How to Make a Blog With Facebook

by Laurel Storm

Image courtesy of Facebook.

The Notes feature on Facebook makes it possible for you to post long-form updates -- blog posts, essentially -- without having to sign up for a separate blogging service. You can add photos, tag your friends, and even control exactly who sees each post and who doesn't.

Starting a Post

Step 1

Open your Facebook profile, hover over "More," then click "Notes." If the "Notes" option doesn't show up in the menu, click "Manage Sections," enable the "Notes" check box and then click "Save." This opens the Notes section of Facebook.

Step 2

Click "Add Note" to open the note editing screen.

The note posting screen, with the editor buttons and fields highlighted.

Type a title for your post in the "Title" field and then compose the post in the large blank text field. The buttons at the top of the editor make it possible to quickly add simple formatting to your post.

Inserting Photos

Step 1

The note posting screen on Facebook, with the

Position the text cursor where you want to add a photo and then click the "Choose File" button. Browse to the location of the photo on your hard drive and double-click it. Wait for the file to upload to Facebook -- if the photo is big or your connection is slow, this may take a few seconds.

Step 2

The note posting screen on Facebook, with a photo uploaded and the layout buttons highlighted.

Select a layout for the photo using the four buttons at the bottom of the posting screen. Each button displays an icon to illustrate how the photo will be positioned.

The note posting screen on Facebook, with a photo uploaded and a caption added.

Type a caption for the photo in the "Caption" field. If you want to move the photo to a different spot in the post, move its corresponding photo ID tag.

Finishing Up

Step 1

The note posting screen on Facebook, with one person tagged.

Tag friends in the post by typing their name in the "Tags" field and then selecting it from the pop-up list . You can also tag pages in the same way. To remove a tag, click the small "x" by the name of the person you want to untag.

Step 2

Change the privacy setting for the post through the "Privacy" drop-down menu, if necessary. The first three options i make the post visible to everyone on Facebook, to your friends and to yourself only, respectively; the "Custom" option opens a screen allowing you to choose specific individuals with whom you want to share or not share the post.

The preview screen for the completed note, with the posting buttons highlighted.

Click "Preview" to check how your post will look. If everything is in order, click "Publish" to post it; otherwise, click "Edit" to make changes.

Tips

You can use some basic HTML code to format your text beyond what provided using the editor buttons. Facebook allows large text (your text), small text (your text) and strike-through text (your text); you can also insert an em dash by typing "—" without the quotes.
To add a link to your post, use the following code, replacing "http://www.example.com/" with the page you want to link to and "Example" with the text you want to use as a link: Example
To modify or delete a post, click on its title in the Notes section and then click "Edit." To modify it, make your changes and then click "Save;" to delete it, click "Delete" and then "Confirm."