Social Media is on everyone’s mind, and Facebook is universally understood to be one of the biggest players in the game. Facebook has become so popular that if you don’t have a presence there, it’s the equivalent of not owning a TV – people might think you’re living in a log cabin and preparing for the apocalypse.
With so many people actively using facebook, it makes sense to use it to network with professional contacts for business purposes. After all, Facebook has over 6 times the number of users that LinkedIn has. However, Facebook users are traditionally more informal, openly sharing personal information with a select and limited group. For many, the idea of adding professional contacts to their Facebook profile causes a lot of anxiety; how can they keep the more intimate (and potentially embarrassing) details of their personal life strictly relegated to friends and family?
Facebook doesn’t make it easy. Their site has been upgraded and expanded in such a piecemeal way that much of the functionality available is far from intuitive. Unless you’re a Facebook junkie, you probably haven’t invested the time necessary to figure out how to manage the (sometimes complicated) privacy controls that they offer. Fortunately for you, I AM a Facebook junkie, and I think I can help.
In the following video tutorial (and companion slideshow presentation), I show you how to protect your personal information, regulate who sees your photos, and send your status updates to the right people. Using this as a guide, you’ll be able to blog about American Idol and post pictures from your beer-bong weekend, while your boss only sees that WSJ article you posted.
