One of the fastest growing segments of Social Media is Facebook. While Facebook was originally the Social Media platform of choice of college students, surprisingly, the fastest growing demographic is now 35 to 54 Year olds, which grew at a rate of 276% since October 2008. Even the baby boomer generation, the 55+ demographic, grew more than 194% over the same period, while Generation Y (18-24 year olds) only grew 20% (Mainstream Gen Y isn’t Buying Into Web 2.0).

As the number of Facebook users increases, a corresponding number of how-to-guides and posts on the most effective ways to create a Facebook profile and to connect with not only friends and interest groups, but to promote businesses and causes are proliferating. In an effort to help both new and experienced Facebook users to sift through the myriad of “how-to” manuals and posts, we have explored numerous posts and articles, and have created this week’s “Best of List”.

The initial steps in creating a Facebook account are very easy, but deciding on the set up of the details can take some time. To create your account, all you need to enter is your full name, email, a password, and your date of birth. Once you have entered this information, you will need to answer the security question by typing the two words (including the space) as it appears on the screen. Following this, you will get a confirmation email, which will take you to the set up of your account.

The first step is to find friends who are on Facebook. You may already have friend requests waiting for you and it is up to you to decide whether you want to accept those requests, or any others you might receive in the future. If you use a supported email platform, and there are a number of them, you can import your email list. If not, you can import a .csv file of your email contacts. An additional method of finding friends is to use Facebook’s list of people you may know or you can simply search for them. In any case, the majority of the time, the person you will “friend” will have to accept your friend request.

Now that you have added a variety of friends to your account, including family, old school friends, and professional contacts, how do you maintain your relationships with them without revealing too much information to the wrong people? Previously cautioned to make all of our data private and not reveal it, we now find that this rule contradicts the whole purpose of participating in social media?

“The beauty of Facebook’s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life.”

(FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster)

You know that you should set up Friends lists and by doing so limit what is visible to each group of friends. However, what are the groups you should consider creating? Allison Driscoll provides some guidelines about acceptable information to share in her post FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster and provides a guideline to five basic groups you may want to have in your profile.

“How much you’re inclined to disclose on Facebook depends on a lot of factors, and can change based on what you did last weekend, who has recently joined the network, and what your overall goals and use of the site are. But a basic breakdown looks like this:

• People you don’t know (your public profile listing)
• Your “real” friends
• Online buddies
• Coworkers
• Family”

Always remember that public means just that. If you make something public, it will be available to anyone who looks at your profile. People have been fired, denied a job interview and have even been denied sick pay because of information on their profile. Also, remember that the permissions for each list and even for individual friends can be changed as often as you wish, and no one will know you made those changes.

In addition to the customizable privacy settings, the user can also employ a variety of applications to enhance his Facebook experience. These applications range from the many quizzes and game challenges you will receive on a daily basis to business and finance applications. If you are looking for an application, chances are you will be able to find something that will serve your needs. Facebook recently changed the applications directory and it is now easier to find applications and to verify that Facebook has reviewed the application.

“Now it’s easier to find social applications on Facebook, on your phone, and on external websites. The new “Featured by Facebook” section highlights Facebook’s favorites. Look for green check marks next to “Verified Applications” – applications that passed our review and have committed to providing trustworthy user experiences.”

(The All New Application Directory)

Facebook also offers businesses and other organizations opportunities to connect with potential business clients and individuals with similar interests. Again, Facebook is about relationship building. Are you a Not-for-Profit trying to make a connection with other Not-for-Profit? Make the connection by creating a fan page, and invite people to join your page. Facebook provides a number of Best Practices Guides for the creation of a variety of pages. In the Best Practices Guides, there are even links to pages that Facebook considers excellent examples of that specific type of page.

Facebook offers many ways to connect with your friends and business connections. On its surface, it appears to be deceptively simple, but once you delve into its varied components, its intrinsic ability to help you maintain and create relationships becomes evident; however, this also means that most of us need some guidance in using Facebook’s functions. How did you become proficient in using Facebook? What are your favorite resources?

Best Facebook Guides

General

Facebook Help Center

How to Use Facebook Effectively

How to Use Facebook’s Homepage

Newbie’s Guide to Facebook

Privacy Settings

FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster

Business

Facebook for Business Building | How-to Guides for running your business

Applications

Facebook Travel Applications Guide

The All New Facebook Applications Directory

Specialized

Biznology: Do we know how to use Facebook?

How journalists can use Facebook | Save the Media

How to use Facebook to be more productive

How to Use Facebook to Promote Your Blog

How to use Facebook to Promote your Blog | NowSourcing

Not for ProfitsFacebook Pages / Public Profiles | Facebook