Facebook Privacy
During marketing consultations, I’ve been encouraging a lot of non-profits to set up Facebook Pages. One person I spoke to had a concern that they didn’t want their Facebook Profile to become public and openly associated with their organisation.
This reminded me of a job interview I once had at a recruitment agency. During the interview, social media came up. The interviewer admitted that she had tried to find my Facebook page but couldn’t see anything because of my privacy settings.
I then admitted that I’d researched her and had found out the last two places that she had worked at, the job roles and awards she had won, the high school that she went to and even a high school photo!
Mark Lincoln. BDM and Horse Whisperer
Since then, I have two Facebook accounts. My business Facebook account is totally open – no privacy settings – and I add photos from around Christchurch, a couple of sporting photos and the odd holiday snap. Basically anything I wouldn’t mind being on the front page of the local newspaper! I also connect to anyone that I’ve met through some other business network. Only know me through Twitter? Sure you can be my Facebook friend! Just let me choose the business account first.
My second Facebook account is only connected to friends and family and is totally locked up. Maximum privacy settings with “friends only”. This means that 1) friends and family came post as many baby photos of me that they like and 2) my friends and family never feel that I’m trying to involve them in my business without their wishes.
I read something in an admin and support services blog by Heather McDonald of “Your Right Hand”:
I heard a person say he was on Facebook with some mates from work, and they were sharing photos and stories of fun times… until their boss requested to be friends with one of them. To make a long story short, it turned ugly and disciplinary action was taken by the boss.
The moral of this story is don’t be afraid to decline friend requests! In the case above, the boss might have felt a bit put out, but the employees would have been within their rights to refuse the request.
In the case of employers using Facebook to search for anyone that they’re looking to employ – ok they get a brief idea of what the person gets up to, but it’s quite unfair to judge their working life based on a few pictures from their social life. Has that employer never had a couple of drinks? Have they never been to a karaoke bar and made a fool of themselves? Have they never been a baby and thrown up on their aunt’s favorite jersey?
It all comes down to whether we want to employ sterile robots or people with genuine personalities.
When it all comes down to it, just set your privacy settings to a level you’re happy with. But remember that no matter how hard you control photos that you put up yourself, it’s hard to control photos that other people upload and tag you in!
Posted on October 6th, 2009 by Mark Lincoln
Filed under: Marketing, Social Media
Thanks for the mention! There’s a measurable spike in hits on my website. Note to self…
My challenge is persuading the technophobes that a Facebook site for the charity we are involved in would be alright.
openly admitting to multiple TOS violations?
both of those accounts are at risk for deactivation
P.S! @Heather no problem at all! I certainly see a lot of use in Facebook for non-profits. Unfortunately New Zealand non-profits aren’t quite as well supported as the US and UK non-profits but there are still a lot of NZ non-profits on Facebook and they’re building quite a following.
Especially good if your non-profit doesn’t have its own website, or it has a website but it isn’t upadted regularly or offer many avenues for two-way conversation. Interaction is Facebook’s strength and it’s definitely worth a look to see what it can do for you.