Facebook's spreading about as far and fast as the Web itself: 500 million members and counting. But there's a world of fun packed into the site that most folks miss. With this bestselling guide, learn how to unlock Facebook's talents as personal website creator, souped-up address book, and bustling community forum. It's an eye-opening, timesaving tour, guaranteed to help you get the most out of your Facebook experience. Coverage includes: Get started, get connected. Signing up is easy, but the real payoff comes when you tap into networks of coworkers, classmates, and friends. Pick and choose who gets to see what, and learn how to steer clear of people you want to avoid. Add applications. Transform your Facebook account into an addictive, one-stop resource with thousands of mini-programs, ranging from silly to serious. Go professional. Facebook isn't just for college kids. Thousands of companies and businesspeople use the site for everything from project collaboration and advertising to filling (and finding) jobs. You'll learn all the tricks. Protect your privacy. You may feel too exposed with so much personal info on display. This book features an easy-to-follow, multi-pronged approach to staying safe on Facebook. What You'll Find in the Book Regardless of why youre on Facebook (or thinking about registering), chances are you fall into at least one of the following categories: parent, student, or teacher. If youre a parent, ask your kid to friend you (Chapter 3) so you can see what shes up to. Then tweak your settings (Chapter 5) to maximize the chance that if your daughter posts, say, a picture of herself at a concert that was held the night she was supposed to be home studying, youll hear about it. You taught your kids how to use a fork, and you need to teach your children how to act online, toobecause, statistically speaking, they dont know. Studies show that most teens take what they read online at face value; dont realize that people outside their circle of friends can see what they put on Facebook; and routinely post inappropriate info, such as their home addresses. And this kind of behavior can have serious consequences, from cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking to lowered grades and job prospects (teachers and recruiters know how to use Facebook, tooand what your child posts today will be archived forever). Just knowing youre lurking in the Facebook shadows may be enough to keep your kid behaving appropriately. If youre a student, you need to know how to keep your private life private on Facebook. You absolutely, positively need to read Chapter 13 and work through your privacy settings one by one. After youve done that, amp up your privacy by: Keeping it clean. Facebook archives everything you put on the site, so the stuff you intended as a joke could cause you a lot of grief in a few years when, say, you meet the love of your lifeor the recruiter for your dream job. Going easy on the pix. Dont upload pictures that show you having more fun than you ought to have. Doesnt matter if you yank em down after your pals get a look: The instant you upload a picture, Facebook owns it and some alert somebody could save a copy and email it to everyone in existence before you remove it. Assuming your profs, parents, best friend, and worst enemy can see everything you post. There are a lot of ways people can get access to your Facebook account, so dont assume that only your best buds can see what you do on the siteeven if you tweaked your privacy settings, because those settings change over time and theres always a hack. If youre a teacher, dont bother trying to use Facebook to teach. No study yet has shown that the site can be used effectively in educationand anecdotal evidence suggests that it cant. Students tend to think of Facebook as their place, not an exciting extension to the classroom, and theres little (if anything) you can do on Facebook that you cant accomplish behind a lectern. However, if youre having trouble contacting students via email or phoneto remind them of an assignment coming due, for exampletry befriending them on Facebook, adding them to a Friend List (Chapter 3), and sending them Messages (Chapter 4). If your students are college age, youll likely get quicker responses that way. While youre on Facebook, take a few minutes to peruse the profiles of any students riding the line between grades. You may be surprised at how many students whose grandmothers sudden illnesses prevented them from taking your final somehow had time to post wild party photos from (one can only conclude) Grandmas bedside.