Facebook Me! A Guide to Having Fun with Your Friends and Promoting Your Projects on Facebook (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Until you actually join Facebook and play with it a little, it can be hard to figure out what's so appealing about it..." (more)
Key Phrases: news feed, posted items, privacy settings, Friend Lists, Dave Awl, Green Patch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“No better Virgil than Dave Awl when it comes to orienting the uninitiated to this strange and many-circled world of Facebook.”
—Ayun Halliday, author of No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late

Product Description

So you’ve heard about Facebook—maybe your friends have invited you to join or it’s the hot topic around the water cooler—but you’re not sure what it’s all about. Relax and join in. There are more than 110 million members of Facebook these days, and adults are the fastest-growing segment of users. And it’s about more than just kid stuff; Facebook can actually be a good business tool as well as a great way to promote creative projects. In Facebook Me! Dave Awl shows you around the newly redesigned Facebook and helps you take full advantage of all it has to offer, while helping you avoid some of its pitfalls.

• Find out what you can do on Facebook, and what it can do for you. Reconnect with old friends and make new ones, let your friends know what you’re up to, send greetings, share photos or video, or just goof around with applications like SuperPoke.

• Learn Facebook etiquette: how and why to friend someone, how to socialize politely, and whether to friend your boss.

• Publicize your projects, business, or causes: Post to your Wall, set up a Page, put up a Marketplace listing, or invite friends to Events.

Look for the official Facebook Me! Group on Facebook, to connect with the author and other readers of this book.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (February 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 032159195X
• ISBN-13: 978-0321591951
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #60,643 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent primer for Facebook, March 8, 2009

By	John A. Suda (Rochester NY) - See all my reviews

The Facebook social activity site has become a global phenomenon and continues to grow and add new members. It appeals to millions of users attracted to the idea of connecting with friends, neighbors, affinity groups, and even strangers using the myriad tools the Facebook web application provides.

The Facebook interface, however, is a bit clunky and confusing, and the configuration settings complicated enough (especially in the privacy set settings) that a manual like Facebook Me! is needed and helpful. Author, Dave Awl, has created a nice primer on Facebook that will help make it easy for anyone to set up and use an account, configure it to their needs, learn the tools, and make the best use of Facebook for their social purposes.

The book is an easy read and well laid out . It has plenty of easy-to-follow illustrations and instructions. It is geared for beginners and the casual computer user. It is loaded with Tips, Notes and Warnings about Facebook settings and use. Awl includes a large handful of special sections on Facebook norms - etiquette, the politics of "friending," discretion with privacy settings, using photo and video promotions, and more - which help new users especially, from getting into trouble with their friends, families, employers, and Facebook administrators.

There are 13 chapters comprehensively covering nearly everything one would want to know about Facebook. The early chapters cover the basics of setting up an account and a profile. The middle chapters detail how to make "friends, set up or join groups and networks, and how to use Facebook in promoting a business or an organization. There are sections on publishing text, photos, and videos and adding on third-party applications of all types-for communication, purchasing gifts and other items on the site, and just plain silliness.

A whole chapter is devoted to important privacy and security settings and behaviors. Facebook facilitates the disclosure of personal information which can have both good and bad consequences. Awl helps the reader understand how to deal with each. Some Facebook fans who are shut out of Facebook at work by overzealous employers will learn a handful of workarounds to maintain their Facebook presence, regardless. The final chapter shows how to integrate Facebook with mobile communication devices so as to never be away from interacting with Facebook friends.

All this personal information sharing may not sound worthwhile for some people, but the author describes how he overcame his own skepticism to become an advocate for the program, while carefully learning how to set limits on his personal disclosures.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you need to know about using Facebook, May 13, 2009

By	Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

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In its own way, this is a remarkable little book. It is a guide to the everyday use of Facebook. It is neither too broadly focused nor too narrowly. It doesn't delve into areas that the typical Facebook user will never use. It doesn't, as some book on Facebook do, spend endless and needless time on privacy settings. They're covered, but not obsessed over.

And "Fscebook Me!" has some surprises: information that you're not likely to see elsewhere. I've read a bunch of book about Facebook lately in a kind of crash course of my own making and was truly surprised to learn things in "Facebook Me!" that I hadn't seen elsewhere.

Chapter 5, entitled "Wall, Status and News Feeds" is an eye-opener and, frankly, worth the price of the book.

David Awl has done a fine job of ferreting out the "secrets", if you will, of Facebook. There are a lot of tips and tricks to be found, nearly all of them useful.

This is far mote than a basic introduction to Facebook: it is truly a user's manual and a reference. (By the way, the book is so new that it covers the recently revamped Facebook interface. Nice.) I should add that the book is very well illustrated.

I can't overstress how thoroughly Awl has covered the use of Facebook. It is a very impressive effort - and extremely useful if you want to get the most out of Facebook. I learned a lot from this book that isn't apparent from the Facebook interface.

Definitely a keeper.

Jerry

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to facebook!!!, February 26, 2009

By	technology_aficionado (Gurnee, IL United States) - See all my reviews

In a word, this book is outstanding.

This is not a book about facebook, it is a book about how to get personal value out of facebook -- an important distinction. Dave Awl begins by explaining that he is a very unlikely author for such a volume -- having been dragged into the facebook world by some old friends. He soon discovered that facebook enabled him to connect with old friends, express his creativity, and participate in a vibrant online community.

The book is written for the novice and expert alike. Writing is informative, engaging, and unexpectedly funny throughout. Graphics are abundant -- those who prefer to skim could probably learn alot just by reviewing the screenshots and captions. Of particular interest is that Dave helps navigate not only the pages of facebook, but the culture of facebook, including how to handle unwanted friend requests, how to guard your privacy, and how to manage the flow of information you get in your friend's newfeeds.

This is one of the rare technology books that I believe will be enjoyed equally by those who thrive on the online experience as well as those who have some fear of it.

Great job, Mr. Awl! Now if you can just write a book about some of the other sites I use...