There is a new Facebook application that has been recently introduced to the social networking community. It enables a Facebook user to chat via text to a cell phone. It has fantastic potential in more ways than one, and I think it will moving across the Facebook community very soon. Facebook Chat to Text is a new application that enables the Facebook user to chat with another person who is using a cell phone.

Recently, my cousin came for the weekend. I think he checked his Facebook messages using his cell phone at least 200 times. What he could not do though, is text back to his friends using his cell phone. With the new application that was just launched,that is exactly what he can do. As soon as Facebook users know about this new application it will be something that everyone has to have.

I mentioned that it has great potential in more ways than one because it is also an opportunity to make money. Once you get Facebook Chat to Text, you can email all of your contacts and see if they want to get it also. It does not cost much, and it is a great application so many people sign up for it. The person who refers his friend to the chat service, gets a small commission. He gets another commission on everyone that his contacts refer to the service. Its a win win situation because its a very usefull feature for Facebook users and you can make some extra money each month letting others know about it. The only drawback is that for now Facebook chat to text is only available in the United States and Canada.

During the Worldwide recession the lotteries jackpots are still huge therefore people winning them still need to invest few million of dollars or euros or any other currency to some business Internet business is still one of the most attractive directions of investment. Now it is very difficult to create a competitive and successful e-shop, web design studio, online project management service or any other affiliation site because of huge competition. Some entrepreneurs still try to create social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, but majority fails. Does that mean that no one can repeat the success of Twitter or Facebook which started with very little budgets? Probably not, but only 1 of 100 attempts may succeed.

What about bigger chance of success? Let’s see what big social networks offer to people:

* Lots of contacts to choose from different countries, speaking different languages;
* Lots of interests to discuss using social networking tools such as micro-blogging, groups, forums, social bookmarking, file share etc.
* Unified communication features for all members;
* Generic forms of marketing and ads;
* Possibilities of using third parties applications (widgets) to satisfy specific needs.

When people have general interests in communication with people worldwide in own and general language huge social networks are the best solution. No one can beat Facebook or MySpace in traffic as they satisfy this communication thirst. However still remains the need for communication in local circle. Example is Hyves.nl social network in the Netherlands, which is more popular than Facebook or MySpace. There is a short presentation illustrating the local networks versus Facebook and MySpace usage.

The newest hype of WWW is Twitter – the simple micro-blogging platform with lots of the additional services around. Twitter is huge, but that is not going to last forever because of Twitter clones. Someone counted more than 200 of Twitter-like sites in different countries. That shows the power of the locally based similar services to giant social networks. If someone has a spare million of dollars, he/she should think about creating a local social network in some country or region (example of regional social networking success is Netlog.com – one of the most popular Social networks in Europe). Of course there is almost no market without competition (I doubt there is big market in Zimbabwe where people do not have electricity, not speaking about computers and internet), so it is good to analyze the market first.

If we look at the social networks list we can clearly see another interesting criteria – the interest based social networking. That’s the main competitor of big social networks, as they cannot provide the interface for every interest. All they can do is allowing third party widgets to be installed making the profile and management of the personal space messy and troublesome (look at the MySpace profiles). The interest based social network can be international; therefore it can be easily tested on some local markets first and then launched internationally. That makes management of investment easier and more effective.

What can be the main interests of people to be transferred to virtual space in the shape of social network with friends ties, status updates, blogging, picture, video exchange, bookmarking features, groups and chats etc.? Classmates, dating, blogging, job search are the main ones attracting huge amount of people, but still there are some other areas.

Let’s review it personally. I have a Russian Blue cat so I participate in such social network for cat lovers as UnitedCats.com (by local country, of course). If I would like to leave this network I would choose a brand new CuteAsHell social network for pets in general. Why I like this social network instead of Facebook Russian Blue Cats Group with almost 300 members? Because it has very nice features for cat lovers such as virtual gifts (all kinds of kitty toys and equipment what makes this gift feature unique), photo voting is called “Pat the cat”, blog can be written on behalf a cat or owner which make really interesting to read. Also I know that some of the participants of this community are professional cat breeders which can really give me help if my cat gets sick or I do not understand her character. Neither Facebook or MySpace cannot give me that.

I travel a little, therefore I participate in travelers social network WYAN.com where people share their reviews about countries, tours, day trips and of course shares pictures of the places of interest. I can easily make decision where to go and what to see. I always can share my plans and can even make some friends in that country to meet them once I arrive and hear another story about the country rather than tour guides tell. Probably I will have lots of troubles looking for similar information in Facebook and Myspace.

As a professional I have my profile in LinkedIn and participate in local professionals discussions as well as global ones. Here I can share my professionalism, participate in discussions about specific work related issues. Here I can find another job, or find the entrepreneurs for my business plan. Have you ever seen people who are hosting their resumes and CV in Facebook or MySpace? I have not.

As you can see the interest social networks are very good for sharing the personal interests and setting the communication among people with similar interest. In Facebook I always see my friends speaking about the things I am not interested or even do not understand (hear programmers speaking – if you are not in IT market their language will be like gibberish). In the interest social network I will always understand what my peers are talking about.

Investor should think if there are any interests which are covered quite poorly. For example pet social network market is quite saturated as some serious people made some investment. But maybe bikers’ social network still would make a nice ROI? There are always some profitable markets uniting golfers, cooking lovers, photographs, poker players etc. which must be investigated and some competitive social networks with unique tools created. Technologically it is not very difficult as there are so many open source systems with huge social networking add-ons collections.

Another important feature of new social media should be a flexibility to adopt new trends in case some phenomena like Twitter emerges in next couple of years. Status updates are so popular (like SMS in Mobile world), that every social network must have this feature and in some cases it must be better developed to fit the needs of specific interest. For example poker players community enjoy the icons of cards speaking about their hands, however Twitter cannot have any icons. So maybe poker related Twitter clone FTsweat could provide such feature? Very big attention must be paid for internal messaging system as it may become very powerful communication and marketing tool. Look at the MySpace example. They have 125 million of active internal messaging system users and once they will build a webmail service they will automatically become 3rd largest email provider in the World. Interest based social network may never do better email service as Yahoo or Gmail, but some handy features can keep some members using internal mail outside the social network space.

Creating social network is not enough. Every social network should have additional applications for third party websites – widgets and apps for iPhones and G-phones and all the rest new type of mobile devices allowing not to use computer for communication. Without them every social network is doomed sooner or later. But let’s leave this topic for future.

Summing up. If you are an investor, please consider creating local or quite narrow interest based social network in order to kick Facebook’s and MySpace’s ass. That’s not impossible. That’s better than wasting money creating one more Facebook or MySpace.

The 2 titans in viral  marketing are currently Facebook and Twitter even though Twitter only has a fraction of the number of users of Facebook. At the time of this writing, Twitter has around 3 million users, compared to 200 million for Facebook, but all the buzz is about Twitter.

Being a user of both online viral marketing services, I can certainly see why Twitter trounces Facebook in many ways, but will it be able to knockout the champion? Let’s start by taking a look at some advantages of Twitter over Facebook.

5 Twitter Advantages:

1. Easy to get followers

2. Easy to follow people, no permission required, and few rules and restrictions.

3. Very simple and quick, maximum 140 characters per ?tweet?

4. Allows aliases

5. Searchable, with full profile views

Now let’s take a look at some areas where Facebook has an advantage:

1. Fan page feature

2. Better support for multi-media, although this is improving in Twitter

3. Creates trust

4. Very viral

5. Event page feature

Overall, Facebook is a lot more complex than Twitter. And it’s much more cumbersome and restrictive to get friends on Facebook. Friends must approve you and if you are not a friend, you can’t see a person’s full profile.

Facebook also has some archaic restrictions on adding friends. There is a friend threshold, and if you go over the limit Facebook will disable your ability to add friends for an unspecified amount of time. And they also don’t publish the threshold so it’s a guessing game.

And if you violate their mysterious rules and restrictions too many times, Facebook will disable your account permanently and you will have to start all over with a new account and 0 friends. I know several people that have had this happen after growing their friend lists to a few thousand friends. And they weren’t even told what they did wrong. Ouch! I’m doing my best to avoid this.

I have personally violated the “mysterious adding friend threshold”. When I got slapped by Facebook for this I was not able to add any new friends for over a week. I significantly reduced the number of friends I was inviting each day and still got a nasty email threatening from them.

If you want to get started in viral marketing check out twitter for it’s ease of use, short messages, and lack of prohibitive rules and restrictions. The main thing, I’ve found that it’s a lot of fun and you can learn a lot from people posting interesting info!

And now I would like to invite you to claim your Free Access to “15 Ways To Grow Your Business Online”. Just click here to send me a blank email and you’ll start receiving valuable information that can help you get more traffic to your website or blog and make more money from your visitors.

Individuals, of all different ages, enjoy meeting and communicating with other internet users. Despite the fact that individuals of all ages use the internet to socialize, there are certain groups of individuals that do more than others.

Those groups of individuals include students, both high school students and college students. For that reason, it is only fitting that there should be a social networking website that has a focus on these particular individuals. That networking website is known as Facebook.

Facebook may not be as well known as other popular social networking websites, such as Yahoo! 360 or MySpace, but it is still popular. That popularity is mostly among high school students and college students, mostly because Facebook focuses on these individuals in particular.

With Facebook, you are required to register for a specific network. That network can either include the high school or college which you attended or are currently attending. Once you have joined the website, you should easily be able to make contact with others who are in the same network.

The network in which you join can be considered an advantage of Facebook, as well as a disadvantage. See, Facebook does not work like most other social networking websites.

Instead of being able to communicate with all site members, you are limited to contact with those that are in your particular network, the high school or college you that selected. The creators of Facebook state that this is for your own safety. Although it is safer for your profile and personal information to be viewed by a small number of individuals, you may not necessity want it to be that way.

Although a large amount of focus is placed on high school students and college students, Facebook has added another popular feature to their website. That feature is workplace networks. By joining a specific workplace network, you will be granted access to other community members who work for the same company as you. This feature is nice, especially since many companies have become large corporations or expanded across the country. You may be able to make contact and become friends with a long-distance coworker that you never knew you had.

Another aspect of Facebook that you may find inconvenient is their lack of available information, before you decide to become a community member. When viewing their online website, it is hard to tell whether or not the site is free to use. Most online social networking sites will make this known right upfront, but Facebook does not.

Aside from the price, you should easily be able to obtain additional information on Facebook, before making the decision to become a member. This additional information may include how Facebook works, why you should become a member, how the invite process works, and general rules and restrictions that are in place.

If you are interested in joining the Facebook community, you should do what you should do with all other social networking websites, research. By taking the time to research and examine everything that Facebook has to offer, you should be able to decide whether or not this popular networking community is what you were looking for.

There is a good chance that it will be, but if not, do not worry. There are literally an unlimited number of other social networking websites that you can join.

Social networking sites were originally formed with the intention of building friendships and networks of like minded social contacts. However, there is no avoiding the fact that these same websites also offer businesses the opportunity to improve their exposure and increase their search engine rankings. Many of the big search engines treat links from these social networking sites as being powerful links and they form a very strong link profile for any business related website. One of the key aspects of any social media optimization strategy is to genuinely get involved and not just needlessly and ineffectively spam the sites.

Be Ethical

Spam is a problem in virtually every aspect of the Internet. As well as being a major problem for regular email users, forum spam, blog spam, and MySpace spam have become increasingly common and infuriatingly frustrating. Users of social sites have become near experts in ignoring the irrelevant comments because they use social sites in order to find relevant information and talk to like minded people. The key to success with Facebook, like any social networking site, is to provide what the users want – relevant information.

Building A List Of Targeted leads

Finding targeted leads is the most profitable method of building a powerful network. Facebook offers access to a large number of topic related groups that you can access and join. Find the topisc that are most relevant to your business where you can become an active community member. Generally speaking, the more targeted the group and the more active you are, the better you will fare in your promotional efforts.

Your Profile Page

Set up your profile so that it helps to promote your business in a positive manner. Having a profile opens up various useful features in Facebook but above all else it will be the one page that other users visit if they want to find out more about you or your service. By all means include a link or a small number of links to your sites but don’t get carried away.

Keep Your Network Updated Regularly

Once you have a network of feeds you can contact them all by updating your Facebook notes. These updates will appear in your friend’s RSS feeds. Do be careful when using this feature, though, because while it is a genuinely useful way to gain a direct line to potential leads, the posting of too many sales based or irrelevant posts can quickly deplete your network.

Sell Products On The Facebook Marketplace

The Facebook marketplace is particularly beneficial for those businesses that sell tangible products. If you are primarily an Ebay business, or you run an ecommerce store, you can promote your items for free in the marketplace giving you greater exposure and potentially improving your sales figures and profit levels.

Create A Facebook Application To Promote Your Brand

By creating a Facebook application you promote your business in several ways. First, other users will be more inclined to add you as a friend if your application is useful. They may also send details of your application to their own network – this style of viral marketing can generate a lot of interest for very little money. Users will also build a greater degree of trust in your service because you have offered them something genuinely useful. They will remember your name, the name of your service, and they will instinctively know how to find you online – you can pay thousands of dollars for a branding campaign this effective but Facebook offers the same advantage for free.

Why Use Facebook To Promote Your Business?

Facebook has grown in popularity very quickly. Many of the users are young adults and professionally minded people, rather than the predominantly teenage crowd that frequent MySpace. More businesses get actively involved in the Facebook community too. Facebook also offers tools and features that are more in tune with the business than some of the other big social networking sites.

If you are reading this article, the assumption is that you are already a Facebook member. If you are not, feel free to create a new account. There are good reasons for you to do so because members of Facebook continues to benefit from a plethora of new applications and games.

These games and applications are not developed by Facebook founders or developers. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that these developers have nothing to do with Facebook, except that they know how to develop applications and games on the Facebook developer platform. This one of a kind platform allows enterprising developers to develop anything they want for the Facebook community.

First, we have the applications. When Facebook first launched its developer platform, not many people know how to use it. So the first generation applications are mainly test applications. These are simply applications developed by a number of interested parties. As Facebook continues to grow at a amazing rate, its growth caught the attention of many talented developers.

So the pool of developers continue to grow. And each generation feeds on the knowledge acquired by previous generations, and their skills improved. As a result, they are able to create more sophisticated applications for the community. Everyday, new applications are launched. And they are becoming more and more useful. You can find almost anything you want – from RSS readers to personal organizers. If you have a good idea for an application that is not currently being developed, you can always try your hand at developing one yourself.

If applications do not interest you, you may consider browsing the huge database of games available for Facebook members. Games can be simple and mindless tag games like Zombie, where those who are “bitten” have to go around “biting” other people. And guess what happens to the people who are “bitten”? That’s right. They are required to install the Zombie game in order to go around “biting” other people. This is a classic example of how the viral effect works on social community sites like Facebook.

Of course, not everyone likes to play mindless Zombie games for eternity. Innovative game developers have gone on to create full blown role playing games such as Corruption Unlimited. This game allows gamers to become a mafia gangster. To earn points, one must go around committing crimes in the virtual world. Players who take the time to hone their skills to perfection can expect to win attractive prizes. Contests are being run on a regular basis to help promote the game and encourage activities.

As a Facebook member, you may surprised at the number of pleasant surprises that the Facebook community has to offer. Winning attractive prizes from games like Corruption Unlimited is just one example. On this highly popular website, you may find a long lost classmate, or you may find an application so useful that you didn’t know how you ever got along without it.

The future certainly looks bright and exciting for the entire Facebook community. If you haven’t already done so, perhaps it’s time you create a new account with Facebook, and start winning some attractive prizes for yourself.

A new manufacturer has entered the UK mobile phones market with a bang, INQ have teamed up with the dedicated 3G network 3 Mobile to release the INQ1 Facebook mobile phone, an exclusive social networking focussed handset that will keep users in touch with their friends pictures and status updates on Facebook whilst they are out and about.

This is the first time a mobile phone has actually been dubbed ‘The Facebook Phone’, most handsets with internet access allow users to follow friends on Facebook but the new INQ1 takes it a stage further.

The INQ 1 gives users everything they would expect from a mobile phone plus access to Facebook like never before, they can get Facebook notifications direct to their INQ1 including status updates, on-screen profile pics and loads more, straight to their address book.

And like Facebook on a normal home computer users can see who is on Skype and Windows Live Messenger at any time the INQ1 pulls in and loads all the information straight into the phones address book so keeping in touch with friends has never been easier. The INQ1 switcher and carousel allows users to whiz easily through all of their internet sites, applications and options at the bottom of the screen.

With Facebook for INQ1 users can upload photos and message their friends with super fast access to Facebook on their mobile. For those that love to chat Windows Live Messenger has never been easier to use. Even free Skype-to-Skype calls are just a button away. For those that love music the INQ1 can update the tracks users play to their profile on Last.fm and show them recommendations for more music and gigs. All these great applications can be accessed at a touch of a button -  The online social life is now in a pocket.

MUsers can make the phone their own by customising the INQ¹ with widgets so they can access weather and whatever else they need sent straight to their mobile. Internet addict? Surfing the web is a breeze with the clever new ‘auto-landscape’ browser rotation and users can get fast speeds on their laptop too with HSPDA – simply plug the clever INQ¹ into the laptop or PC , just like a USB Modem, and they will be online in seconds.

Further features of the new INQ 1 include a 3.2 Megapixel camera, large screen, Bluetooth and an MP3 music player. It’s the world’s first mobile which keeps up with the social life of its user and satisfies their Facebook needs in an instant.

Users can even use the INQ 1 as a USB modem for their laptop whilst away from home, just by plugging in the phone to surf at broadband speeds with ‘plug ‘n play’.

The new INQ1 Facebook phone has been initially released as a Pay As You Go mobile phone but is expected to be offered as a pay monthly contract phone in the very near future, for those that struggle to pass the network credit checks the pay as you go option is perfect as there are no checks involved.

There are also no worries about ongoing line rental charges spiralling out of control, the pay as you go system means that users can simply top up their calling credit as and when they run low. The INQ 1 will appeal to anyone who is hooked on social networking with Facebook – updating their status aswell as uploading pictures straight to their profile whilst out and about mean that they are constantly in touch with friends whever they might be.

While many people believe it’s very to use facebook easily to setup a pay-per-click ad, it actually takes a lot of time and effort to make sure you have setup the perfect converting advertisement. Let’s go over the steps you need to take to ensure your advertisement pre qualifies your traffic to properly determine if they are buyer or just lookers.

First, when you are advertising on Facebook Ads you need to ensure that you are selling something that college kids wants to see. College kids account for about 60% of Facebooks Audience, so you need to be sure that your offer is interesting and grasps their attention almost immediately.

It amazes me how many people setup Ads that have no relevance or USP. (Unique selling point) One factor that you need to remember is the majority of people you are going to be marketing to are college students. An advertisement that requires the user to purchase a high ticket item or do anything that requires anything too extensive would probably not do well on Facebook. For this reason, I recommend doing heavy research into what a college student needs and wants. I prefer to market for college offers, financing, laptops, iPods, auctions, and jobs. You do not have to be limited to those niches, but that is a good start.

First, you need to be sure you have a catchy domain name for your advertisement. Be sure you don’t use any affiliate links or networks that are banned by Facebook. Doing this could get your Facebook Ad account banned right away! Use affiliate link cloakers or have your subdomain URL redirect to your affiliate link, but don’t use direct affiliate links.

Second, you need to find the right offer to match your domain name. I highly recommend signing with a CPA network such as AZoogle, as they offer top payouts and top converting offers. For our example, let’s say you were choosing the internet auction niche. You would want to target Facebook users that were interested in shopping. This will effectively target any Facebook user with an interest in shopping. After all, would you want your ad delivered to a profile that had no interest in buying items? Probably not, you have a much better chance at getting a signup through targeting users interested in shopping. Play around with the categories to see what works best for you. Next, I recommend choosing users that are 21 years and older. After all, you do not want to be promoting your item to people without credit cards. There are plenty of offers you can find on CPA networks like http://Azoogle.com that have offers for people under 21, but you have to do some searching. I personally have the best results keeping my age group above 21.

While we are talking about CPA networks, I’d like to explain it out for people who do not understand. CPA networks are the hottest networks in affiliate networking. If you can find a way to get a lot of affordable traffic, you can make a killing promoting offers like dating sites and other sites that pay-per-signup. Look for a network that offers the best payouts and conversion rates. CPA is literally everywhere now and is quickly becoming the most popular way of marketing.

That’s it for this article. Go get out there and try out Facebook Advertising!

So you wanna make money online? I don’t blame you, but how are you going to do it? Adwords? Maybe, but it’s getting harder to turn a profit. Yahoo Search Marketing? Sure, but they’ve been around for a long time and many of the niches are very saturated.

There is a brand new way of advertising your products and offers online called Facebook Ads. The program is brand new and has never been touched by marketers up until a couple of months ago. The program boasts paying the lowest CPC (cost per click) on the internet. With this said, my team investigated to see what type of results we received from promoting the same offers that we promote on Google and Yahoo. The results were amazing. It’s actually very possible to make money online using Facebook Ads.

Facebook did have a program called “Facebook Fliers” that was successful, but not well liked by internet marketers and promoters. The reason being was you had to pay per thousand impressions and not per click. Marketers decided that they would rather pay per qualified click rather than showing impressions to every bob, joe, and jane on the Facebook network.

Now, here comes Facebook Ads, where you pay per click. On top of paying per click, you are able to target your audience of viewers however you want to. You can target them based on age, gender, geographic area, school, hobby, anything! This option is great, because do you really want to be promoting a sports offer to a 16 year old female? Probably not. Facebook Ads has really changed how internet marketers are able to promote their offers and keep profit margins high.

Nobody knows what the future will bring for networks like Adwords, Yahoo PPC, and MSN Adcenter. The saturation of marketers, niches, and offers has become very high and the days of making thousands of dollars a day paying nearly nothing for your clicks are long gone. The internet is constantly changing and it seems that Facebook is doing their best to keep up with everything that is happening on the internet in relation to trends, marketers wants, and their users wants.

The main reason why Facebook is so successful is because of the popularity of their network. Close to 100 million high school students, college students, and other people are registered and log in every single day of the week. Facebook has become much of an addiction and a necessity across high schools and college campuses. By experts predictions, Facebook will continue to grow for decades to come. Their network includes every feature a teenager or college student could ever want to stay in contact with their friends. The evolution of Facebook Applications proved to be very successful by allowing developers to create their own applications and place them on Facebook.

If you can’t tell by my excitement towards Facebook, it’s really an amazing place to be right now if you are a marketer. The opportunities are abundant, all you need is a bit or originality to turn large profits.

With over 100 million users, Facebook is one of the most popular Internet social networking sites in the world. If you’re already on Facebook, you know how much fun it can be to read status updates, find long-lost acquaintances, and send cyber gifts. If you limit yourself to just the fun side of Facebook, you could be missing out on one of the most effective aspects of this powerful networking tool–it’s potential to further your career.

It’s a widely-accepted truth that the more people you know, the greater your chances of finding a job or encountering a professional opportunity. As recently as five years ago, jobseekers hoping to grow their professional networks relied on phone calls, emails, or formal letters to make contacts in their field of choice. The development of social media sites such as Facebook marked the beginning of a new age of communication. While it used to take hours to contact everyone in your address book, your message can be broadcast to an audience of hundreds in a manner of minutes on Facebook.

The immediacy and breadth of this technology make it a highly effective professional resource, when used correctly. Take a look at the following tips to help you begin to harness the professional power of Facebook.

<b>•    Be yourself, tastefully.</b>

Think of your Facebook page as an introduction to both friends and potential employers. Most career experts advise caution when selecting photos to post or deciding how and when to express yourself. Would you offer a job to someone who was always online during office hours or constantly degrading their current boss? Photos of your drunken weekend in Vegas might be best shared with a limited group of friends, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the security settings so you can be in control of who can access your profile. 

<b>•    Update your page regularly.</b>

Try to monitor your Facebook site weekly to ensure that friends haven’t written  inappropriate comments on your wall or posted photos you’d rather not show the world. Firefox offers a Facebook toolbar which can help notify you when there’s something new on your page. Share your interests and talents online, by creating links to your blog or uploading photos. You may be surprised by the opportunities and connections that could be triggered by a simple posting about your current hobby or latest interest.

<b>•    Give and you shall receive.</b>

Just as in the professional world, the old adage of “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” is true on Facebook. Spend time reading and responding to the posts of others in your social network. Answer questions when you can and help connect your contacts to one another when appropriate. Your efforts to help others will be remembered when it’s your turn to reach out for a favor or some important career information.

<b>•    Use Facebook with discipline.</b>

As any Facebook user knows, it’s a slippery slope once you start exploring all the possibilities this site has to offer. It takes discipline to be an active participant without whiling away hours of your time taking quizzes or watching YouTube links posted by your friends. Consider giving yourself a time limit for each session to avoid letting this site take over life. As with the Internet in general, there are plenty of apps on Facebook that are addictively fun and could easily gobble up half your workday. If you hope to use this site as a professional tool, try to minimize the games and silly apps you add to your page.

<b>•    Join groups that are associated with your current (or future) profession.</b>

There’s a group or cause for everything and anything on Facebook. Do some research to find and join the ones associated with your career and interests. Can’t find the group you want? Create your own and spread the word. Once established, the contacts in your group can be a valuable resource for career advice, support, networking, or event organization.

<b>•    Continue to grow your network.</b>

You never know who could help connect you to your next opportunity. The longer your list of friends, the better the chances that someone will be able to help when you’re looking for a physical therapist to shadow or a job in fashion design. If you are unsure about accepting friend invitations from certain acquaintances, consider creating a limited profile for these people to access.

With Web developers constantly creating new technologies, the possibilities for users on Facebook should continue to increase. Explore the site and don’t be afraid to experiment to discover how it can best work for your career.