Facebook is Not a Professional Networking Tool
Facebook is Not a Professional Networking Tool
by Bradley Joyce
Posted on 12/02/2008
At least not to me.
My generation is the facebook generation. When it launched it was for us, the college students. It was full of pictures of people doing crazy things and a bunch of party photos. There wasn't anything professional about it.
As I meet new people while at events like Pitch Camp, or Startup Happy Hour it seems that more and more I'm getting Facebook friend requests from people who are really just professional acquaintances.
I've recently made it my policy that I'm keeping Facebook limited to my personal friends and family, and many people seem to be confused by this decision. To me, Facebook is not (and should not) be LinkedIn. I don't really want everyone I ever meet "friending" me on Facebook and then checking out photos or messages that are really just meant for close personal friends or family.
So if you're a professional contact, please do connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter, but I probably won't accept your Facebook friend request.
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Am I off-base here? I keep getting friend requests from professional contacts that I meet. Should I just give in and make do with adjusting my privacy settings?
Mixing personal life and business contacts is rough. Facebook can be used for networking but if your friends are involved, you make sure that what happens in Facebook stays in Facebook.
I'm with you Bradley. I put off joining Facebook for a long time and ended up not even signing up. I find LI very effective and helpful, but personally feel no need to have a Facebook presence. I just don't have the bandwidth to do much with it and would rather focus on LI. As a matter of fact, I still have a Plaxo and Xing account and only keep those because I keep getting connection requests.
no edit button... I mean implement it in our online life as we do in real life.
Agree - in real life we have a personal side and a business side, so why not implement this dual-personality in real life?
Good call. The other option is to setup facebook profiles that can customize who can see what. You'll take 15 minutes to setup profiles that won't have access to your photos instead of having a 15 minute conversation with someone you've decided to not "friend".
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