The Fine Line Between Private and Personable

April 28, 2010 at 10:51 pm (Uncategorized) (Authenticity, Facebook, privacy, Twitter)

How do you decide what information to post online?

A big concern with using social media sites is who sees what is posted. Some experts suggest having a public professional account, as well as a private personal one, and keeping all information separate. Others say that this discredits you as an online persona, and creates a distance with the reader. There is a delicate balance that can be achieved, and with minimal effort.

My guideline in life has always been “don’t do anything you’d be ashamed to tell someone about later”, and this also applies online. Are you excited to show your boss those drunken party pictures from last weekend? If yes, then, by all means, post them on your Facebook profile. If you answered no, like the rest of us, either refrain from posting, or edit your privacy settings to limit who views your wild night out.

It really is quite easy, just go up to the top right of your Facebook page, where you will see the Account drop-down menu. Select ‘Privacy Settings’. Once in that screen, you can adjust all aspects of who can see what on your profile. 

Facebook Privacy Settings menu

 By adjusting your privacy settings, you don’t have to monitor every picture posted of you on Facebook.

As for Twitter, I really don’t find it that difficult to self-edit what I tweet, but if you find it hard to not complain about your jerk boss or awful coworker, maybe you shouldn’t have a Twitter account in the first place. As far as I can tell, and I may be wrong, there isn’t any way to edit your settings so that certain individuals cannot see certain tweets. Try and keep the inappropriateness to a minimum, and I’m sure you’ll be fine.

Another good rule to follow is to not say or post anything that you aren’t comfortable owning. This means that you can say whatever you feel like to whoever you feel like, so long as you are taking responsibility for saying it.

By completely editing your web presence, you remove the individuality that makes your audience want to follow you. Without the authentic personality shining through, you are just another generic web user doing nothing spectacular.