Facebook Do's And Dont's

Facebook Do's
Do use your real name since the idea behind these sites is for friends to stay in touch and reconnect. If you use a fake name people you knew in elementary school, from summer vacations, from real-life social groups you have left and friends who moved away, will not be able to find you.
Do use a real picture of you in your profile (at least once). For the same reasons you should use your real name, a real picture of you is a must. People can’t tell if you’re you from your name alone. That being said, keep the picture you post modest, racey pictures just encourage creepers (a Facebook term for stalker) to contact you.

Do search out your name, you may be surprised to find out how many people have the same name or a similar name. Also, searching your surname can reconnect you with long lost relatives.

Do click on the profile picture of people who send you friend requests.Do create photo albums with privacy settings so only your friends can see them. You do this when you first create the album under the “Share This Album With” option. You can change the settings in the future if you want but it is always best to limit who can see the more intimate moments of your life.

Do tag the pictures you post so that friends know when you have put their picture online. It is just common courtesy to let people know when you have put their likeness on the internet. If they don’t like the picture or don’t want people to know it is them they can easily remove the tag by going to the picture and clicking the “remove tag” link by their name.

Do use a public server email address, like Hotmail or Google Mail, when setting up your account and in your contact information. Using your service provider address can let a cyber stalker find you in the real world and will be more likely to get your name on a targeted spam list (in it's User Agreement Facebook reserves the right to sell your information, including your email address and demographic stats, to outside agencies).

Do be tolerant when you get friend requests from strangers, especially if your photo is not of you, believe it or not you are likely not the only person on the planet with your name. Just hit reject and don’t worry about it, people are not notified when you reject their friend request.

Do limit who can see your full profile. You can click on the “privacy” link on your Facebook profile and under “Profile” set who can see which entries. Set it so that only friends can see things like your pictures, your wall, and your personal and contact information.

Do create a private group for you and your close friends. Make the group administrated and by invite only and only allow friends/members to join whom you know in real life. If you have lots of online or Facebook friends set up a seperate group for them and follow internet safe habits when posting messages to that board.

Do use Facebook Applications. They jazz up your page and are fun. Our favorite Facebook Applications; iLike, Horoscopes, Facebook Mobile, Video, Audio, Slideshows, PicNik, and Extended Info.

Do limit your Facebook Platform. Click on the “privacy” link in the upper right corner, click on “Applications” and then click on “Other Applications” and uncheck everything that appears under the “What Others Can See Via the Facebook Platform” heading. This limits how Facebook can use your information. If you leave it in its default setting (all boxes checked) you are agreeing to allow Facebook to use [u]all[/u] of your information, however they want, including selling your stats for demographics reasons or selling your email to spammers lists. Note, if you have added any Facebook Applications you will not be able to block all your information, your name, networks and friends list will still be made available.

Do limit the type of email notifications that come to you from Facebook. Tired of the millions of Facebook emails you get each day? Limit them by clicking on the “account” link in the top right corner, clicking on “Notifications” and uncheck everything you don’t want to be notified of via email. If you uncheck all of them no Facebook emails will go to your inbox.

Do report any threats of violence or other inappropriate posts or images, including posts about after school fights or threats made against specific people, to Facebook and to the proper real world authorities like school officials, parents and police. You can report abuse to directly Facebook by clicking on the “Report” link located under all posts and pictures that are added to Facebook. For more help with Facebook abuses go to the “help” link at the bottom of your “home” page and click on “Safety.”

Facebook Dont's

Don’t leave the default Facebook privacy settings as set. Go in and customize your privacy. Of particular importance, limit what people can see when you poke or message them before you have added them as a friend. The default setting allows people who are not friends yet and whom you poke or message to see your entire profile. To customize your privacy click the “privacy” link in the top right hand corner, click the “Poke, Message and Friend Request” link and adjust the settings accordingly.

Don’t leave the poke option on if poking is getting to you. You can turn it off by going to the “privacy” link in the top right corner, click on the “Search” link and uncheck the “Poke You” box.This will stop people who are not your friends from poking you. Sorry, friends can poke at will.
Don’t post the year you were born. This lets people know how old you are and if you are unfortunate enough to run in to an online predator you are more likely to become a target if they know you are young. Also, since Facebook reserves the right to sell your stats and email address putting your full birthdate up could set you up for more spam than you'd otherwise receive, since your birthdate identifies your age group demographic which is a primary demographic identifier. Spammers often ask for specific age ranges when setting up targeted email lists, omitting the year you were born makes it less likely that you'll be put on such a list.

Don’t be afraid to allow some people to only see a limited version of your profile. Limited profiles show things like your profile picture, your name, your basic info and your friends lists but do not show things like your wall, your interests, your contact info and any photos or videos of you that are not used as in your profile. People who should only be allowed to see a limited profile include; people you do not know well offline, people you meet through Facebook (also known as Facebook friends), people who claim to be from your past but whom you can’t quite recall, people you add as friends because you have a mutual friend, and people you recognize by face but can’t recall by name (or vice versa, know by name but can’t recall by face). To set up a limited profile click the “privacy” link in the top right hand corner, under the “Limited Profile” heading on the bottom right click the “Edit Settings” link and check only those things that you want to have appear on your limited profile.

Don’t ever announce on your wall, or on any public wall, where you plan to go or who you plan to go with. Cyber stalkers are a real threat and if you have one this tells them where to find you in real life.

Don’t be afraid to join public groups about interests you share. Just be careful what you post on the walls of these groups.

Don’t be afraid to make new friends on Facebook. Facebook friends aren’t much different than pen pals of yesteryear. Just be sure to limit the access Facebook friends have to your profile information. This is easily done by clicking the “limited access to my profile” box when you add a friend you have made on Facebook.

Don’t accept Facebook invites to events. Even if you plan to go put down “maybe attending” or “not attending” even if the event is listed as a private or closed events. When you say you are “attending” an event it let’s everybody on your friends list know you where you will be. If you feel must accept invites set your “privacy” settings to omit this information from your mini-feed so people won’t be told you plan to attend.

Don’t use Facebook to bully, harass, spread rumors, challenge fights or otherwise incite violence. Facebook is a social utility, not an anti-social utility.