Did you know seniors can benefit from engaging on social media? Here’s 12 tips to help them get started on Facebook today! Share with your friends and family today

Is your parent or senior loved one afraid of computers and social media? Here’s 12 tips to help them get started on Facebook today! Share with your friends and family today

12 Essential Tips to Help Senior Loved Ones Get Started on Facebook

More and more seniors use social media – particularly Facebook – to stay connected with family and friends. But making that initial jump into the world of Facebook can be challenging and overwhelming, especially for a senior who isn’t the most tech-savvy.

Let’s break the process down into some easy steps that you can take to help your loved one get started on Facebook.

Set Up a Profile with Privacy in Mind

Privacy is a significant safety issue on social media. It’s essential that you sit down with your loved one and help them create a profile. As you make the profile, consider the following privacy settings carefully.

Password Settings

Help your loved one set up a secure password that they can remember and encourage them not to share it with anyone. When choosing a password, remind your loved one that easy-to-guess passwords like birthdates and pet names aren’t secure and may leave their account vulnerable to hacking. Ensure the profile is linked with an active email account so your loved one may request a password reset if they ever forget their password.

Post Privacy Settings

The post privacy settings for your loved one’s account are some of the most important. As a rule of thumb, choosing the tightest Facebook privacy settings is generally best. Permanently restrict the users who can view the content your loved one posts to only those who are friends with your loved one’s profile. This simple setting can help to prevent strangers from commenting on posts and sharing photos that your loved one may not want shared. Remember to turn off geographic or location tracking on your loved one’s account.

Messaging Settings

When and where possible, restrict users from messaging your loved one unless they have already been accepted as a friend or connection by your loved one. This setting reduces strangers’ ability to contact your loved one, helping to prevent your loved one from falling victim to scams or trolls.

Go Over Basic Social Media and Facebook Etiquette

If your loved one is new to social media, they will probably be unfamiliar with basic etiquette. It may be worth sitting down with your loved one and helping them to explore and navigate the social media platform that they have chosen. Facebook is a highly popular option for staying connected with family, thanks to its photo and video-sharing features and the ability to keep connections limited to a small group of family and friends. However, other platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest may also appeal to your loved one, depending on whether they use a smartphone.

While each social media platform has its different styling and use options, some general etiquette rules apply across all of the platforms:

Treat all information as public information

It’s important for seniors to realize that even though they may think that their post or photo will only be shared with their family on social media, all information posted has the potential to go public. Even if your loved one’s privacy settings are set up to be as secure as possible, the capabilities of screenshots and shares by their friends and followers can quickly make this information go public. Stress to your loved one that they should only post information and photos they are comfortable sharing with the general public.

Use private messaging and email options.

To protect private information, ensure your loved one is familiar with the private messaging options available on some social media platforms, like Facebook. Encourage your loved one to use private messaging or email if they want to have conversations with a particular person rather than conducting these conversations through wall posts or comments on posts.

Never share financial or private information.

Remind your loved one that social media uses the internet. Because of security issues, they should never share financial or private information on social media, even through email or private messaging.

Understand that emotion and inflection are lost in writing

Discuss how the written word can be misinterpreted on social media. Remind your loved one that essential aspects of conversation, such as emotion and inflection, are lost through writing. Advise your loved one to read over everything they have written to ensure their message is clear before posting the content.

Avoid writing in all capitals.

Many people new to social media make the mistake of writing posts IN ALL CAPS. Tell your loved one that most people use all caps to signify yelling, so a post written in all caps will be interpreted as being written by someone very angry. Similarly, talk about some general rules for posting, such as using punctuation and separating longer posts by using paragraphs for easier reading.

Setting Your Loved One Up for Social Media Success

The world of social media can be a bit overwhelming and confusing, especially if you’re new to it. Schedule multiple times to sit down with your loved one to show them the primary functions of Facebook, such as how to send a message and how to reply to a post. If your loved one wants to get involved with social media, the more guidance you can provide them, the better.

Cahoon Care’s experienced caregiver team offers a full range of compassionate in-home care services for you or your loved one. Contact us today to learn how we can help.