After you have added some friends and liked / followed some Pages, you will see an assortment of their posts on your Facebook home page. The default Facebook home page contains your News Feed, which is a constantly updating list of stories which can include status updates, photos, videos, shared posts and likes from people, Pages and groups you follow on Facebook.
Creating a status update
A status update is a feature which lets you share your thoughts, your whereabouts or other important information with your Facebook network.
To create a status update, click on the box where it says "What's on your mind?".
A larger box will appear. Type in whatever you want.
In here, you can customise how your status update will appear, what type of status update it is as well as the audience you want to show this status update to.
Once you're happy with what you've written, click on the "Post" button to publish it.
How do I adjust what I want to see in my News Feed?
If there are updates from certain friends you would like to appear in your News Feed with higher priority, you can do this by adjusting your News Feed Preferences.
Click on the downwards pointing arrow on the right side of the top blue bar, then click on "News Feed Prefences". A menu will appear which gives you the options to prioritise whose posts you want to see first, unfollow people to hide their posts and more.
Commenting on posts
You can comment and "react" to posts on your News Feed.
Under the post you'd like to comment on, click on "Comment". A text box for you to write your comment in will appear.
You can also reply to comments made on a post. Just like commenting on a post, click on "Reply" under the comment you'd like to reply to and type in your reply.
Liking posts or "reacting"
You might've noticed that under some posts or comments, they have these strange, small circle icons and a number next to them. These are "reactions" to the post or comment.
To react to a post, look for the "Like" button, next to where you clicked on the "Comment" button. You can simply click on the "Like" button to give the post the default "Like" react.
For the other reacts, you'll need to hover your mouse cursor over the "Like" button and wait for a row of 6 buttons to appear, as shown in the image below. Click on the react which best suits your reaction to the post or comment.
Sharing posts
One more thing you can do with posts on your news feed is share it to your network of friends. Found an interesting article and want to share it to everyone in your friends list quickly? Here's how you can do it.
Next to the "Like" and "Comment" buttons on a post is the "Share" button. Click on it. You will be shown a dropdown list of options.
The first option shares the post to your profile, which by default only your friends will be able to see. The second option lets you refine who can see the shared post, or where you will share it to, and let's you say something about it before the post is shared.
Whatever posts you share should show up on your friends' News Feeds. Comments can't be shared.
As always, the Facebook Help Centre is the best way to get help with your Facebook questions. Click here for the help page on the News Feed.