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
• Facebook Chat

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 MeCard and the FriendCards for your contacts from one of these particular web services.
• Click on the All tab to view the MeCards 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 MeCard for that service. Let's look at a Facebook Profile Card as an example.

3. The icons and text in your MeCard 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 MeCard.
1. Click here to view your Profile.
2. Click here to view your Profile, also.
3. Click here to Set Your Status on Facebook.
4. Click here to view your Mail Message Inbox.
5. Click here to view all of your Pokes.
6. Click here to view any Pending Friend Requests.
7. Click this to view any Group Invites .
8. Click this to view your Upcoming Events.
9. Click here to view your Media Stream in the Media Bar. For more information on using the Media Bar, see Preview and Access Media with the Media Bar
10. Click here to upload photos to Facebook with the Photo Uploader. For more information on uploading media using Flock, see Share Pictures, Text and Video.
11. Click here to Post Link of your current webpage onto 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.

1. Click here to view your friend's Profile.
2. Click here to view your friend's Profile, also.
3. Click here to view your friend's Facebook pictures in the Media Bar
4. Click here, on the Actions icon, to display a list of common Facebook actions.
5. Click here to leave a Comment on a friend's Status.
6. Click here to Poke your friends.
7. Click here to send a Message to a friend.
8. Click here to make a Wall Post.
9. Click here to Share the Link of the webpage you are currently viewing, with a friend.
10. Click here to view your friend's Profile.
11. Click here to give a Facebook Gift to a friend.
12. Click here to Share Flock with your friends.
• 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. Now, we will look at Twitter in the People Sidebar. As with the Facebook sidebar, many common actions are available right from the sidebar.

1. Click here to view your Profile.
2. Click here to view your Profile, also.
3. Click here to set your Status in Twitter.
4. Click here to view your @ Mentions.
5. Click here to view your Direct Messages.
6. Click here to shift the friend view to only friends who are Following you.
7. Click here to shift the friend view to only friends who have made an @ Mention to you.
8. Click here to shift the friend view to only friends who have sent Direct Messages to you.
6. Like Facebook, Twitter also has a number of options in the FriendCard.

1. Click here to view your friend's Profile.
2. Click here to view your friend's Profile, also.
3. Click here to Reply to a friend's status.
4. Click here to display the Actions menu.
5. Click here to send a Direct Message to a friend.
6. Click here to view your friend's Profile.
• Note: Direct Message only appears on a friend who is also following you.
7. Note that at the bottom of the People Sidebar in any service, you can:
• Search friends by typing names in the dedicated search widget.
• Sort your lists of friends by selecting to Sort by Name or to sort by their most Recent Activity.
• Switch between Full Status View and Truncated Status View.


Facebook Chat

1. Now, Flock lets you keep in contact with all of your Facebook friends, no matter where you are on the web!

2. Flock Facebook Chat functions the same as it does on www.facebook.com. To start using it, simply log in to Facebook and set yourself Online.
3. To set yourself online, click on the Facebook Man at the bottom-right corner of your screen, and select Go Online.

4. To check your Facebook Notifications, click on the small Clipboard icon next to the Facebook Man. This will deploy the Notification Flyout.
5. To start a conversation with one of your contacts, double click on their name in the Friendlist.
• This will open a small chat window in the bottom of Flock.
• If you fill up the bar, small Scroll Icons will appear on either side of the chat windows.


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.