With my blog and Twitter, I’ve opened up my private business more so than most. It’s certainly benefitted me in many ways, but one detriment is a loss of privacy. It’s not that big of a deal, but I probably share more than I would normally share with people I don’t know and have never met.
I’ve said it a couple times, but I like to keep my Facebook page private, and I generally only connect with personal friends and business contacts I know pretty well. I receive quite a few Facebook friend requests, but I prefer to only accept requests from people I really know. There’s often a grey area because some people are more casual acquaintances and I know some people better than others.
That said, you should really be cautious when accepting friend requests. People may judge you by people with whom you are friends, and if they are acquainted primarily via Facebook, you may not actually know them well. In a small industry like this one, it’s quite possible to be Facebook friends with people you may have only heard about but don’t actually know.
I’ve seen instances when this is an issue. I know a couple people who befriended industry colleagues on Facebook and later found out they weren’t exactly on the up and up. In a business where reputation is everything, you should be cautious about “friending” people you don’t know all that well.
Just defriend mr elliot
Nice article, Elliot. I like having domain investors (including you) as Facebook friends because I see it as a mean to make new acquaintances and friendships that can be useful to your professional career and, why not, to your private life. On the other hand I believe that, as it happens in real life, you have different social circles (family, friends, colleagues, people sharing a certain passion/hobby with you). That’s why the best solution is to use friend lists (or “circles” if you’re on Google+), one for each social circle. Each time you publish something, you’ll need to share it with the right list.
@ Joe
I sort of use Google Plus but not all that much.
I totally agree, there are certain things that you just want to keep more private, like family events, etc.
This is exactly why I chose to add my own fan page/business page. That is public and I can post information on there that I don’t feel needs to be private.
It’s the business stuff that you should post here: https://www.facebook.com/ElliotsBlog
If you get friend requests, tell them that you’re not accepting any new friend requests at the moment but would love it if they could Like your page instead.
Just say: “no!” to Facebook. I had an account for about 2 weeks years ago. It’s too creepy when you understand the business model…and I have much more fun ways to waste my time online. 🙂