This picture of librarian Martha Moore, after whom the Gardendale-Martha Moore Public Library was named, was uploaded to the library’s Facebook page by Moore’s daughter-in-law Karen Moore.

Facebook began life years ago as a way for college students to keep in touch, but it’s grown so large that it’s hard to find a person or organization that doesn’t have a Facebook profile. The case isn’t any different for north Jefferson County businesses, organizations, and even cities.

Jimmy Wesson, owner of Gardendale Performance, said he just started his store’s page about a month ago, and he’s already seen improvements to business.

“My daughters put it together for me,” he said. “I didn’t realize how good it would be until they started working on it.” Gardendale Performance is a race car parts store, and he said updating the page let him add a personal side to his business.

“When somebody sees your name a lot, it stays fresh in their minds,” said Wesson. He said when people are pleased with a part they bought, they will comment on the Facebook page, and then others will see it and come to the store.

“It’s kind of like a chain reaction, a butterfly effect,” he said. “The world keeps getting smaller.”

He said his page is also a way for recreational racers to communicate with each other, which can be hard without Facebook.

“The drag racers don’t ever see the dirt track racers, and the dirt track racers don’t ever see the drag racers, but they can keep in touch through the page,” he said.

The Gardendale-Martha Moore Public Library on Mt. Olive Road also has a Facebook page. Their page has open administration, meaning anybody can post words, pictures, videos, and links on the page. One fan of the library posted an old black-and-white photo of her mother-in-law, librarian Martha Moore, after whom the library is named.

“We made it open to see if people would use it,” said Jenne Johnson, the tech service librarian at the library. “I think it’s been positive.” Johnson updates the Facebook page for the library two to three times a week. The library also links a blog and a Twitter account to their Facebook page.

“It gets our programs and things out to people,” said Johnson. “People don’t always post a lot of things on it, but it gets fans and I think it makes people more aware of the library.”

Teresa Vise said she set up the city of Fultondale’s Facebook page mainly for Founder’s Day, but that they were trying to consolidate the Fultondale web presence, and maybe make Facebook the center of it.

“We don’t want any redundancies,” said Vise. “Linking things to our Facebook page can help us not post more than once.”

She also said Facebook makes publishing content to the Internet simple, and not as much of an ordeal as it used to be.

“One thing I learned from people in office is that tools like these can help you impact information,” said Vise. “You can’t control it, but you can have an influence on it.”