The first step is to decide who you want to network with, and where they can be reached.Assuming you can find your community on Facebook, here's how to get started:

Facebook

1. Register at www.facebook.com. You’ll be asked for education and professional information. These details are important ways to find friends and colleagues.
2. Edit your profile using the ‘Profile’ tab at the top of the page.
3. The ‘friends’ tab enables you to see the latest news from your friends pages. This is also fed onto your Facebook homepage.
4. Join regional, college or professional networks through the ‘networks’ tab. These are important ways to make and sustain contact with friends and colleagues.
5. Build out your profile using the ‘friends’, ‘groups’, ‘events’ and ‘marketplace’ tabs on the left. Find causes you support.

• Privacy. At their core, these sites require people share information about themselves and who they know. In fact, this is in some ways the currency they trade in.
• Identity. Consider how much personal information you want to share on these sites, and/or how much you want to share with professional versus social contacts.