You may have noticed that I don’t have a little Facebook logo at the bottom of my page along side Twitter and LinkedIn. Don’t get me wrong, I have a Facebook page, but it’s private. As in locked down, you can’t even search for me private.
But why? Facebook is important for your social media plan!
Sure it is. For my business, which is why I have a Facebook page for that. But for my personal life, I want to have at least one thing that is just for me. No work colleagues. No clients (well, a couple of clients who are also friends), no worries about what I say to who. Well, at least a little less moderated than my public profiles. I still behave.
Why Facebook?
Because it’s where my friends and family are. While Twitter is great, I can’t share as easily on there and I can’t compartmentalize on there. And G+ would be ideal, except most people I know aren’t on there and would have no idea how to use it. Facebook allows me to upload photos, posts (longer than Twitter), and have discussions with my friends and family at their ‘home’ page.
Are you doing horrible things on there? Is that why you hide it?
Not at all, it’s quite tame. I don’t even gripe on there (too much), because you just never know who is watching and what they’ll say to someone else.
Did you have a bad experience?
I did. I knew I was being spied on by someone at my day job but I needed to know who it was, so I posted a bait post. And sure enough, within a day, that bait post was mentioned in a meeting with two higher ups. I said thank you for telling me because now I knew who the person was who was spying on me.
While you may think that your social activities are private – NONE OF THEM ARE.
Remember that. Seriously. None.
Even though I keep my Facebook profile private I know that, at any time, someone could read what I write and could relay it elsewhere. Remember, pages can be printed, saved as PDFs, screen captured, and forwarded to anyone.
Should I lock down my Facebook account too?
That depends. When you Google yourself what shows up? What photos show up? Do you really want someone seeing you drinking at a party? Someone who may hire you. Do you really want them reading that you were so drunk you passed out and couldn’t remember anything? Or that you hate your job so much you can’t wait until Friday?
If you don’t people to see that – lock it down. Keep Facebook just for you. It’s okay to do that. The world doesn’t need to know every little tiny thing about you. No matter how much you may want them to care, chances are, anything you put out there will be used against you.
So keep it clean. If you’re tagged in photos often, set your privacy to not show others when you’re tagged. If people post stupid things on your wall, remove them. If people are always posting stupid things, unfriend them. Set your privacy to friends only – for everyone. And set it so people can’t search for you.
In this digital world sometimes it’s nice to have a little safe space.
