends on Facebook from searching for them, to importing from your email account to checking your friend’s friends. Like any social networking site they can be very lonely places without friends to connect with.

An easy way for others to find your account is to add a link to your social networking sites to your blogs. I use MyBlogLog widget on my blogs.

Getting the most out of tools

Each of us has our own favorite, and important Facebook tools. For me, these tools are chat, inbox, notes (for importing blog post feeds) and links for sharing links to Edublogs live sessions. Other people enjoy using applications and build great connections/relationships with others while using the applications.

Recording (60 mins):

• Elluminate recording

Blog posts

• Making It Easier For Your Intended Audience To Read Posts! – Sue Waters
• How To Import Your Blog Posts Into Facebook – Sue Waters
• A Beginning List Of The Best Resources For Learning About Facebook – Larry Ferlazzo