Managing your privacy (and reputation) using Facebook Lists

For lots of people their Facebook (and other online spaces) are a disaster waiting to happen! 

"Your personal life is now public: According to a study by my company and identified.com, the average Gen Y employee is connected to sixteen coworkers on Facebook. What that means is that when you leave work, you're still connected through the relationships with your coworkers online. As a result even things you do in your own time can effect your career-in a big way. The fifteen seconds it takes to tweet about how much you hate your boss or to post a pic of you passed out with a drink in your hand could ruin your career forever. Even the smallest things-how you behave, dress, your online presence, body language, and whom you associate with can help build your brand or tear it to the ground" - Dan Schwabel author of Brand Yourself - The New Rules for Career Success

Here’s a fact many might not have considered before: misusing social media can make you unemployable or get you fired! "It’s all too easy to jump onto the social media bandwagon without thinking about how you are perceived on the internet, and such thoughtlessness can screw up any chance of future [or current] job prospects." (See: Social Media And Employability: 7 Golden Rules For Not Screwing Up Your Future Job Prospects)

Ok, so now you understand how careful you need to be about what you post online how would you manage your reputation and privacy on Facebook?

I have always encouraged people to use Facebook Lists to do so. Think of it this way. There are conversations that you have with close friends, or family which would be completely inappropriate in public or worse still in a work setting. This is where lists come into play. Facebook has actually made this really easy by creating 3 lists for you already.

1) Close Friends
2) Acquaintances
3) Restricted

So what to do next? Navigate to your Friends List and put every single person you are connected to into one of these 3 lists. Once that is done you need to make it your habit when posting anything on Facebook to ask "Who is this for and who is this not for? Then select your audience option before you hit the "Post" button. (From more on Lists)

Important Note: when you use the "Public" audience option it means that the post you are about to make is going to be just that Public - meaning anyone on the internet, people you are not friends with, will be able to find the update or see it when visiting your profile.

Once you have put everyone you are friends with in one of the three lists you may also want to do the following:

Make sure that all posts that were previously shared with friends of friends or public are changed to friends only.

To find this setting, navigate to your Privacy Settings. Under the first option "Who can see my stuff?" is the option "Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends or public?" Click "Limit Past Posts" to enable this option.

Now when making any future updates, you can decide whether this particular update is meant for the world at large (Public) or just a small group of friends or even just for the family.

  

Shout if you have any questions about this, or if you have observations of your own.