Social media can be a daunting landscape for those unfamiliar with the technology involved. But the benefits can be enormous. Perhaps the most well-known social network in the United States is Facebook, founded in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. What began as a tool to connect university students eventually grew in popularity until it circled the globe. Facebook currently includes several billion worldwide users and over 190 million users in the United States alone. On Facebook, anyone who signs up can create their own profile page, upload videos and photos, and write posts about whatever is on their mind. They can view their friends’ profiles, join Facebook ‘groups’ with other people who share similar interests, and receive notifications on their devices on the activities of their friends and groups. Not only is Facebook a fun and useful ‘virtual public square’, but its advertising platform can be a very valuable tool in the lending space. Loan officers have the ability to create a Facebook ‘business’ profile in which they may connect with - and generate referrals from - realtors, builders, and clients. The following guide is designed to assist you with a few of the major ‘how-to’s’ of Facebook.
Creating an account
Signing up for Facebook is easy. To start, visit this link (1) which will take you to Facebook’s signup page. The site will ask you for some basic information: your name, either your mobile phone number or your email, your birthday (users must be at least 13 years old), and your gender. You will also be prompted to create a password of your choice. The site will then ask you to confirm either your mobile # or your email by sending you a message. Facebook needs your mobile # or email in order to protect your security, find contacts to suggest as ‘friends’, and show ads relevant to your area. Once you confirm your information, you are ready to navigate Facebook!
Regaining access to your account
If you ever forget your password or lose access to your account for some other reason, there are a few options for you to regain access. If you’ve forgotten your password, you can request a password reset link here (2). Facebook will ask for you to enter the email or mobile # that you used to create your account and you can follow the instructions to change the password and log in to your account with an updated password. If your account has disabled for whatever reason, a pop-up alert will appear when you attempt to log in. You may visit this link (3) to ask Facebook administrators to review your page and restore it. If you believe your page may have been hacked, follow this link (4) to alert administrators to fix the issue.
How to edit your account
Once you’re logged in, you can personalize your Facebook account by adding some information about you. A good way to start is by adding a picture to your profile, which will serve as an icon for anyone visiting your page, by clicking on the empty picture slot on your page and uploading your photo, a picture you like, or even clip art. Once this is added, you can then click on the photo in the corner of your Facebook news feed to flesh out your page with further information, including ‘personal’ info, work info, relationship info, school info, and more (5). You can fill out as much or as little as you like and you can also adjust your privacy settings to ensure that you control how much of your page is viewable to your FB ‘friends’ and how much is viewable to the general public.
How to unpublish your account
Published Pages are visible to the public. Unpublished Pages are only visible to the people who manage the Page. Unpublishing your Page will hide it from the public, including the people who like your Page, and your Page won't be visible to the public until it's published again. If you're an admin, you can unpublish your Page at any time. From your News Feed, click Pages in the left menu. Go to your Page and click Settings in the bottom left. From General, click Page Visibility.
Click to select Page unpublished. Click Save Changes. Share your reason for unpublishing this Page. Click Next then click Unpublish. To republish your page, follow these same instructions and select Page published (6).
How to delete your account
There are two different methods you can take if you decide to erase your account: deactivation or deletion. If you deactivate your account, no one can find your profile while searching in Facebook, but your friends will still see you in their friends lists and you can reactivate at any time. If you want to take a ‘break’ from Facebook but expect to return someday, deactivation may be the preferred method. To deactivate your account, go to ‘Settings and Privacy’ in your account, then ‘Settings’, then ‘Privacy’, then ‘Your Facebook Information’, then ‘Deactivation and Deletion’, and finally ‘Deactivate Account’. You can follow the instructions from there (7).
If you have decided to leave Facebook entirely, you will want to delete your account. This will permanently erase your profile, along with all photos, videos, and posts within. You will also no longer be able to use FB-related programs, such as Oculus and FB Messenger. To delete your account, follow the same steps as above, but after ‘Deactivation and Deletion’, you would select ‘Continue on to Account Deletion’ and then ‘Delete Account’. Facebook will prompt you to enter your password to finalize deletion (8). Deleted accounts cannot be recovered.
We hope this has helped you get a little more comfortable with the basic framework of Facebook. It may seem like a confusing new world to navigate, but learning the ins and outs of this social network can give you access to a very effective tool to reach both new and old customers quickly and easily.