Learn the lingo: F is also for Facebook, sharing your world

Abbas Jaffer

Mark was undoubtedly a smart kid. After being accepted to Harvard by way of Exeter Academy, the precocious young man coded in his free time. What started as a hobby for Mark Zuckerberg became Facebook, a social networking service that, despite a tough economic situation, is valued at $15 billion dollars. Three things newbies to the social network may want to know are what it is, how it works, and what phenomenal potential it has for augmenting the public good.

There have been “face books” at colleges and universities for some time; they are basically print or online pages where you have a person’s photo and some information about them. Zuckerberg wanted to create a universal face book for Harvard, which then grew to include other colleges, high schools, and eventually anyone over 13.

There are a few key features worth knowing about in terms of spreading the word about your good work:

Non-Profits on Facebook is a great place to start. It shows prominent nonprofits leveraging the various aspects of Facebook to complete all types of organizational goals.
Each individual user has a profile page, where they can put up photos, share their interests as well as articles and links they like, and have other people write messages on their ‘wall.’ You can post links to your activities and media hits to supporters’ profiles.
There are a whole host of applications, including relevant ones for social change including Causes, Change.org and Care2’s Petitions.
A way to centralize your group’s presence on Facebook is with Pages. It looks and behaves just like a profile, and you can interact with others through posts, photos, and videos.