All your friends and relatives are on Facebook and you talk about it almost every day. Not to mention classmates and colleagues: they too can’t wait for you to make your entrance on the famous social network. In short, by now almost everyone is registered on Facebook and you are the only one missing!
If things are this way and, despite everything, you have not yet decided to sign up, maybe it’s because you want to know more about how Facebook works? Did I guess it? Well, if yes, know that you’ve come to the right tutorial at the right time. Reading this guide you will be able to clarify all your doubts regarding the social network of Mark Zuckerberg.
Although it may seem complex, the operation of Facebook is not that complex. During the next chapters, I will talk to you about the main features, explaining how to use them from smartphones and tablets, through a special app for Android and iOS, and from a computer. Having said that, take a few minutes of free time, sit comfortably and take a look at what is explained in this tutorial. I wish you a good read.
Register with Facebook
If you want to know how Facebook works, because the first time you use this social network, the first thing you need to do is create an account: a procedure that you can easily perform from the social network app for Android and iOS or from its Official Website. Furthermore, if you are interested, you can also download the Facebook application for Windows 10 via the Microsoft Store.
Furthermore, I inform you of the possibility of downloading the free Facebook Lite application which, available for download only on Android (it will arrive on iOS in 2018), is designed to be used on less efficient devices from the hardware point of view and consumes also less data, being optimized for 2G Internet connections.
From smartphones and tablets
If you intend to sign up for Facebook application using Facebook for Android or iOS, you will be happy to know that the procedure to be performed is very simple and straightforward.
Once the application is started, tap on the entry Join Facebook, then click on Start and create an account, entering all the required data: Name, Surname, Date of birth and Sex.
Then choose whether to create an account via your mobile number or press the item use your email address and follow the procedures shown on the screen regarding the confirmation of your account, pressing the button Confirm your account that you will have been sent by Facebook or by entering the verification code received via message.
Once you have created your account, you can start customizing the profile by accessing it (by tapping on your photo, which should initially be a little man’s icon) and then pressing the Edit profile button. On the next screen, you can enter all your personal information and make your online profile more complete.
In case of doubt, refer to my tutorial where I explain how to create a Facebook profile or the one where I talk to you about how the one in which I explain to you how to subscribe to Facebook from your mobile.
From computer
If you intend to register with Facebook from your computer, connected to the home page of the social network and in the text fields on the screen, enter the data required for registration: Name, Surname, Mobile number or email address, password, date of birth and sex , then click on the Subscribe button to start creating a new account.
Then you will be asked to confirm your email address or your mobile number by clicking on the Confirm your account button or by entering the confirmation code that will have been sent to you by Facebook.
Carried out this step you will be able to already begin to add some friends, pressing on the button Add friends, in correspondence of those that are shown to you. This procedure is optional and you can do it later, as I will explain to you in the next chapter.
Once this is done, you must first personalize your profile. As you will be shown on the screen press the Add image button, in order to load an image of the profile, then press on the icon of your profile that you find in the menu bar at the top right, in order to also customize the image of cover, by clicking on the Add cover image button .
I also suggest you click on the Edit profile button to also enter information about your account, such as the biography, to help people find you on Facebook.
If you are interested in learning more about the profile customization, consult one of my tutorials dedicated to this feature of the social network. For example, you may find it useful to read the guide on how to show your date of birth on Facebook or the one in which I explain how to change your name on Facebook.
How to use Facebook
Once you have registered with Facebook you have the opportunity to use all the features provided by this social network. That said, over the next few lines, I will talk about what are the most prominent features of Facebook, starting from the possibility of adding people to friends until posting and interacting with pages and groups. Enjoy the reading!
Add friends
The functionality I want to talk to you about in this chapter is about adding new friends. To get in touch with a person on Facebook, and thus be able to send him private messages, following the procedures you will find in the next chapter, you must add a person to your Facebook friends.
Doing it is very simple: Facebook itself will show you the profiles of some users, in a section called People you may know, visible both in the Facebook app for Android and iOS and on your computer.
Then press the Add to friends button corresponding to the profiles that are shown to you, to send them a friend request that they will have to accept but will also be able to deny (usually on Facebook only the people you know are added to friends).
You can also view the list with other suggested people by clicking on the button with the symbol of two men you find in the top bar of Facebook on your computer or in the bar at the bottom if you are using the application for smartphones and tablets.
Alternatively, you can add a person to your friends, use the Search text field which is located at the top, to type a name and a surname; after which, once identified, press the Add to friends button (the symbol of a little man , if you are using Facebook from a smartphone or tablet) and wait for the request to be accepted.
If successful, you will receive a notification from Facebook and you can then view all the content published by the added person.
In case you have any doubts about the Facebook feature that allows you to add friends, I suggest you take a look at one of the tutorials I wrote about this topic, such as how to see friend requests. sent on Facebook or the one dedicated to sending friend requests.
Send messages to friends
If you added a person to your Facebook friends, you can start a private conversation from smartphones, tablets, and computers. On smartphones and tablets it is necessary to download the Messenger application , which is available for free on Android and iOS (and is also available in the Lite version , whose operation is optimized for less performing devices from the hardware point of view and for Internet connections in 2G, as it consumes less packet data). On the computer, on the other hand, you can act through the use of integrated chat on Facebook or using the Internet Messenger site, dedicated to those who want to send private messages to users without the distractions of the news feed.
From smartphones and tablets
If you intend to send a private message to a Facebook friend from a smartphone or tablet, launch the Messenger application previously downloaded on your device (if you don’t know how to do it, read this my tutorial ), pressing on its icon that you find on the home screen or in the drawer, then log in with your Facebook credentials, so you can see the list of your contacts after having synchronized them by pressing the Activate button .
If you have previously started a conversation with a user, you tap on the name you find on the main screen or you tap on the text field at the top to identify the name of the person you want to contact.
To send a new private message on Facebook, you can also press the icon with the pencil symbol and the sheet of paper you find in the upper right corner, then use the text field A: to type the name of the person with you want to start a conversation, or you can tap on one of the names that are suggested to you.
In addition to sending text messages, you can send photos and emoji, by pressing the button with the camera symbol or the icon of a smiley, respectively.
If you are interested in exploring the topic and getting more information on other features related to Facebook chat, read my tutorial where I talk about how Messenger works or refer to the guides I wrote about solving the most common chat problems of Facebook.
From computer
To start a private conversation with a Facebook friend from a computer, open the integrated Facebook chat, pressing the icon with the symbol of a comic located in the bar at the top, or connected to the official site of Messenger and log in with data of your Facebook account, so you can take advantage of the dedicated chat.
In both cases, identify the person to whom you want to send a message between the list of your contacts or press the New Message button (in the Messenger site is the icon with the sheet and the pencil ), if you want to type the name the person with whom you want to get in touch with use of the text field a: .
After that, use the text field Type a message that you see below, to write a text message. Alternatively, use the icons below, such as the one with the symbol of a smiley face to send an emoji or the GIF button, which allows you to send an animated image.
Publish posts
Another very important feature of Facebook is the ability to share content with your friends, posting posts within your profile, acting on the official website.
In this regard, you should know that the contents published on Facebook can be textual but also multimedia. You can also share photos, videos and status updates via the Facebook application for Android and iOS. In the following lines, I will explain how to proceed step by step.
Using Facebook from a smartphone, tablet or computer (the social network works, in this case, is the same) refer to the News section (on Android and iOS is the section with the symbol of a newspaper you see in the bar at the bottom or top) or that of your profile, accessible by pressing on your computer profile image and the icon with the symbol of a little man from Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.
Then refer to the text field that you can see in the top bar, corresponding to the wording What are you thinking [your name]? to type in an update of your profile and share it with your Facebook friends.
Before doing so, by clicking on the Share button, choose whether to create a message with a colored background, by clicking on the boxes that are shown to you or if you want to share photos/videos, tag a friend or even share a mood/activity.
In addition to the options listed above, other tools regarding the publication of a post on Facebook are visible by pressing the symbol (…). For example, you can post a GIF or a survey.
Besides, you can choose to share the post you made in the News section and/or within the stories in your profile ( Your story ), by putting a check mark on the appropriate entries.
Before pressing the Share button, remember to adjust the privacy of the content you post. By default, in fact, the contents published within Facebook are visible only to friends, but by pressing on this menu item you can for example choose whether to share a post with All (ie with anyone on Facebook and outside of Facebook) or only to some friends except some ( friends except … ) or only to some specific friends.
In case of doubt regarding Facebook’s privacy settings, I suggest you read my guide dedicated to this specific topic.
Publish stories
On Facebook, it is also possible to publish stories, ie multimedia contents that remain visible in a special section of your profile for 24 hours, after which they can no longer be viewed.
Having said that, to publish a story on Facebook, you have to act as a smartphone or tablet, via the social network application. To do this, click on the (+) button that you can see in the Stories box , then choose one of the items shown below, such as Normal , Boomerang , Video or Live , depending on the content you want to realize as a video, a photo, a video in loop or a direct.
You can also press the symbol of the smiley face, to apply filters and effects in real time, or add a multimedia content present in the memory of your device, by clicking on the multimedia gallery at the bottom right.
Before publishing the story, by clicking on the Your Story button , you can use the Facebook Story Editor, which lets you write on a photo or video ( Aa ), add a sticker, such as a survey (the symbol of a smiley face ) and to draw on photos or videos (the symbol of a scribble ).
If you prefer to publish the photo also in the News section, press the Next button and tick the relevant item, then press the Share Now button. The stories published can be viewed both from a smartphone/tablet and from a computer, by clicking on the Your archive item (it is called Archive on the computer). For more information regarding this feature, read my tutorial where I tell you in detail how Facebook stories work.
Interact with friends, pages, and groups
Now that I have explained to you the main features of Facebook, we can move on to the part where I talk to you about how to interact with other users of the social network, for example by putting “like”, commenting and sharing the post of friends, pages or groups.
In this specific case, the operation of the Facebook interaction methods are the same in its use by smartphones and tablets as by computer, therefore, once logged into the platform with the data of your previously registered account , the first thing which you will see will be the news feed, that is the section in which the contents published by your friends, by the groups you follow and by the pages to which you put are displayed I like.
Having said that, if you see a content that interests you-you can interact with it by putting “like”, commenting and/or sharing. To do this, press the “like” button (the symbol of a thumb up ), touch it (from a computer) or hold it (from a smartphone/tablet) to see the reactions menu: these let you express yourself through emotions, like the heart or the Wow for example.
If, instead, you want to comment on the displayed post, press the Comment button and use the text field Write a comment to type in the message, then send it by pressing the button with the symbol of an airplane. The Share button, on the other hand, is used to share the content of particular interest, republishing on your profile.
You can perform all the operations just indicated to interact with all public posts or shared by your friends or friends of your friends, depending on your privacy. The Facebook pages instead are public, therefore you can see all posts contained within them.
In particular, if you were to locate a page that interests you as you typed its name into the Facebook search engine, you can press the Like button on the same, so that you can see the contents in the newsfeed. published.
If you have identified, always through the Facebook search engine, a group and wish to interact with it, you may find yourself in a situation where you are unable to see and interact with the content published within it.
In this case, it means that you are undefeated in a closed group: then press on the button Join the group, to request the invitation to the administrators of the same.
Only when you are accepted and you will be notified of the successful registration, will you be able to interact with the contents published in it, as already explained in the previous lines.
Other interesting guides
If you are interested in knowing how a particular Facebook feature works, which I may not have been able to analyze in detail in this tutorial, refer to the archive of all the guides I published regarding Mark Zuckerberg’s social network: there you will find definitely what you need.