Facebook: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition

Chapter 7. Participating in Groups

Back in the day, Facebook Groups were collections of people who shared any interest, from the serious (such as membership in the same study group or work team) to the downright silly (like the desire to set a new record for the largest Facebook Group). Recently, however, Facebook redesigned its Groups feature to behave closer to the way small- to medium-sized real-world groups work. (Let’s face it: Membership in one of those giant 500,000-member Groups of old wasn’t particularly useful, other than to signal your approval of the group’s stated purpose—and now you can express that approval by clicking the Like buttons described on How Pages Work.)

Tip

If you find yourself missing those mega-Groups of yore, you have another option: Pages (see Facebook Pages: Profiles for Bands, Brands, and More).

The new-and-improved Groups are super useful for doing the kinds of things most people want to do in regular, real-life group situations. For example, Group members can post pictures that are only visible to other Group members; send an email to all the other Group members; chat online with other Group members in real time; and even add their two cents to a single, shared document.

This chapter shows you how to find, join, and participate in Groups—and how to start your own.

Note

Facebook didn’t remove the old Groups; they’re still out there for you to find and enjoy (Changing a New Group’s Privacy Setting). Just keep in mind that the old Groups don’t work the ...