Facebook Tips (part -3)
Part 3 – Clicking on a friend’s profile
68. Under the picture
You can view their profile by clicking on their picture in your feed. Once there, you can poke them, view videos and photos of them, or send
them a message. Below that is information that they’ve made available to friends lists, including relationship status. It’s a good way to catch up with someone you haven’t seen in a while, then reach out and contact them.
69. Commenting on their wall
You can leave people public messages on their walls – as they can do on yours – just click in the status box and write what you’d like them to see – remember though, it also posts in your feed, so be careful what you say.
70. Adding apps or boxes your friend has
If you see something really interesting that your friend has, click through – and add the app they’re using by following the instructions. If you’ve seen a Facebook page that is exactly how you’d like yours to be, click through and create items as you can.
71. Commenting
You can comment from your own feed, or if you’ve gone over to a friend’s profile (which is a good idea just in case they’ve been bumped out of your algorithm based feed) and comment there. Comments have a length limit, but you can split it over several boxes and it will stack correctly.
72. Tagging
You can tag a friend, or yourself in most photos you have access to – be aware that some people dislike being tagged in photos, so if your friend frequently removes tags of him or herself, maybe you shouldn’t tag them. Any tags of people in videos or photos or notes will appear in their stream.
Part 5 – Your own page, or groups
In addition to having your own profile, Facebook allows you to keep
basic groups and pages, for fan purposes, or you can set up a group to talk about your passions, your interests or both. You can also join others – some places suggest there is a limit to the amount of pages and groups you can add.
73. Group or page? A page is basically a mini profile –
a group has a more group centric feel to its ‘front’ page, but there’s very little difference between them in reality. There are no current accurate figures posted on limits to pages and groups, so there may not be any – but be careful to join an ‘official’ group or fan page belonging to the official entity – there are many unofficial fans and groups on Facebook, and it’s not highly policed at present.
74. Pages and apps
Some apps can post to pages as if they were profiles – much like fully fledged Facebook profiles, pages can have most of the features of a ‘real’ profile, so adding apps to them may be a possibility, depending on the app in question. Explore your options carefully though, because if an app is posting to your main profile, and your page, people following both will get duplicate content.
75. Groups
Groups are like clubs offline – you choose who can join and how wide its access is. Much like other parts of Facebook, it has its own wall, which everyone can post to. Pages have two – one for the owner to post to, one for fans to post to, and then it all feeds into one amalgamated stream.
76. Running both
Many people consider Facebook to be a place for allegiances – groups would then represent (casual) memberships and interaction in clubs,
pages could be considered a greater endorsement or badge of interest, so running both isn’t a bad thing.
77. Causes
There are specific apps for causes on Facebook, but if you’re passionate about something, starting a group, or page is a great way to go – remember to make others admin (in edit membership on the group or page’s main page) so you’re not the only one in charge.
78. Ads
You can place your own ads on Facebook – and they run a lot like Adsense ads in most cases. You’ll need to condense whatever message you want to ‘send’ into very short sentences, but these ads are targetable and very powerful.
Part 4 – The best ways to play
There are a myriad of apps on Facebook that make it, not just a social networking site, but a hub where you can share games with your friends and family. Everything from Farmville to Bejeweled currently runs on Facebook’s app system – here are a few tips to jump start your play in some of the most popular games.
79. Farmville
Farmville is one of the most popular game apps on Facebook and allows you to run your own farm, grow your own (virtual) crops, tend animals and more. Its simplistic interface allows anyone to play easily. A similar game is Farm Town, but the mechanics are only slightly different.
80. Crops
Try to think about how often you check your Facebook – if you’re planting crops, make sure you’ll be able to come online to harvest them, or they are a waste of space and coins. As the more crops you harvest
and the more crops you plant has a relation to your level, planning your crops carefully will allow you to maximize your game play, and afford items you may need.
81. Harvesting When you harvest your crops in Farmville they sell automatically – the same can be said for animals or trees. Farm town stores all of your harvests in a box and you can go to market and sell them.
82. Vehicles and storage
As soon as you can, get a harvester, seeder and tractor – they will allow you to manage much larger farms, but require fuel. You can save up coins to buy them instead of paying real money for Farmville cash. The same thing can be said for buildings – some are limited edition though, so can only be bought with cash.
83. Fuel
Fuel is used to run vehicles – but it’s finite and rechargeable. You can also buy fuel using cash, but larger farms use up fuel before you’ve finished your harvesting, plowing and planting, so remember that whatever you choose to do, you’ll have to still do some ‘manual’ work.
84. Is Farmville cash worth it?
Depending on many factors, including how competitive you are, and whether you want exclusive items, any app that allows you to buy special credits can be worth it. Don’t buy them if you’re a casual player though.
85. Collectables, and projects
Farmville has a mechanism to build things like stables – your friends list has to send you component parts, and then you can build a stable, or expand your storage. This can be frustrating however if they need a lot of pieces. Patience will get you there, and until then keep posting about it every few days by clicking on the building and sharing via that box.
Bejeweled
Bejeweled is a tactical game of destroying gems. There is no ‘right way’ to play, but a couple of tips include:
86. iPhone app
Bejeweled’s iPhone app links with the game on Facebook (via connect) and allows you to post your score to Facebook. It is well worth the money, giving you four mini games in one – and another way to play while you’re waiting somewhere without computer access.
87. Sign up for the competition
Bejeweled offers a free competition and includes the scores from your iPhone app in the updates on site – which allows you to simply join in on the draw, even when you’re not on Facebook.
88. Two different styles of game Bejeweled onsite recently introduced special bonus crystals and more, giving another variation to the one minute blitz style game. Using the ones that fit with your play style can maximize your score. Bejeweled on the iPhone hasn’t had these introduced yet.
89. Bejeweled posts
Bejeweled will post to your profile whenever you reach a points target – sometimes you’ll post a lot in a row, which can be annoying. If you’re planning on playing for a while, you can cancel posting (as you can with any other app) and post the last one. Your friends will appreciate this.
90. Mafia Wars/Vampire Wars
Both Mafia Wars and Vampire wars are basically the same game, with some minor variations – again, like Farmville, you can buy cash or credits to use in special parts of the game, but unlike Farmville, you don’t ‘grow’ crops or care for animals.
91. Finish jobs even if you’re leveled up
Mafia wars and vampire wars allow you to move onto another level (set) of quests, but you should stay on the lower level ones and complete them if you can – it’s a long process in most cases, but it does mean that you get extra skill points, and sometimes, in game cash. Maxing out the completion also gives you cool titles and other stuff that you can’t otherwise earn.
In VampireWars, you need to create minions to feed your powers – these powers can be bought and upgraded to do better things once a day (though it takes several days to increase them to each level). Keeping your minions to at almost three times the amount you need to pay, as when you get into fights, you will lose blood.
In Mafia wars, there’s a similar mechanism – you need to buy properties, and support your illegal items. When you fight, you lose money. In Mafiawars you have to stop back and collect your take – in VampireWars it’s automatic.
Once you’ve completed the jobs/missions, you should always try to fight – be careful to pick someone near your level, or you will most probably lose – beating people of your level and slightly lower will let you level up and win more cash/blood to level with.
Limited edition items are available in VampireWars by playing Akem’s Gamble and with Mandy’s wheel – both are either free or cost a little
blood and have a cool down. In Mafiawars there is a daily lottery, and collections. Collections give bonuses and work a bit like talents – they drop every so often when completing jobs.
Other games
There are a myriad of other games that you can play, each based around the things that you like to do best – there are various designs of games, but most allow you to send gifts, and add friends to exchange ‘stuff’.
92. Adding friends
It’s important to remember that not everyone wants to play these games, so if you invite people, don’t do it constantly. If you’re new to Facebook, and your friends are inviting you, look out for those that play,
and ask them to add you, or sign up and invite them.
93. Gifts
Sending gifts or elements from a game will also invite people to the game – so be careful who you send gifts to – they may have either blocked the game, or will remove you as a connection. Similarly, you can only send one a day, so choose wisely – if a friend is completing a collection go for that.
94. Posting your achievements
Most games allow you to post your achievements, levels, or important milestones – if that’s all that makes up your feed, you may find that your friends complain – or don’t read anything you post at all.
95. Removing games
Like every other app, you can remove any apps that are interfering with your profile, or posting too often – you may find that your friends complain if it posts too often – if that happens, you can simply change the app’s posting privileges, or if you’re not playing at all, remove it by going to Account, application settings and hitting the X beside the game name.
Part 5 – An app for all seasons
Apps aren’t just games – there’s a tonne of functions that you can find in some great apps that you can use to add functionality to your new social media hub. We’ve featured a couple here.
96. Networked blogs lets you share your blog
Did you know that Networked Blogs also allows you to post to your own
page (we talk about pages in Section 3)? Be careful though – those that have you as a friend and have fanned you will get more double updates from your blogs.
97. Network blogs also allows you to follow other blogs
Including your friends and some of the biggest blogs on the web. If you have a list of friends that you like to read, consider following them on Facebook – if they’re there, their blogs will be inserted into your feeds easily.
98. Networked Blogs or importing notes?
(See 2nd section for more information on notes) Notes are a great way of simply posting a lot of content to your feed, while Networked Blogs has features that blend importing RSS with a group – you can have people fan and rate your blog, have a discussions area and more. It all depends on your community needs.
99. Integrating other networks
Facebook has a lot of ‘bridge’ applications, which allow you to integrate external social networking sites, such as Flikr and twitter into your feeds. These powerful tools can take a while to set up, but are well worth it if you regularly use the sites you’re linking up.
100. Horoscopes and more
Like everywhere else on the web, Facebook has facilities to post horoscopes and more – if you’re interested in that sort of thing, find one that your friends use and post it.
101. Developing your own
Facebook has a powerful API that allows you to develop just about anything based on a framework – so developing something that you think other people might like to play is easy. It’s also good advertising for the ‘cause’ or company of choice.
Have fun
While all these tips cover the mechanics of networking and beyond, it’s important to remember that you should always try to enjoy yourself. Facebook is a social site – be social and enjoy everything it has to offer!
I Hope This Was A GOOD Read
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