A Facebook user account is a personal account created on the Facebook platform that allows an individual to engage with the various services and features offered by Facebook. A user account enables a person to connect with friends and family, join groups and communities of interest, share photos and videos, communicate via messaging, stay up to date with news and current events, play games, use Facebook’s marketplace, and more. Facebook currently has over 2.8 billion monthly active user accounts worldwide (as of Q3 2022), making it the largest social media platform globally in terms of userbase.
Opening a Facebook Account
Opening a Facebook account is free and simple. The basic requirements are that the user must:
- Be at least 13 years old
- Provide their first and last name
- Provide a valid email address or mobile phone number
- Agree to Facebook’s Terms of Service and other policies
Here is a step-by-step overview of how to open a Facebook account:
- Go to www.facebook.com and click “Create New Account”
- Enter your first name and last name
- Provide your email address or mobile phone number and create a password
- Enter your date of birth and gender
- Click “Sign Up”
- Facebook will send a confirmation code to your email or phone number which you must enter to confirm your account
- Accept Facebook’s Terms of Service, Data Policy, and Cookies Policy
- Your Facebook profile is now created! You can start adding friends, updating your profile info, joining groups, etc
The email or phone number used to open your Facebook account becomes your username for logging in in the future. You can only have one Facebook account per email address or phone number.
Account Types
There are three main types of Facebook user accounts:
Personal Accounts
A personal Facebook account is for non-commercial individual use. This is the standard user account most people have for connecting with friends and family. You represent yourself on your personal account using your real identity.
Pages
A Facebook Page is for businesses, brands, organizations, public figures, influencers, artists, entertainers, media publishers, and other entities to have an official presence on Facebook. Pages enable public figures and organizations to broadcast content, promote themselves, advertise products or services, engage with supporters and fans, and build an online community.
Groups
Facebook Groups allow users to communicate about shared interests, activities, affiliations, and more in a communal message board format. Groups can be private or public. There are groups for everything from hobbies, professions, parenting, health interests, sports teams, school alumni, and much more. Group admins can moderate members and posts.
Profile Information
Personal Facebook accounts and Pages display various profile information about the user such as:
- Profile photo
- Cover photo
- Name
- Short bio
- Workplace
- Location
- Education
- Relationship status
- Contact info
- Links to websites
Users can control the visibility and privacy settings on their profile information to limit what is shown publicly or to specific friend groups.
Account Security
Keeping your Facebook account secure is important for protecting your privacy and safety online. Here are some key account security tips:
- Use a strong password that is unique from your other online accounts
- Enable two-factor authentication for logins
- Be cautious of suspicious emails, links, attachments that may be phishing attempts
- Use up-to-date antivirus/malware software on your devices
- Don’t use public WiFi to access your account
- Log out fully after using Facebook on shared devices
- Be careful about what personal information you share publicly
- Use Facebook’s privacy settings to limit account visibility
- Report suspicious activity or accounts to Facebook right away
Friends and Connections
The main activity on Facebook is connecting with friends and family. You can search for people you know by name or email address and send them a friend request. If they accept, they will be added to your friends list and you will be able to see their profile information and posts.
Facebook friend connections must be reciprocal – both people must agree to be friends and be able to see each other’s posts, photos, and profile info. This two-way friendship model differs from other social networks like Twitter where following someone can be one-sided.
In addition to direct friend connections, you can also subscribe to the public posts of Pages, Groups, and other entities without requiring a mutual friend confirmation.
News Feed
Your Facebook News Feed is the constantly updating stream of content you see whenever you log into Facebook. It includes updates, photos, videos, links, and more shared by your friends, Pages you follow, Groups you’ve joined, and other connections.
The News Feed aims to show users the most relevant and interesting content at the top using complex algorithms. You can scroll down indefinitely to keep seeing older posts. Refreshing the News Feed will load new content.
You can like, comment on, and share posts you see in your News Feed to interact with friends and give feedback. Clicking on photos or videos will enlarge them. Clicking on links will take you to external websites.
The News Feed is personalized and dynamic – no two people will have the exact same content. You have some control over the content you see based on the connections you form and pages/groups you engage with.
Timeline and Wall
Your own profile page displays your personal Timeline where you can share posts, photos, videos, and other updates. This serves as your “wall” that your friends can see and interact with.
When other people visit your profile or go to your Timeline, they will see your posts, info, photos, videos, and more. This serves as your public-facing profile page that showcases your identity and content on Facebook.
You can use your Timeline to provide statuses, share life updates, post media, promote your work and interests, and more. People can like, comment on, and share your Timeline posts.
Photos and Videos
Photo and video sharing is a hugely popular Facebook activity. You can upload photos and videos to your Timeline or post them in albums. When you tag people in your photos, they will be notified and can share and interact with your photos. There are no limits on how many photos you can upload.
Uploaded photos and videos can be made public or limited to certain friend lists. You control the privacy settings. All uploads are compressed by Facebook to save space but maintain quality.
Facebook provides exceptional tools for managing, editing, enhancing, tagging, organizing, and sharing your photos. Photo albums let you collect related photos together in logical groups that you can share as entire sets.
Stories
Facebook Stories allow you to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours, similar to Snapchat or Instagram Stories. You add creative elements like text captions, drawings, filters, stickers, and music.
Stories enable expressing yourself and sharing everyday moments in a casual way to your Facebook friends. They appear at the top of the News Feed. Friends can react and reply to Stories but they cannot reshare them.
Facebook’s algorithms prioritize showing your Stories to close friends more prominently than regular followers. The temporary nature encourages sharing things you may not permanently post.
Live Video
Facebook Live allows you to broadcast real-time video streams to your followers, friends, or public audiences. You can go live from your phone or computer webcam.
Uses for Facebook Live include broadcasting events, conducting interviews, hosting discussions and Q&As, sharing announcements, documenting activities, expressing opinions, promoting causes, and more. Viewers can react and comment in real-time.
Live videos can then be archived and replayed later or downloaded for sharing on other platforms. Facebook Live provides an easy and interactive way to connect with audiences through engaging video.
Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace facilitates buying and selling various items locally between Facebook users. It provides an alternative to sites like Craigslist.
On Marketplace, you can list physical items for sale, search for products people near you are selling, message sellers to ask questions, negotiate prices, and arrange safe meetup locations to make transactions. Facebook has tips for staying secure.
Common product categories on Marketplace include vehicles, furniture, electronics, appliances, clothing, household items, toys, arts & crafts, collectibles, and more. Facebook takes no fee – it’s designed for peer-to-peer sales.
Advertising
Facebook allows businesses to create ads targeted to specific demographics and interests. As a user, you will encounter sponsored content in your News Feed, along the right margin, and on brand Pages.
Facebook collects extensive data about its users including locations, ages, genders, interests, relationships, browsing habits, and more. Businesses leverage this to precisely target relevant audiences for their ads based on factors like location, age, interests, behaviors, and connections.
Users can hide or report ads they do not wish to see. Overall, Facebook advertising enables businesses to effectively reach potential customers, drive traffic to websites, generate leads, and increase sales.
Games, Apps and Platform
The Facebook Platform supports third-party apps and games you can connect to your account. Popular Facebook apps include music streaming services like Spotify, quiz apps, gaming apps, dating apps, and productivity apps.
Apps must request your permission to connect to your Facebook account. Once connected, the app may access information from your public profile and information you add within the app.
Many apps and games will publish activity back to your Facebook Timeline as you use them. You can control which apps have access to your account in your App Settings, and can remove them at any time.
Pages You Can Like
In addition to connecting with individual friends, a major social activity on Facebook is following Pages related to your interests. Some popular Pages categories include:
| Page Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Entertainment | Musicians, actors, athletes, YouTubers, celebrities |
| News and Media | News sites, TV channels, radio stations, magazines, blogs |
| Business and Brands | Companies, local businesses, restaurants, stores, organizations |
| Interest-Based | Hobbies, causes, health, science, animals, religion, etc. |
| Educational | Schools, universities, libraries, museums, online education |
Pages allow you to follow public updates from brands, entities, and topics without requiring mutual friendship. Liking or following a Page adds their posts to your News Feed. You can like Pages to get news, entertainment, information, and more tailored to your interests.
Groups You Can Join
Special-interest Facebook Groups you can join and participate in include:
- Hobby Groups: Photography, gardening, outdoors, arts & crafts, cars, sports teams, gaming, etc.
- Industry and Professional Groups: careers, tech, finance, real estate, recruiting, freelancing, etc.
- Support Groups: parenting, health conditions, military vets, religious groups
- School and University Groups: alumni associations, clubs, sports teams, campus groups
- Local Community Groups: city info, business recommendations, neighborhood updates, events
- Topical Discussion Groups: news issues, social causes, politics, philosophy
Groups enable conversations and community building around shared affiliations and interests in a message board-style forum. You can discover new Groups to join by browsing recommendations and from friends who are members.
Messenger for Communication
Facebook Messenger allows real-time chat messaging with your Facebook friends and connections:
- One-on-one conversations
- Group chats with multiple people
- Sending text, emoji, photos, videos
- Video and audio calls
- Customizing chat colors, nicknames, emoji reactions
- Fun features like stickers, effects, games
Messenger is available as a separate app on mobile and desktop. You can access it directly or through your Facebook account. Messenger provides a fast, flexible way to communicate through text, voice, and visuals.
Finding Friends and Contacts
Facebook offers powerful search tools for finding new friends and contacts in various ways:
- Search for people by name, username, email, or phone number
- Browse friends of your existing friends and send connection requests
- Import contacts from your email, phone, or instant messaging apps
- Find classmates, co-workers, relatives, and others based on regions and affiliations
- Connect your social networks like Instagram to follow contacts across apps
- Discover people nearby based on geographic proximity
In your account settings, you can control who is able to search for your profile and send you friend requests. Facebook’s people search capabilities enable expanding your network based on existing connections in intuitive ways.
Events and Calendar
Facebook Events allow creating and promoting online events:
- Add event name, location, date/time, hosts, photos, descriptions
- Invite friends and make the event public or private
- People can RSVP, post on the Event wall, add to their calendars
- View which friends are going and who is interested
- Promote events to broader audiences through advertising
The Facebook calendar shows upcoming Events you’re invited to and interested in alongside birthdays and other dates from your timeline. It provides a centralized place to track significant occasions.
Privacy, Safety and Security
Facebook provides robust privacy controls, safety resources, reporting options, and security tools including:
- Custom friend lists to target sharing
- Post privacy settings: Public, Friends, Only Me
- Disable search engine indexing
- Block people
- Report abusive, dangerous, or policy-violating content
- Two-factor authentication login
- Logins alerts when new devices accessed
- Secure password rules and resets
- Facial recognition login for mobile devices
Understanding Facebook’s many options for limiting account visibility, safeguarding information, staying secure, and reporting problems is important for all users.
Conclusion
A Facebook user account opens up diverse opportunities for connecting with friends, expressing yourself, exploring interests, accessing information, promoting businesses and brands, and more. Mastering privacy controls is essential.
With over 2.8 billion users, Facebook’s platform enables community, communication, creation, and consumption of a vast range of content for work, leisure, and life online. Understanding its options and capabilities creates value.