Flock lets you bring all your friends and contacts together from across a variety of different social networking websites. Then, keeping in touch with your entire social network is easier, more efficient and more fun than ever before!

In this section:

• Activate Accounts and Services in Flock to Bring Your Contacts Together
• Monitor Contacts and Perform Actions Using the People Sidebar

Activate Accounts and Services in Flock to Bring Your Contacts Together

1. Click the Accounts and Services key icon on he Flock Toolbar, select View > Sidebar > Accounts and Services from the menus, or press CTRL+SHIFT+A.

2. This opens the Accounts and Services Sidebar.

3. Click on any of the Flock-supported available services listed in the People folder to visit that website, like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube or Flickr.
4. Log in to your existing account with that service, or create a new account. (If you create a new account, you may have to then log out and log back in again for Flock to "see" the account. )
5. Upon logging in, Flock will launch a Message Bar to ask whether to save your password.

6. Click the Remember button if you'd like Flock to be able to enter your password to that account for you in future. (Be careful about saving passwords if you're using a shared computer.)
7. You may also be prompted to confirm that you want Flock to remember this account.

8. Click Remember Account if you want Flock to retain your account information for automatic access the next time you open Flock.
   Note: This is different than telling Flock to remember just your password, because this includes remembering your contacts in that account etc. And if you accessed the account the first time by clicking on the link to the service through Flock's Accounts and Services Sidebar or My World (as opposed to using a favorite or entering the URL yourself), then Flock will automatically remember the account without asking you. If you don't want Flock to remember the account, click Forget Account in the Accounts and Services Sidebar (see below).
9. Once logged in, for example to Facebook, the People Sidebar will open automatically. (You can also open it at any time by clicking on the people icon on the Flock Toolbar or by selecting View > Sidebar > People from the menu.)
• A frame at the top will show the name of the website you just logged into, your username and your picture in your Profile Card. Log out at any time by clicking Logout at top right.
• Below your Profile Card, the People Sidebar will also automatically display the Profile Cards for all your current contacts from that website.

10. Congratulations, you've now set up your account in Flock; that was easy, wasn't it? Open the Accounts and Services Sidebar again, click on any of the other Flock-supported media or social networking websites listed like MySpace or Piczo, and create or log into your other accounts. All your other contacts will also be automatically added into the People Sidebar list, and you'll be ready to start networking like never before! And keep an eye out for activation confirmations and helpful tips from Flock's orange Message Bars like this one:

11. Open the Accounts and Services Sidebar again and click Forget Account if you wish to remove all record of this account from Flock.
    Note: Clicking Forget Account simply removes the account from Flock's active tracking; it in no way affects the status of your account with the service provider, e.g. your actual Facebook account is not affected in any way.

Monitor Contacts and Perform Actions Using the People Sidebar

1. After logging into one or more media or social networking accounts, you'll see icon tabs for those accounts at the top of the People Sidebar.

• Click on an individual tab icon to view your own Profile Card and the Profile Cards for your contacts from one of these particular web services.
• Click on the All tab to view the Profile Cards for all your contacts across all of the different web services together.
  Tip: Using the All feature makes it especially easy to share videos, music, links and whatever else with contacts back and forth across multiple social networking services.
2. Click on a tab icon to see your Profile Card for that service. Let's look at a Facebook Profile Card as an example.

3. The icons and text in your Profile Card will differ based on what options are available from different website services. In the case of Facebook, Flock makes a number of the most common features available right in your Profile Card.
• Click on the phrase below your name to update your status.
• Click the mail icon to go to your Facebook inbox. (Note the numbers in bubbles correspond to new notifications.)
• Click the finger icon to visit your poke list.
• Click the person+1 icon to see new friend requests.
• Click the two person icon to view new group invitations.
• Click the calendar icon to view new event invitations.
• Click the My Media button to view the pictures and videos you've uploaded to Facebook in the Media Bar. (For more information on using the Media Bar, see Preview and Access Media with the Media Bar.)
• Click the Upload button to open a dialogue box to upload new pictures to your Facebook account. (For more information on uploading media using Flock, see Share Pictures, Text and Video.)
• Click the Post Link button to post a link to another website you're visiting to your Facebook profile. (For more information on easy ways to share information with friends using Flock, see Share Pictures, Text and Video.)
4. Similarly, the Profile Cards for your contacts offer different options depending on the options available on the particular services. Again, let's look at a Facebook contact as an example.

• Click on Actions, and select common Facebook actions from the dropdown menu.
• Click on Media to view your friend's Facebook pictures in the Flock Media Bar.
• Note that Flock monitors all your accounts for updates, e.g. the Facebook Media icon will glow orange when your friend posts new pictures.
5. Note that at the bottom of the People Sidebar you can search friends by typing names in the dedicated search widget, or you can sort your lists of friends by selecting to Sort by Name or to sort by their most Recent Activity or updates.

6. As another example, let's look at your MySpace Profile Card.

• Click on the phrase below your name or "edit" to update your status..
• The blue stars indicate new notifications or updates.
• Click on the mail icon to go to your MySpace mail Inbox.
• Click on the post icon to view your MySpace Comment board.
• Click on the friend icon to view new friend requests.
• Click on the calendar icon to view new event notices.
• Click on My Media to go to your own pictures and videos.
• Click on Upload to put new media on your MySpace site.
• Click on Post Comment to add a new comment to your own Comment board.
7. Now let's look at a MySpace Profile Card for one of your friends. Click on Media to view your friend's pictures or videos, and click on Actions to open a dropdown menu.

• Click on Message to start a new MySpace email to this friend.
• Click on Add to Favorites to add this friend to your MySpace favorites.
• Click on Forward to Friend to start a MySpace message with a link to this friend's profile page.
• Click on Post Comment to start to post a comment on this friend's Comment board.
• Click on View Profile to view this friend's MySpace profile page.
• Click on Share Flock to open a message to tell this friend about Flock.

But this is only the beginning of what you can do with your friends and contacts using Flock! Next, learn how to use the Media Bar to quickly and easily view, save and share pictures and videos...

Back to Flock User Guide Contents.