Your Facebook Professionalism Policy: Balancing Your Relationships On and Off the Clock

For many Gen-Yers and young professionals, Facebook started out as a social network. Then, high-schoolers were allowed in. Now, understandably, more and more people are joining that range in age – and in relationship to you. Point in case:

My friend recently helped her mom create a Facebook account.
Another commented that all her co-workers want her to become a Facebook friend.
According to Quantcast, in July 208, 46% of Facebook users are 18-34.
in July 2007, ComScore reported a 181% growth of users ages 25-34, and a 98% growth in users 35+.

Thus, with Facebook going from social status —> professional network, it begs the question, what are the new the rules of thumb for one’s Facebook account? So I asked followers on Twitter. The results:

All or nothing. One of the most popular answers was to go all access with everyone. This route shows to your co-workers and professional network that you own who you are. Nothing to hide. Some also responded that this helps increase the office culture and camaraderie.
Oil and water don’t mix. It gets murky. Best to keep Facebook separate. One person commented that you can come to know too much about someone and that can distract from business.
Go Half and Half. Others answered saying they prefer to keep professional work colleagues and co-workers at bay by using the ‘limited profile’ feature on Facebook. Or, setting privacy settings so only certain friends or groups can see certain applications, photos or the wall.
Work It. Lee Aase, on his blog, Social Media University, suggest a shortcut. While waiting for Facebook to devise a way to better differentiate relationships with a system more sophisticated than the limited profile graph, Aase suggest creating a group for your professional contacts and name it “FirstName LastName Professional Contacts.” Aase explains further on his blog. Or, use Facebook’s friend lists to differentiate Aase also suggests.

No matter what you prefer, it’s best to adopt a strategy early, be wise, cautious and careful. Even those that believed in full access agreed that in the past year, they’ve tweaked their their own personal guidelines. i.e. Adopting the self-policy that one must meet someone in their professional network in person before they cozy up on Facebook.

For me, currently, I adopt a mix between the full access and the limited profile. This is largely for one reasons:

I want you to get to know me. I have nothing to hide. But, I’d prefer someone get to know me in person, before just reading my profile and making assumptions or place me into some category or description of who they think I might be. It’s one thing to know someone in the office, but it’s another to befriend a person.

Some other guidelines friends mentioned through my Twitter survey. Don’t post:

Inappropriate pictures (nudity, over-drinking, kissing, dancing, etc.)
Clean up those pictures from college frat days
Represent who you are, but be keen to what information sparks controversy
Don’t use foul language
Review your privacy settings
Understand what happens to your profile when you add an application
When you ‘become a fan’ or join a group, understand some may not get your inner circle’s inside jokes or may think you are endorsing certain ideas/services/products
If you wouldn’t show it to your mom, you probably don’t want your boss to see.
Don’t make your profiles busy or hard to read if you want to use it for networking.

What’s your Facebook Professionalism Policy? or, what do you think of mine?

photo credit: Flickr, Amit Gupta (from Newsweek article)

8 thoughts on “Your Facebook Professionalism Policy: Balancing Your Relationships On and Off the Clock”

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James Walker August 10, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Your policy sounds good. I like a mix as well. I was always pretty good about monitoring pics, but once co-workers began friending, I cleaned up the groups and put my friends on notice. Nothing can start an awkward water cooler convo faster than a not-so-pc wall comment caught by a supervisor.

Ginger @ Girls Just Wanna Have Funds August 10, 2008 at 2:46 pm

Prior experience rules my current policy. I really have no interest in letting coworkers into my life via the Internet.

I think yours is fine. But I only have it so that friends can see my profile and it isn’t searchable.

leeaase August 11, 2008 at 2:53 am

Thanks for the links. As to James’ comment, I would just say you should make your Wall part of what your co-workers can’t see, as you manage access through friend lists. I also would make photos and videos tagged of you off limits to co-workers.

Rebecca August 11, 2008 at 3:36 pm

The new Facebook might change this a little, since your personal interests, etc. are on a different tab and not all on the same page….

I let everyone see whatever and don’t have a limited profile. I also don’t share anything personal either since I use Facebook for my job a lot. But I didn’t share much personal before this job either.

I do have so-called “party pictures”, but that doesn’t bother me. I think people appreciate when you’re authentic. Great post!

socialbutterfly4change August 11, 2008 at 7:56 pm

@leeaase Thank you for taking note and for your tips. I found them very useful, and from what I hear, so do others. I wanted to write this post to call attention to the issue as I know many may not realize just how ‘accessible’ their information raelly is.

@Rebecca I agree the new Facebook layout should help, though I don’t think it will eliminate the problem, as this post illuminates part of the bigger issue: Nowadays, what’s profesional and what’s personal? This gets into privacy issues as well. It’s just interesting to watch the social media/tech community. I can’t wait for what comes up next!

socialbutterfly4change August 12, 2008 at 1:06 pm

Katie B. just commented on this article over at Brazen with another great strategy. She created a work only Facebook profile using her work email, and kept her personal profile for her friends.

I really like this idea, though you would have lots of managining and upkeep with them both. Her work required she be-firend all her co-workers and senior management. Anyone else have to do that?

NonContradiction August 14, 2008 at 8:02 pm

@socialbutterfly4change

I did the same thing. I appreciate not having to overanalyze the contents of my personal facebook page (wall postings, photos, etc.), while being able to use my work page to connect with colleagues and network.

Only awkward thing is having to turn down people who friend me on the wrong account,

simmons November 5, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Hi everyone…I am john from mexico…I also don’t share anything personal either since I use Facebook for my job a lot.Thanks for posting….
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simmons
Wide Circles

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SocialButterfly

Exploring the Art + Science of Social Change.

8 thoughts on “Your Facebook Professionalism Policy: Balancing Your Relationships On and Off the Clock”