How To Manage Facebook Friends
As the popularity of Facebook continues to boom, it’s inevitable that you will be connecting with – either by you asking or them asking you – coworkers and even your managers. How you manage those relationships can make quite a bit of difference to you.
The folks over at Wired have started a wiki topic on the matter, and the initial posts are encouraging in the sense that they are reasonable and well-intentioned. Some seem obvious at first, but may not to be to all.
One of my favorites and one which I wish I was more diligent about is “Delete Unwanted Posts From Your Wall”. If we are truly judged by the company we keep, it’s important to realize that your coworkers and managers may not be pleased to see some of the more outlandish entries some Facebook users seem to post.
If you are like most people, your Facebook friends list contains real (non-cyber) friends, family, coworkers and potentially even others. The chances that some of them may post material which could offend someone else are high, so keep an eye out for the random comment which could reflect badly on you, fairly or not.
I have a friend I’ve spent a limited amount of time with who occasionally posts comments about her love life which by most people’s sensibilities would be considered crude. The two times (so far) I’ve seen them I’ve remarked to others “I can’t believe she just posted that!”, but I did not think to delete the entries entirely from my wall. I need, we all need, to consider the fact that others will view my wall and potentially make a judgement about me based on her crudity.
The Wired wiki has really just begun, and they are solicting entries, so if you think you have something valuable to add, we encourage you to help build up this body of knowledge.