I know that there are not very many of you out there that DON’T have a Facebook page and if you do fall into that small category of not having one you may want to reconsider. Social networks have made my life way easier to keep connected to family. Now that I have children and my immediate family is spread far and wide across the planet as we have all grown up it’s more difficult to keep in touch and send updates to them of the kids and them to me. That is where social networking has come into play for me.

Programs like Photobucket I could never really get into; although it may be worth looking into again. The last time I used it was many years ago and I am sure has evolved into a more user friendly, easier to navigate and share photos.  But since I already have a method that works for me I haven’t invested my time in finding out. My whole family uses Facebook and recently my mother in-law just got herself an account too. Now sharing pictures for the whole family to see is as easy as posting them in an album on my account.

But wait it gets better because even if you have family members that do not want to have an account, they don’t have to. As long as the family member in question is comfortable checking their email account and clicking on a simple link, you can share your photo albums. This is not a new feature on Facebook but one that a lot of people don’t seem to know about for some reason. When you are done creating your photo album and publish it, scroll down to the bottom of your album and you’ll see a link telling you that you can share this album with people that aren’t on Facebook. What it does is create a link that you can email that will give that person access even if you have all the security features blocking your content from unwanted viewers.

I love this option and thought that it would make it easier. For some family members it’s the perfect solution instead of trying to walk someone unfamiliar with computers/internet through (what’s basic to us) Facebook and how it works; especially if you have to do it over the phone and you have to try to navigate that “thingy under the thing-a-ma-jig.” What other ways do you guys share pictures with family members to keep in touch and connected?