FaceBook Profile Tutorial

TUTORIAL:
How to Create Your Social Networking Profile

Whether you join FaceBook, MySpace, Powerful Intentions, LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon, or SelfGrowth Expert Pages, you will need to create a public profile page for "all the world" to see... at least that part of the world who are already members of these social networking and bookmarking sites... and in the case of MySpace and Powerful Intentions pages... all the world. They don't require you to be a member or friend to view them.

Each site has slightly different headings under which you will write the details of your online life. Each will ask you slightly different questions about yourself, your contact information, your likes, interests, education, employment, and so on.

You can choose which items you wish to answer and which you want to ignore. The types of questions asked depend on how each site sees itself. LinkedIn, for example, is more suited to business professionals, so you'll find headings for "current" and "past" employment, groups you belong to and awards you have received. Almost like an online résumé. And many people do use LinkedIn to find employment or clients.

FaceBook includes more personal questions, including the name of your high school, so old chums can find you... as well as your political and religious views.

By the way, if you plan to use FaceBook primarily for business purposes, you might want to under-emphasize the goofy side of you and present more of a business persona - unless goofy IS part of your business presence. Being yourself is important, but looking like someone worth doing business with is even more important.

In other words, write your FaceBook profile for prospective clients and joint venture partners rather than for your kids and personal friends. Family and friends will find you on FaceBook, too, and maybe send you wacky messages, hugs and bottles of beer. But your profile is seen by everyone who lands on your page - everyone you accept as a "friend" - and if you want these friends to become customers, make sure your FaceBook profile gives them information they need, without turning them off.

I have left space under each heading so you can jot down notes and ideas. You might even want to save this handout as a guide for all of the social media sites you plan to join. You can change the wording to suit the audience on each site, but keeping to a recognizable theme will help you become better known more quickly across all the networking arenas. To create a "buzz," you need to be recognizable and be seen to stand for something specific.

Social Networking Tutorial for Spiritual Entrepreneurs:
Create a Buzz with Free Online Media

You Can Get the Complete Audio and e-Report - For Just $11.00

My 19-page e-report covers:

Creating buzz around products that solve problems
Establishing your profile and presence on social networks such as MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Powerful Intentions
The value of YouTube videos
Twitter microblogging
Social bookmarking sites including Digg, Del.icio.us & StumbleUpon

FaceBook Profile Template

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Please note:
The "new" FaceBook (August 2008) looks different from the 7-tab system you see below, although the information you enter about yourself is the same.
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On FaceBook, to write your profile or to make changes, click on the "edit" link beside the "Profile" link. You'll see 7 tabs, each of which covers a segment of your public profile.

(1) BASIC TAB

Sex:

The options are: Male or Female

Birthday:

Enter your birth day, month and year. You can choose to have FaceBook only show the day and month, without the year (thank goodness!).

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Hometown:

Enter your hometown here, so people can find you. You can also join a network based on the closest city where you currently live and that shows at the top of your profile.

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Political Views:

This one's up to you. If you feel very strongly one way or another and want to display this publicly, go right ahead. If political labeling is not important to you, you can leave it blank. It just won't show up on your home page.

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Religious Views:

Again, if religious labeling is important to your public presence, state your religious views or affiliations here. If not, leave it blank. You only have one line of text to explain yourself.

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(2) CONTACT TAB

Emails:

Enter the email address(es) you want the public to see... and where you'd like FaceBook to send you notifications. Make sure it's an address you check at least daily.

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IM Screen Name:

If you want friends to contact you by Instant Messenger, enter your AOL, Google Talk, Skype, Yahoo, Windows Live, Gadu-Gadu or ICQ screen name. Or if you don't want folks to contact you this way, leave it blank.

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Mobile Phone:

Enter your cell phone number, if you're willing to receive cell phone calls.

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Land Phone:

Ditto for land phone, though I'd enter a business number rather than a home phone.

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Address • City/Town • Zip:

Your FaceBook profile is public to all your friends... and if you accept friends that you don't know, you might want to stick with a PO box or office address, rather than your home address. Including just your city or town could be useful, for local people to find you, especially if they'd like to do business with you, based on what they've seen online.

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Website:

Enter your main website, and other sites of note that contribute to the image you’re wanting to portray on FaceBook. Your blog, for example and maybe a Squidoo lens that adds to your expert status. Remember to include the http:// before the www so it shows as a live link.

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(3) RELATIONSHIPS TAB

Relationship Status:

There's a drop-down box that lets you choose between Single, Married, In a Relationship, etc., or you can leave it blank.

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Interested In:

Choices are: Men or Women

If you're looking for a social or romantic relationship on FaceBook, you can check one or both of these. Even for a business relationship, I guess. But to me, if you show one or the other, it looks like you're hoping to land a date. I left it blank.

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Looking For:

Choices are: Friendship, Dating, A Relationship or Networking.

If you're using FaceBook for business purposes, I'd go ahead and check the latter. If, in addition, you're hoping to create friendships or romances, you can check more than one box.

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(4) PERSONAL TAB

Here's where you show your personality, interests, likes and dislikes and more. You can leave these blank or fill them in with lots of details. Just make sure those details are what you want prospective clients and joint venture partners to see and know about you. A lot is revealed about a person by what they post in these personal information boxes.

Activities:

Which of your activities foster the public image you're trying to create? I look at some people's activities lists and get tired just reading them... and wonder if they really DO all that stuff. Then again, it makes them look like pretty interesting people. If you have activities that might sound weird to your target audience, you might want to leave those off the list.

For example, one of my favorite activities is sitting in a circle or séance, where I receive information and inspirational writing. I don't publicize this in most places... although as my work transitions more to inspirational writing and creating spirit writing circles and a network for other writing channels, I'll add this type of activity to my profile.

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Interests:

Here's a place where you can look a little intriguing. It's also a place to enter things you'd like to learn. These sections of your profile end up as keywords in the overall FaceBook database, so when people do a search for "inspirational writing" they are likely to find me because it's in my Activities section. Same goes for Interests. This is how you'll get other people inviting you to be their friend or join their group... by a keyword that shows up in your profile.

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Favorite Quotes:

Here's a cool place to enter something that's meaningful to you that you think might resonate with others.

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About Me:

I used this section for my mini-bio. I mentioned a couple of key accomplishments and the work I'm doing now and also included links to pages on my website.

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(5) EDUCATION TAB

College/University:

Enter your institute of higher learning and the year, too, if you wish. Because my graduation date is over 40 years ago, I didn't enter mine. It’s up to you. If you'd like to find old college buddies, the year will help winnow things down some.

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Concentration:

If this pertains to your online profile, go ahead and enter it. It'll help college buddies find you, too.

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You can add more universities here, too, if you like.

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High School:

You can enter the name of your secondary school(s) and, if you wish, the year you graduated.

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(6) WORK TAB

Employer:

You can enter your company name, or say "self-employed" or "home business owner. Whatever describes your situation. One person said "That would be me."

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Position:

If you're the owner, you can say that... or give your tag line here.

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Description:

Describe the work you do, either for others or for your own business. From a marketing standpoint, you want to use benefits the reader of your profile might be interested in.

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City/Town:

Enter a place if you're looking for local business.

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Time Period:

Check "I currently work here" if it's true or the month and year you started work there. You can add another job here as well.

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(7) PICTURE TAB

If your picture is stored on your computer, click the browse button to find it, select it and upload it to your profile page. You also need to check the box that indicates you have the rights to do so.

If your picture isn't on your computer, but on a website, you should be able to type in the http://www address of your graphic. If your picture is on your website, right click to select it and a box should pop up. Click on "Properties." Where it says "Address (URL)," copy and paste the entire address, which will say something like – http://...............jpg - and paste that into the photo box (instead of browsing). I haven't tried it on FaceBook, but this method works most other places. The size limit is 4 MB.

There's also an option to use your webcam, if you have one, to take your profile photo. Click the "Show Camera" button and follow the instructions.

That's it! You now have a FaceBook profile - and you can use this same information as the basis for your profiles on SelfGrowth.com, EzineArticles.com, LinkedIn.com, MySpace.com, PowerfulIntentions.org, StumbleUpon.com, Digg.com, Del.icio.us, Twitter.com and Squidoo.com.

More free tutorials here.