Unlisted shares are fairly common. Many companies issue shares to their employees even though the company itself is not publicly listed for trading. The reasons are simple enough: they want to reward accomplishments and provide

incentives for the day when the company goes public. Of course, many companies never go public. So what can you do with the shares? It turns out they may be worth something after all.

Shares of Facebook recently traded on SecondMarket for $50 apiece, which a little arithmetic puts the company’s value at $25 billion. That’s more than Yahoo and ten times more than AOL. (Facebook’s privately traded shares have doubled since December.)

Such off-market trading tends to be thin and difficult to track. Demand often outpaces supply. Nevertheless, real money changes hands.

Bob finds himself totally confused by Facebook and is thinking of joining the International Luddite Society. This book will straighten him out.

• See if you have messages from social networks, like Facebook.
• Look only at messages that have photos or documents attached.
• “Hotmail Highlights” classifies messages based on who or where they’re coming from.
• Send large photo attachments. Photos are automatically uploaded to Microsoft’s SkyDrive, a storage service that is free for up to 25 gigabytes.

Open email attachments in the online version of Microsoft Office, whether you have Office installed or not

You might also want to delete your account because of Facebook’s new privacy policy. Under the old rules, if you listed “cars” as one of your interests, only your friends would know that. Now your name is on a list of all car fans, a list that marketers can explore and exploit. We picked cars as an example; you could have plenty of other interests you would rather not share with the whole world. You can delete a Facebook account permanently at  tinyurl.com/deletefb.

When you start, you see the latest status updates from your friends, the latest video, and the latest image, looking like your own personal newspaper. Tap the “people” button at the top of the screen and see thumbnail photos of all your friends. Tap a friend’s photo to go directly to their updates page. Tap “events” to see a calendar with your friends’ birthdays on it.

Sobees also has a mobile application and a version for your browser. We tried out the browser version and found it complicated and confusing. The iPad app is a snap.

Start at docs.com, sign in to your Facebook account and get a few sample documents to play with. Click “Friends’ Docs” to see what they’re sharing, and “Add a doc” to add one of your own. “Add a doc” prompts you to upload a Word doc, Excel spreadsheet or Powerpoint presentation.

Here’s how to do it.  

1. Sign in and click on  the word “Friends” under “View my Profile.”

2. Click “Create a list” on the same page.

3. Now you’ll see thumbnail images of all your friends. Click on each one you want on your list and when you’re finished, type in a name for your list and click “Create List.”

4. To send the group a message look for the two little speech bubbles to the left of the globe at the top of your screen. Click there. (See below.)

5.  Click “Send a New Message.”

6. Up pops something that looks like an email window. Compose your message and in the “To” area, type in the name of your new “Friends List.”

Buzz is a social networking site that lives in your Gmail account. If you’re not a Gmail user, you can sign up for free at gmail.com and have all your email forwarded there forever. If you are a Gmail user, you will have an “inbox” and a “buzz” box. Click on “buzz” to see photos, twitters, blog posts, etc. from any of the contacts you’re following. You don’t have to go to Facebook, Twitter, or some other site. It’s will all appear in you new buzz box.  You can comment on your friends’ posts or photos just as in Facebook, or just say you like them, without leaving Gmail. If you decide someone is boring, just “unfollow” them. There’s also a mobile version for your iPhone or Android phone, which posts your location as well as your message.  Other platforms are coming soon.

We tried it and loved it. The layout is a lot clearer and easier to use than FaceBook’s. It’s always tough entering a race after the others have left the gate, but this looks like a good one and should capture a big chunk of the social networking market.