One afternoon, two people opened Facebook at exactly the same time.
An hour later, one of them had watched dozens of funny videos, argued with strangers in the comments, and forgotten why they opened the app in the first place.
The other had found a new client, joined a community that answered a problem they'd been struggling with for weeks, listed an old phone for sale, enrolled in a free course, and reconnected with a childhood friend.
Same app.
Same one hour.
Completely different outcome.
That's the strange thing about Facebook. Most people think of it as a place to scroll, laugh, and pass time. But for millions of others, it's a marketplace, a classroom, a networking event, a job board, a marketing platform, and even a source of income.
The difference isn't Facebook.
It's knowing how to use it.
If you've only been opening Facebook to kill time, you might be surprised by how many opportunities you've been scrolling past. Here are 20 useful things you can actually do on Facebook in 2026.
Quick Note Before We Begin
This piece was originally written back in 2020, and honestly, a lot has changed on Facebook since then. Back then we were still talking about friend requests and basic Facebook pages. Today, Facebook pays creators nearly three billion dollars a year, has grown to over three billion monthly users, and has entire monetization systems that did not exist five years ago. So we have kept every single word of the original write up below exactly as it was written, and added fresh, researched, up to date sections after each part to bring you current with what Facebook actually offers in 2026. Think of this as the original plus a proper upgrade.
Introduction
20 Useful things you can do on Facebook
Who does not has Facebook account? We all do.
What can you do with your Facebook account?
Are there funny things you can do with Facebook?
Or are there beautiful things you can do with Facebook?
Yes, there are, just read on and I will show you all of it. Even how to use Facebook in business to promote your products and make more sales.
Facebook is the social media that has highest number of users. Approximately 2.85 billion monthly active users.
Update for 2026 That figure has since grown considerably. As of early 2026, Facebook has crossed 3.07 billion monthly active users worldwide, with about 2.11 billion of those people logging in every single day. That daily to monthly ratio, roughly 69 percent, tells you something important, this is not a platform people visit occasionally, it is a genuine daily habit for the majority of its users.
A platform programmed and designed in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes who were students of Harvard University. As a networking forum to connect all the students in their school.
They not only achieve their aims but it escalated into what connects not just students in a school but people of the globe.
We love Facebook, we enjoy it. I can't imagine life without Facebook platform. Can you imagine that?
We are already spoilt and used to Facebook so it's going to be difficult to live without it. Most of us are controlled by Facebook.
The major platform we connect and reconnect with family and friends.
The earliest version of Facebook lacked most of the important features new versions have. One must learn to utilize Facebook effectively for maximum results. Enough of whiling away scare time on Facebook. This is a wake up call to start doing meaningful things there.
Table Of Contents
Original 20 Useful Things You Can Do On Facebook
What Has Changed On Facebook Since 2020
Content Creation And Facebook Reels Monetization In 2026
Real People Making It Big On Facebook Today
Running Facebook And Meta Ads
Selling Products Through Facebook Marketplace And Shops
Other Meta And Cross Platform Opportunities
Key Takeaways
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
Cool Things You Can Do On Facebook
Meeting New Friends
One of the features of Facebook is Add friend. There you can add as many friends as possible. Some of whom you know and those you don't know.
Once a friend request is sent the said person more often than none checks out the senders timeline.
If he is satisfied with what she sees on that person's wall, usually he accepts the friend request.
Wooops! They become friends and chatting starts straight away.
Reuniting With Old Friends
Have you met someone and couldn't have the person's address or phone number before parting?
People meet and part, at times without having any means of contact. Thanks to Facebook, once you know your friends contact be it their full names or nicknames, finding them through Facebook will be a lot easier.
The next line is chatting and other familiarizing.
Use Facebook In Your Business To Advertise Your Products
Are you a business man or woman with not less than 500 friends? Definitely the least new Facebook users can have. The maximum friend one can have on Facebook is 5000 friends.
Are your friends aware of your products?
Why not utilize this beautiful platform to create visibility for that products or businesses. Tell the world what it is you do. Who knows where you will get that big break that has been your secret desire.
Use Facebook In Your Business For Marketing Your Products
Are you marketing your products or are you an affiliate marketer? You can use Facebook to promote your products.
It's time to leverage on your Facebook for marketing strategy. Showcase the products and their prices and you will see messages popping up requesting whether the prices are negotiable.
Make Sales And Receive Payment
People already know what you do, right? Facebook platform is there to help you make sales and receive payment always.
However, this depends on the value of the products you offer.
Facebook Can Help You Become An Influencer
An influencer is someone usually a celebrity who has won the love and admiration of many people. As a result, they are trusted by fans. Influencers are often contracted to pilot adverts for certain brands at a price.
How To Become An Influencer
Some became influencer by consistently posting valuable content over time on social media
Most influencers started by posting their beautiful moments constantly on social media
A lot others, by making short skits on any niche and posting it on Facebook
Most popular influencers are music and movie stars
Vlogging
Vlogging is directories of videos on a particular niche which the creator posts regularly on Facebook, YouTube and other social media.
Do you have passion for football, comedy, fashion, makeup?
Then stop wasting your time binging on social media, utilize it in vlogging and your voice will be heard.
Blogging
Vlog is for video whereas blog is for articles. Blogging entails writing on a niche of interest and sharing it with the world.
The most popular blogger in the history of Nigeria is Linda Ikeji.
You can own your website where you blog, or you can blog on your Facebook account by simply posting on certain topics regularly.
Setting Up Facebook Page
Facebook page added a lot of flexibility to Facebook.
I already stated that the maximum number of friends anyone can accept on Facebook is 5000.
Unlike normal Facebook timeline or wall, Facebook page enables one to accept as many followers as he wishes.
Creating a Facebook page is one thing you should do if you haven't, especially if you have a unique business and voice.
Setting Up Facebook Group
Similar to page, creating a group is usually good if you expect to share your stories and views to people of similar ideology, opinion and needs.
The participants of Facebook group are usually called members.
A group can discuss any of these topics.
Weight, health, parenting, skill acquisition, making money, cryptocurrency, Forex trading and relationship among others.
Recruitment
Do you know Facebook has an inbuilt feature for hiring employees?
I'm glad you know now.
There are 100 and 1 job opportunities on Facebook, courtesy of this feature. So, are you a company looking for a cost effective way to hire employees?
What are you still waiting for to start utilizing this feature?
Be it content creators, secretaries, engineers, nutritionists, sales representatives, marketers and distributors, you can hire them via this platform.
Connect With A Hiring Agency
Are you tired of browsing through different sites in search of jobs?
Try Facebook jobs. You might see a job that interests you there. All you have to do is fill the required form.
You will receive a message requesting your presence at an interview.
Disclaimer
When applying for a job via the Facebook platform, please do it carefully, to avoid being a victim of 419. Many good things abound but don't be ignorant of the wicked and foolish ones.
For Attracting Traffic To Your Site Or Blog
Do you own a blog? Or an ecommerce website? Then you can leverage certain Facebook groups in getting traffic to your sites.
It will be worthwhile to check the group rules before doing this because most Facebook groups have rules and regulations.
One of such rules frowns at self promotion. To add to this, some Facebook groups have days for promoting one's blog, site and businesses. All you need to do is simply post a link to your blog or website on the Facebook group.
Get News Update
Do you know most people have been saved numerous times because of information someone shared on Facebook?
It's true most people carry fake news. Nonetheless, helpful information is available on the social media platform.
Get Guided
You might be confused when trying out something, either cooking a continental dish or making soap. Don't get pissed. Only join a Facebook group related to the question you want to ask and you will be guided properly.
Make Orders
I once made an order on Facebook, I needed a professional book cover for my book. One evening I logged into my account, I saw a post by one of my friends.
Woow!
A very beautiful book cover he designed. I had to chat him up immediately and we talked business.
You can place orders on different products.
Learn Skills
We have been advised to learn a skill or two, just to be ready for what life may throw at one. Do you have any skill but want to learn more? Then Facebook group is one of those places to learn some new skills.
Whichever one it is, hit that search button and input it. How to make soap, cake, body cream and so on.
Sell Your Digital Products
Do you have any digital products you want to sell? Utilize Facebook in getting it across to people that might need it. Be it business templates, WordPress themes, pictures, videos or games.
Sell Your Skills
Many of us have a wealth of skills which must be monetized. Start making plans to sell your skills at a price.
I'm already planning to do something on this, what of you?
Impact On Other People's Life
Instead of using all your 24 hours viewing and liking pictures on Facebook, write educative and inspirational posts. You might be helping someone come out of their shackles.
What Has Changed On Facebook Since 2020
The Facebook the original article was written about was already a giant, but it was still relatively simple compared to what it has become. Facebook now sits at over 3.07 billion monthly active users, and Meta's parent company, which also owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, reported combined usage of 3.43 billion people using at least one Meta product daily as of early 2025. India alone now has more Facebook users, well over 375 million, than the entire population of most countries combined.
More significantly for anyone trying to use Facebook to their benefit, the business tools have grown enormously. More than 200 million businesses now actively use Facebook Pages, Groups, Marketplace, and Ads, and Facebook Marketplace alone has grown to over 800 million monthly active users. This is not the same platform from 2020 anymore, it has essentially become a full commercial ecosystem sitting on top of a social network.
Content Creation And Facebook Reels Monetization In 2026
This is probably the single biggest shift since the original article was written, and it deserves proper explanation, because in 2020 there was genuinely no straightforward way for an ordinary person to earn money directly from Facebook the way there is today.
Facebook now runs what it calls the Content Monetization program, a unified system that merged its older In Stream Ads, Ads on Reels, and Performance Bonus programs into one single dashboard. This means creators no longer have to juggle separate qualification requirements for different content types, one enrollment now covers reels, longer videos, photos, text posts, and even stories.
The scale of this is genuinely eye opening. In 2025 alone, Facebook paid content creators nearly three billion dollars through its monetization programs, a 35 percent increase from the year before, and its highest annual payout ever recorded. Roughly 60 percent of that total went specifically to reels, with the remaining 40 percent split across stories, photos, and text posts, meaning you do not need to be a video expert to earn, even consistent text posting can bring in income if it performs well.
For newer or smaller creators, Facebook introduced something called the Creator Fast Track program. This gives creators coming over from other platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube a guaranteed monthly payout while they build their Facebook following, 1,000 dollars monthly for those with at least 100,000 followers elsewhere, or up to 3,000 dollars monthly for those with over a million followers on any of those platforms. This runs for three months and gives immediate access to full Content Monetization, so earning continues even after the guarantee period ends.
To put actual numbers on it, current data shows that Reels typically earn somewhere between 0.02 and 0.20 dollars per 1,000 qualified views, meaning a Reel that gets a million views might earn somewhere between 40 and 80 dollars, though this varies significantly based on your audience's location and your content niche. It is not overnight riches for most people, but the number of creators earning more than 10,000 dollars annually on Facebook has grown by over 30 percent year over year, which shows the ceiling is real for people who stay consistent.
One important update worth knowing, as of March 2026, Facebook has started actively demonetizing unoriginal or reposted content, meaning originality is no longer just a nice to have, it is now a genuine requirement if you want your content to earn money.
Real People Making It Big On Facebook Today
The original piece mentioned Linda Ikeji as Nigeria's most popular blogger, and she remains a genuine trailblazer whose early success on blogging and social media platforms paved the way for what is now a full blown creator economy in Nigeria and beyond. But the landscape today is far bigger than one name.
Across Facebook and the wider Meta ecosystem, thousands of ordinary people, not just celebrities, have built real income streams through consistent content. Skit makers who started with short comedy videos have grown into full production houses. Fashion and beauty vloggers who once posted casually now run brand partnerships worth significant money. Cooking and lifestyle creators, the exact kind of content the original article mentioned people searching Facebook groups for, have turned that same content into monetized pages with hundreds of thousands of followers.
What has genuinely changed is accessibility. In 2020, becoming an influencer or a recognized voice online felt like something reserved for the already famous. Today, with the Content Monetization program paying out based on performance across reels, photos, and even plain text posts, an ordinary person with a smartphone and consistency has a real, documented path to income that simply did not exist in the same form five years ago.
Running Facebook And Meta Ads
The original article touched briefly on using Facebook for marketing and advertising your products, but the advertising ecosystem today is far more sophisticated and, frankly, far more essential for anyone serious about business growth.
Meta's advertising revenue reached over 196 billion dollars in 2025, a 22.1 percent jump from the year before, making it one of the largest digital advertising operations ever built. In a 2026 survey of marketers, 36 percent named Facebook as the single most important social media platform for their work, ahead of both Instagram and LinkedIn.
For business owners specifically, the numbers on what running ads actually costs and returns are now well documented. Average cost per click on Facebook ads currently sits around 1.14 dollars, with conversion rates typically ranging between 8 and 10 percent across most industries, which is considered a genuinely strong performance range. Facebook now hosts over 200 million active Business Pages worldwide, and can potentially reach around 2.28 billion users through paid advertising.
If you are still doing what the original article describes, simply posting about your products organically and hoping friends notice, that approach can still work on a small scale. But running even a modest, well targeted ad campaign today is often the difference between a business that stays stagnant and one that scales, particularly given how much the organic reach of ordinary posts has declined compared to 2020, as the platform increasingly favours paid promotion and algorithm friendly content like reels.
Selling Products Through Facebook Marketplace And Shops
Image Suggestion A smartphone displaying the Facebook Marketplace app interface with various product listings visible. Alt text smartphone showing Facebook Marketplace app with product listings for online selling
This is one of the biggest practical upgrades since the original article was written. Facebook Marketplace, which barely existed in its current form in 2020, has grown into a genuine ecommerce powerhouse with over 800 million monthly active users. Combined with Facebook Shops, business owners can now set up a proper storefront directly within the platform, list products with prices and descriptions, and let customers browse and message to purchase, all without needing a separate website.
This directly builds on what the original article already described, selling digital products, selling skills, taking orders through direct messages. Those principles remain exactly the same, the tools around them have simply become far more powerful and purpose built for commerce.
Other Meta And Cross Platform Opportunities
Since Facebook is now part of a much wider ecosystem, it is worth briefly mentioning how the other major platforms complement everything discussed above, since most successful creators and business owners today rarely rely on just one platform.
Instagram, also owned by Meta, works differently from Facebook when it comes to monetization, it does not insert third party ads into Reels the way Facebook does, so Instagram creators typically earn through brand deals, affiliate links, and Instagram Shopping instead.
LinkedIn remains the strongest platform specifically for professional recruitment, business networking, and B2B marketing, complementing the general audience recruitment features Facebook offers.
Twitter, now rebranded as X, and Quora both remain useful for building authority in a specific niche through consistent, valuable written content, similar in spirit to what the original article described about blogging directly on Facebook.
TikTok, while a direct competitor to Facebook Reels, actually leads in daily time spent per user, averaging around 95 minutes daily compared to Facebook's roughly 33 minutes, which is exactly why Facebook has aggressively expanded its own Reels monetization to compete for creator attention.
The practical takeaway is this, whatever skill, product, or content niche you are building on Facebook following the original article's advice, repurposing that same content across two or three of these platforms multiplies your reach and your earning potential without multiplying your workload by much.
Key Takeaways
Facebook has grown from 2.85 billion monthly active users in 2020 to over 3.07 billion in 2026, alongside a massive expansion of its business, advertising, and creator monetization tools.
Facebook's Content Monetization program now pays creators based on performance across reels, photos, text posts, and stories, with nearly three billion dollars paid out to creators in 2025 alone, a genuine and growing income path that barely existed in this form five years ago.
The Creator Fast Track program offers guaranteed monthly payouts of 1,000 to 3,000 dollars for creators transitioning from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, making it easier than ever to bring an existing audience to Facebook.
Facebook Marketplace and Shops have evolved into genuine ecommerce tools with over 800 million monthly users, expanding significantly on the original article's advice about selling products through Facebook.
Running targeted Meta ads has become far more essential for business visibility than simple organic posting, with average conversion rates of 8 to 10 percent and Facebook remaining the platform most marketers consider most important in 2026.
Combining Facebook activity with other platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and even Quora or X multiplies both reach and earning potential for anyone serious about content creation or business growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is it actually possible to make real money on Facebook in 2026, or is this exaggerated?
It is genuinely possible, and the numbers support this. Facebook paid content creators nearly three billion dollars in 2025 alone, and the number of creators earning over 10,000 dollars annually has grown by more than 30 percent year over year. That said, meaningful income typically requires consistency, originality, and understanding which content formats perform, it is not automatic or instant for most people.
2. What is the difference between the old Facebook monetization programs and the current system?
Previously, creators had to qualify separately for programs like In Stream Ads, Ads on Reels, and the Performance Bonus, and Meta's own data showed only about a third of earning creators used more than one program at once. In 2026, all of these were merged into a single Content Monetization program, so one enrollment now covers reels, longer videos, photos, text posts, and stories together, making it far simpler to earn across different content types.
3. Do I need a huge following before I can start earning on Facebook?
Not necessarily for the standard Content Monetization program, which is invite only but performance based rather than follower count based. However, if you already have a large following on another platform like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, the Creator Fast Track program specifically rewards that with guaranteed monthly payouts while you build your Facebook audience.
4. How does Facebook Marketplace differ from just posting products on my regular timeline as described in the original advice?
Marketplace is a dedicated shopping section within Facebook with over 800 million monthly active users specifically browsing to buy and sell, giving your products far more targeted visibility than a regular timeline post that only your existing friends and followers will see. Combined with Facebook Shops, it functions much closer to a proper online store than the informal selling described in the original 2020 advice.
5. Is running Facebook ads necessary now, or can I still rely on organic posting like the original article suggested?
Organic posting, sharing your products with friends and groups, can still work, especially for very small or local businesses. However, organic reach has declined significantly since 2020 as the algorithm increasingly favours paid promotion and reels. For anyone serious about scaling a business, running even a modest ad budget, with average costs around 1.14 dollars per click, has become far more important than it was when the original article was written.
6. Should I focus only on Facebook, or spread my content across other platforms too?
Most successful creators and business owners today spread their content across at least two or three platforms. Facebook remains strong for community building, groups, and Marketplace selling, while platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, or even Quora and X can complement it depending on your niche, professional networking, or written content strengths. Repurposing the same content across platforms multiplies your reach without significantly multiplying your effort.
7. What happened to the old friend request and 5,000 friend limit mentioned in the original article?
That limit still exists for personal profiles, you can have a maximum of 5,000 friends. However, Facebook Pages, which the original article also recommended setting up, have no such limit and can be followed by unlimited people, which is precisely why Pages have become the standard choice for businesses and creators serious about growth rather than relying on a personal profile's friend limit.
8. Is it too late to start building an audience or business on Facebook in 2026?
Not at all. While the platform is more competitive than it was in 2020, it is also far more equipped to reward consistent, original creators through its expanded monetization programs, and its user base continues growing, particularly in regions like Sub Saharan Africa, which is currently one of the fastest growing regions on the platform at 12 percent growth. The tools available today are considerably more powerful than what existed when the original article was written, which arguably makes starting now more rewarding, not less.
Conclusion
I hope this updated post is helpful?
Have you ever done useful things on Facebook, whether the classic ones described back in 2020 or the newer content creation and monetization opportunities covered in this update?
What other things do you think one can do on Facebook today that were not possible five years ago?
What about funny things one can do on Facebook? Please do let us know in the comment section.
Sources
- Get A Follower Facebook User Statistics 2026 https://www.getafollower.com/blog/facebook-user-statistics/
- DemandSage Facebook Statistics 2026 https://www.demandsage.com/facebook-statistics/
- SQ Magazine Facebook Statistics 2026 Powerful Insights https://sqmagazine.co.uk/facebook-statistics/
- Backlinko Facebook User And Growth Statistics To Know In 2026 https://backlinko.com/facebook-users
- Statista Facebook Statistics And Facts https://www.statista.com/topics/751/facebook/
- Meta For Creators Creator Fast Track A New Way To Quickly Grow Your Audience And Earn Money On Facebook 2026 https://about.fb.com/news/2026/03/creator-fast-track-grow-your-audience-earn-money-on-facebook/
- Buffer How To Make Money On Facebook In 2026 https://buffer.com/resources/how-to-make-money-on-facebook/
- Picmim Blog How To Make Money On Facebook In 2026 Full Guide https://blog.picmim.com/blog/how-to-make-money-on-facebook-2026
- Facebook For Creators About Facebook Content Monetization https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1049081556813520
- Publisher In A Box Facebook Reels Revenue In 2026 How Reels Make Money https://publisherinabox.com/facebook-reels-revenue-strategy
- Meta For Creators Helping Creators Earn From More Types Of Content https://creators.facebook.com/helping-creators-earn-from-more-types-of-content
This article reflects publicly available information and statistics current as of 2026. Monetization figures, program requirements, and platform features are subject to change, always confirm current terms directly through official Facebook and Meta resources before making business decisions.
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