Get Your Settings Down in Facebook

So, you’ve got your very own Facebook profile. You’ve already tackled the notifications. What’s next? More Settings! I know it may not be very exciting, but these components are important to establish when you first get a profile so that way you don’t have to worry about it later. You’ll be happy you did this now.
Let’s start. After you sign in, you go to Facebook Home (automatically). That’s the homepage. We’ll get to the details of that page later. First, let’s get some other stuff out of the way.
Click on the “Settings” tab in the upper right hand corner. The first page you see has your personal information like name, e-mail, password, etc. Make sure these are correct. Then, click on the Security Question option about half-way down the page. I suggest having one, just for security purposes. If you don’t want one, no big deal! Just skip that part. If you do, add a security question like “What is your first pet’s name?” and the answer and hit “Change Security Question”.
Next, go to “Privacy”. Hit the “manage” button in blue on the right side of it. This is where you can control what people see in your profile. Click on the first link, which is “Profile”. I highly suggest changing everything but BASIC INFO to the only “Only Friends” option in the slide down menu. This means that only people you agree to be friends with can see all of your profile. After you’re done, go back to the previous screen (use the back button on your browser). Go to the next option, which is “Search”. Here, you can change your “search visibility” if you want to. I suggest keeping it to everyone, because that is how people find you in the first place. If you want to be searchable but more private, just uncheck the options below, which include what people can see when they search you.
Go back again. You can click on the next link, which is “News Feed and Wall”. This option allows you to control what actions of yours appear on other people’s news feeds, which is the updating list of actions on your Home. I would recommend keeping it all checked, simply because that’s the point of Facebook! You want to know what your friends and family are up to, and they want to know about you. You always have the option of changing it, and I wanted to know where it was in case you do. You don’t have to worry about the 4th option, which is “Applications”, simply because you haven’t gotten any yet. We’ll get there soon! I hope this was helpful. Here’s a brief recap:
1. Once signed in, go the Settings tab in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Make sure all your information is correct.
3. Add a Security Question if you feel it’s necessary.
4. Then, click on “manage” next to the Privacy option.
5. Go through the top 3 options, which are Profile, Search, and News Feed and Wall. These options will allow you to control who sees your profile, what info they see, who can search you, and who sees what actions you do. They are important things to establish on a social networking site!
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment for me!