Nearly everyone has a Facebook account. If you don't already have one, you probably know someone that does: a friend, co-worker, or family member. You've decided to take the first step into the world of Social Media and Facebook is a great place to start. Read on for a few tips to consider before getting started.

1. E-mail Address

In order to create a Facebook account, you will need a legitimate and working e-mail address. In today's world, it's not uncommon for people to have multiple e-mail accounts. Facebook can use the contacts you have associated with a particular e-mail address to find out if they have a Facebook account. In addition, Facebook users can locate you as well, if they know which e-mail address your're using for Facebook. When activity occurs on your Facebook account, Facebook will send a message to your e-mail address and ask to verify your account. Depending on how active you become on Facebook, your e-mail account can become flooded with notifications. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to filter what notifications you receive or turn off notifications entirely. When setting up a Facebook account, keep in mind what e-mail address you plan to use.

2. Privacy

Taken directly from Facebook's policy page: 'The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.”' You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings. In other words, be conscious of what content you are planning to put on Facebook. Content that you originally thought was marked as Private, may actually be visible by Everyone. Facebook is notorious for their changing policies regarding privacy, so it's always a good idea to keep up to date on whatever updates Facebook sends out. The best practice for Facebook and social media in general, is to only put up content that you would be OK with your friends, family, employers, co-workers, or spouse seeing. If you do feel the need to post content that is meant for a select audience, Facebook offers the ability to make the content private. However, depending on what your overall privacy settings are for your account, this is not an entirely fool-proof method, . In general, play it safe and only post content that portrays you in the best light.

3. Personal or Business

Are you making a Facebook account for personal use or for your business? The standard Facebook account is composed of a Profile. A Profile contains your personal information that is viewable and searchable by your friends on Facebook. From your profile, you also have the ability to request friends on Facebook. Profiles are meant for individuals and not meant for organizations or businesses. For that approach, Facebook has Fan Pages. A Fan Page has many of the same features of a Profile, in addition to the benefit of useful analytical information. This shows your number of interactions that have occurred with your Fan Page in addition to the type of demographic. However, a Fan Page does not allow you to request friends. Instead, users on Facebook can choose to Like a Fan Page, which enables them to receive any content updates that occur on that Fan Page. If you are planning to use Facebook for business, then the Fan Page is the way to go.

There are many things to consider before setting up a Facebook account and the above tips are just a few. Keep those in mind and your Facebook experience will be a much more enjoyable experience.