26 replies to this topic

[Scottie]

I am amazed at what people post on Facebook.

Sometimes, I think they forget who's in their list... I've seen more than one update followed by a mom-comment of, "You did what???"

When it comes to business, I think you have to be super careful about what you post.

I'm having a really rotten day from a number of fronts and the biggest issue is that I am being forced to sit through a demo of an online subscription product that already does what our website does... and does it worse. Because the company has a nice looking brochure and a list of respectable sounding clients, it must be better than what we already have!!

I started to post on my FB status that I was really tired of watching the tail wag the dog but realized several of the people who called this meeting are in my "friends" list. Which is annoying in and of itself. Removing them has additional implications.

But it got me to thinking about all the status updates out there and who reads them... have you ever posted something and thought, "oh no..." when someone you forgot existed commented on it?

[2Clean]

You need to be careful with Facebook, particularly private/public space issues.

[Jill]

Yes, it's a huge problem and will only get worse. Especially as the younger generation who were using FB in college and posting all their drunken pics, etc., are looking for jobs.

It's actually good if you know your mom or your boss or even just co-workers will see what you say as it can keep you from making a fool of yourself by mistake (most of the time).

I try to always picture those people when I'm about to tweet something I probably shouldn't and usually I stop. (Drunk tweeting is of course a problem!)

Of course, I have a technology guardian angel as many times when I've attempted to tweet something I know I shouldn't, technology intervenes somehow and it doesn't go through. I always take that as a sign and don't repost!

[portentint]

I haven't had that issue yet, but just yesterday a developer at a client's office pointed to a Tweet I did and said "See, he doesn't know what he's doing!"

The Tweet was asking colleagues for an opinion on SSL load speed issues. I was asking, of course, to check my assumptions.

But that won't keep people from abusing the hell out of anything you let slip. Be careful...

[Scottie]

That's exactly what I mean. As people following you are clients, vendors and other business associates, it can be dangerous to be too casual!

[1dmf]

This biggest problem with facebook is using it, don't use it, no problem , simple eh

[Conspicuous]

If you haven't already, you should really check out the Facebook lists feature.

You can segment your friends into different lists and assign different permissions to each list. Your BFFs have full access, your professional relationships don't have access to photos and wall posts, etc., and so on.

Access it at http://www.facebook.com/friends/

[harpsound]

The definition of privacy is eroding and changing.

To a 17 year old privacy is a non-concept.
In the new economy privacy is not seen as an issue.
Land of abundance.

For a boomer or a business privacy is a big issue as they are still in old economy way of thinking.
Land of scarcity.

In 20 years our notion of privacy will change from privacy (you are going to abuse me!) to transparency (you have something to hide!).
Complete flip in viewpoint.

We run our businesses transparently.
You want to copy our business model? - go for it - but it will be a hard road to follow.

Life is much easier with transparency.

S

[Randy]

Business transparency and personal transparency are two totally different things in my mind. Businesses should be transparent of themselves, but have to take an opposite approach with customer data. If businesses don't make a huge effort to maintain customer's privacy they'll probably not be in business long.

On the whole personal privacy thing, with a bit of facebook thrown in, there was a article several weeks ago how a couple of college profs used publicly available information from places like Facebook where people put in their personal details to see if they could get someone's social security number. The testers were remarkably successful.

I don't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, but I believe they ended up getting the first 5 SSN digits for like 80% and the full SSN for like 40-45%. Without even trying all that hard to get 'em. This little test certainly doesn't bode well for those concerned with protecting themselves from identity theft.

And of course anything out there can be used to stalk someone if you want to. I've got Google Alerts set up for a few people's names who are close to me. It's kinda fun to totally freak family and friends out by following/friending them literally a day or so after they create an account on the various social network platforms. They think I have ESP or something, when it's really just Google Alerts. Goodness knows anyone could use the same sort of thing to stalk the heck out of someone if I wanted to though.

[chrishirst]

This biggest problem with facebook is using it, don't use it, no problem , simple eh

I'm 100% with you on that

There are far better ways to waste time than messing about on Facebook.

[Hic]

Look at this post (From Shawn Hogan blog)
http://www.shawnhoga...ard-to-use.html

[Randy]

And it's only going to get more and more tricky now that Google has introduced Social Search (It's a link to a youtube video with Matt C explaining how it works.)

What I got from the video was that their search is going to look beyond first level connections. At least to the 2nd level and perhaps beyond.

While this can be a good thing I suppose, let's presume for a moment someone has a FB, personal blog or whatever account and has specifically made sure none of their bosses were friends. All well and good.

But then let's also suppose that someone they're friends with on FB or who has simply set up the Google Reader to pull a feed from the original persons blog, and that this person doesn't work for the company and might actually be friends with the boss, bosses wife or kids. So that eventually somewhere down the line there is a very, very loose social connection between the original person and the boss via mutual acquaintances.

The boss goes on Google and searches for his/her company name to see what customers may be saying about them, while he/she is logged in of course. Lo and behold, what pops up is a silly or stupid post Person 1 made sometime that was found because of this loose connection that the original person never even had any idea was there.

Yeah, social networking is only going to get more and more interesting...

[harpsound]

I have been on FB for a couple of months mostly lurking.
I have tapped into a crowd of musicians, mostly women over 40.

My thought is how tame, safe and lame the posting is.
There is nothing pithy about this.
No-thing remark-able.

I do not see this as a reputation enhancer for me at all.
I made a post that was a little risky - mildly outrageous and on topic to this crowd.
Did a postscript post right after explaining the risk.
No response - nobody rose to the bait - just safe safe safe and more safe responses.

[Hic]

Now seriously, I see this as a real society problem .. cant' people be honest with everyone at the same time ? The one must think about that ..

Yeah, social networking is only going to get more and more interesting...

I love that you chose the word "interesting" , it's more like: Sit back, relax and enjoy watching!

[Randy]

Well, it is all very entertaining. The interesting seem to be those who don't really understand, but think they do. And yes I do have a couple of friends who are just like that, who entertain me immensely.