Welcome to Day 24 of 31 Days of Connection! Have you missed some of the posts? No worries – you can always click over to Day 1, where all the post links are listed for you. And have you become a From Lisa Marie subscriber so you don’t miss any posts?

Now, let’s talk about Facebook!

Connecting on Facebook

Facebook opened up to everyone in 2006 ( I joined up sometime in 2008) and now has over 1.7 billion monthly active users worldwide. The largest percentage of users range in age from 20’s to 30’s, though there are still plenty of users in their 40’s and beyond (my 86-year old dad is on Facebook). Teens are the lowest – you’ll find them on other social media networks instead. With this large of an online social network that’s free, there are so many opportunities to connect with people. It’s amazing how many different ways you can achieve connection through Facebook!

10 Ways to Connect on Facebook

There are many different pieces to Facebook now, so you have multiple methods to connect with other users. Here are 10 different ways you can connect on Facebook:

1 – Profile. Your personal profile is the way you connect with friends and family. Not only do you get to connect with your close friends and relatives, but you can connect with people you don’t see often. Tip: Try searching for distant relative names in the search box. Send them a friend request along with a message explaining who you are. It’s a fun way to reconnect with different parts of the family.

2 – Messenger. This is the opportunity to use Facebook like an instant chat. It’s a faster way to communicate and connect with your friends than emailing. You can even message questions or information to page owners. Tip: Try the new $ icon in Messenger which allows you to send or receive money for free. Pay back somebody you owe or gift some money. You and your friend will need to link up your debit cards.

3 – Games. There are many interactive apps and games available on Facebook. Sometimes you make new friends by playing online games and sometimes you increase the amount of daily connection you have with another person by playing regularly. Tip: If you are getting overwhelmed with gaming requests from friends, you can click the little arrow in the upper right corner and choose to have Facebook stop showing you any notifications from that game.

4 – Events. You can set up an event and invite all your friends or specific people to it. It’s a great way to share event info as well as keep a conversation going within the comments. Tip: Find fun stuff happening near you by going to Events, Discover, and searching by time, location, or categories of events.

5 – Pages. Public pages give you the opportunity to connect with brands, public figures, or be a part of communities with common interests. By Liking a page, you see some of the posts and can comment and end up connecting with others who like that page as well. Tip: Make sure you don’t miss what your favorite pages post. Click the dropdown arrow on the upper right of your Facebook top toolbar; Click Newsfeed Preferences; Click Prioritize Who to See First. Now choose up to 30 pages or people who you want to see posts from at the top of your timeline when they do post.

6 – Live Video. Live video is fairly new and up until recently was only available to pages and through smart phones. Now you can do live video on your personal profile and from your computer! Live video comes close to connecting personally and lets you share an experience instantly with others. Tip: Try the Facebook Live Map to see live videos from around the world. Sure, there’s going to be some nonsense, but it can be fascinating to see who is posting what right at that very moment anywhere you can think of!

7 – Groups. Facebook groups are a wonderful way to bring together people with common goals. They can be public or private. We’ll talk more about groups in the next post. Tip: Be sure to use the correct privacy setting when creating a group – choose between Public, Closed, or Secret.

8 – Tagging. When you post photos that include friends, or want to share your post with specific people, you can tag them in the photo or within your post. This assures that they will see the post and most likely interact with you. Tip: If you’re tagged in something you don’t want showing, you can hide the post from your timeline or remove the tag. Change your settings to review all tags of you so you can approve them before they show up on your timeline for all to see if you have any concerns.

9 – Hashtags. When you use a hashtag on a personal profile post, it will only show up for your friends. If you set your post to Public, or use hashtags on page posts, then the hashtag can be searched to see what others might be saying about it. Tip: Go into the search bar and search for hashtags that interest you and you might find some new friends or pages to follow.

10 – Ads. Ads are the best way for brands to connect with their target audience as well as that audience connecting with others who have that same brand interest. Facebook is one of the most effective places to advertise because they have the best developed user info. Your first thought about ads may be negative, but when brands connect to the right consumers with the right ads at the right time, there’s nothing negative about it. If I see an ad that totally applies to me and appeals to me, I am likely to want to connect then and there. Tip: Give feedback on ads in order to see ads that are most relevant to you. When you see an ad that you like or was well-targeted to you, click the arrow in the top right corner of the ad and select “This ad was useful.” When you see an ad that is either offensive to you or completely doesn’t apply to you, then click the arrow in the top right corner of the ad and select “Hide ad.” Facebook may ask you additional questions in order to refine your preferences.

Facebook is constantly changing and you may be missing out on some of the newest ways to connect. Stay up-to-date and try new things!

Day 24 Daily Connection Challenge:
Choose 2 ways of connecting on Facebook that you have either never tried before or have rarely used. Try them out today. If you get confused about how to navigate to what you’re looking for, click the top right drop down arrow, select Help, and go from there. If you find a fun new way to connect, share it with your friends on Facebook!

Thank you for stopping by for Day 24 of 31 Days of Connection! Have you used all of these ways to connect on Facebook? What tip did you find most surprising or helpful? Let me know in the comments or stop by and tell me on my Facebook Page! See you back here for Day 25!