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Posts Tagged ‘Privacy Settings’
Happy New Year by coquetboy on Flickr
Happy 2010! After four months abroad in Spain, I am back in the United States, settling back into Chipotle burritos, big SUVs, free tap water at restaurants, and going to bed at midnight instead of 6am. And it’s great. Although it’s not great that I haven’t written since December, but it’s a new year! So here are 10 new thoughts on the emerging trends of 2010.
1. Twitter will remain unpopular among college age students.
2009 has been the year of twitter. Twitter traffic grew more than 1300% from Feb ‘08 to ‘09. However, one demographic remains dubious towards adopting another social media platform: college-age students.
Twitter should be used for developing professional networks and college age students are (usually) not thinking about their professional networks or careers (past their GPAs). For personal networks, twitter does not do anything that facebook doesn’t also offer. Which leads me to my next prediction…
2. Twitter will be bought.
My brother will argue with me on this one, but I think that Twitter has to monetize next year or they will be bought by Facebook. And if they haven’t made profits yet, I don’t see them doing so in 2010.3. LinkedIn profile expansion among college-age students.
More students will create LinkedIn profiles. However, they will miss the point completely, using it as an electronic copy of their resume rather than a networking tool because (see #1, they don’t think about their professional networks until after college).
4. People will actually start to care about Facebook privacy.
You’ve heard of the horror stories of students getting fired from their jobs for saying bad things about their bosses on Facebook.
In 2010, students will be more aware of their online reputation, increase their privacy settings across the board and cut back on the incriminating keg-stand photos.
5. Explosion in sales of E-Book Readers and 3D TVs.
Anyone seen Avatar? Heard of the Kindle? This one is kind of a given, with all the predicted CES hype around 3D TVs and E-book readers , you will be sure to see them crowding the shelves by Spring.
6. More cross-over between social media platforms.
LinkedIn paired up with Twitter to offer cross-platform status updates. Maybe this is more of a desire than a prediction, but I want a multi-platform supported service that allows me to manage all of my social media identities from one single place. So, I predict it will happen.
7. Pressure from baby boomers to improve Facebook usability.
The Facebook interface and user experience is sloppy. The site is difficult to navigate, privacy settings are confusing, and finding the features you want to use involves wading through pages of poorly designed interfaces (just ask my mom). The baby boomers are the largest growing demographic on Facebook. I’ve personally had to set up over ten accounts for family members who couldn’t figure it out. If Facebook wants to retain the baby boomer demographic, they’ll have to figure out a way to maintain the functionality they have while improving the user experience.
8. Google Wave will be an epic fail.
After playing with Google Wave for 3 months, I still don’t understand its purpose. I rarely check it and I don’t see many people adopting it into their internet toolbox in 2010.
9. Backlash towards telegraphic communication.
In my experience, Twitter’s 140 character limit is not a positive. It hinders any real communication or connection and what you get is millions of users sharing a lot of links and talking mundanely about their personal lives.
10. Service that combines recommendations with personal networks.
I predict that some large retailer or rental company (maybe Netflix) will adopt users’ social media profiles into their algorithms for making suggestions. This would work great on an E-Book reader: “Looking for a new book to read? Your X friends that you have interacted with the most on ______ (insert social media platform) liked: ______”.
And there you have my predictions for 2010! Do you agree? Disagree? Have predictions of your own? Leave a comment and let me know.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any money lost due to gambling these claims. Unless you win.
January 7, 2010 | Filed Under Post, Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Credit: The Life of Bryan on Flickr
In my last post on Facebook for the Over 40, I showed you how to change your privacy settings to keep your profile safe. Now that you are protected, let’s talk about interacting with friends and family. Here are a few tips for getting the most out of your connections.
Part 2: Interacting with Friends and Family
1. Don’t be offended when your family members don’t friend you back.
Either you have already experienced this or you will. You friend your favorite nephew and, oh no!, they don’t accept your friend request. Do not take this personally. They probably have not cleaned up their online reputation yet.
Many facebook users, especially younger users, have their entire lives on facebook (they shouldn’t). Instead of feeling rejected, why don’t you point your family member to “How to Create an Exclusive Friends List”. That way, they can friend you and keep their profile private.
2. When responding to a wall post, respond on the other person’s wall.
So, someone wrote on your wall! Great! Now, how do you respond? Maybe this tip seems obvious to you, but I’ve seen a surprising number of people respond to a wall post by writing on their own wall. This is like receiving a letter and addressing your responding letter to yourself. They will be looking on their wall for a response, not on yours.
When you receive a wall post, click “See Wall to Wall” in the bottom right corner of the box. This shows you the conversation between you and your friend. Now you can type in the response box and the comment will go directly to their wall.
3. Control your feed so you can hear from people you actually care about.
Most people don’t know that the main feed on the facebook homepage is fully customizable. Unless you really want to see everything your 40 random high school friends from 1970 are doing, let me show you how to customize your feed to show you the activity of the friends you really what to hear from.
- Create an exclusive friends list with the people who’s activity you want to see.
- Go to your Facebook Homepage and click “More” under the left column.
- Drag the exclusive list that you just created to the top of the column.
Now, when you login, your feed will be populated with activity from the people in your exclusive friends list, saving you time sifting through random updates from people you don’t really care about.
Quick Tip: Look at Friend Suggestions to find people you might want to connect with. Facebook suggests friends you might know on the right side of your homepage. Click “See All” to find people who share the same friends as you.
4. Create a facebook group for your family.
Facebook groups, while often used to idolize Britney Spears, are also a great tool for families looking for a communal space online. Create a group for your family and start sharing pictures, videos, links, stories, or anything else your family would find interesting.
These tips will help you be more efficient in your Facebook usage. Three weeks ago, I left the United States to study abroad in Spain for the semester. It has been an extremely exhausting and wonderful experience thus far. One of the things that has helped me adjust is the ability to keep in contact with people from home through social media and online services like Skype. The possibilities for increased connectivity are endless, so I urge you to explore, connect, and let me know how it goes!
September 10, 2009 | Filed Under Post, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Credit: Jordan Brock on Flickr
You might still think of Facebook as “that social network for college students” but in the past few years it has become much more than that. Over 2/3 of Facebooks users are out of college and the fastest growing demographic of users is those 35 years or older. What does that mean for you? Well, if you are a college student, you probably have received (or will receive) a friend request from your mom, and if you are a mom, you’re probably feeling like you are missing out on your child’s life. With 13.9 billion minutes spent on Facebook in April alone, you might have reason to feel like you’re missing something.
There are plenty of guides online for beginners using Facebook. Facebook for Beginners has a good list of guides available online. If you are looking to do something specific, just type your question into Google and chances are you will find an answer. I don’t want to regurgitate basic how-to’s that you can find online. Instead, let me tell you:
- How to control privacy settings
- How to interact with your kids, nephews, nieces, etc. without feeling like the only adult at a big bar mitzvah party.
Part 1: Privacy Settings
The default privacy settings that you want to take a look at: (1) Profile, (2) Search, and (3) News Feed and Wall. Of the three, you are probably most worried about your Profile Settings. This area controls who can see you and what specific people can see about you. Let’s start there!
1. Profile Privacy
The default privacy settings for Facebook allow for everyone to see your information. You probably don’t want this. Go through and change the drop-down menu to “Only Friends”. You have to select this for every element of your profile. Facebook calls this “increased customizability”, I call it “annoying”, but whatever. Make sure to changes the settings for your contact information as well.
Now, what if you only want some of your friends to be able to see your profile?
For example, say you are a professor at a university and don’t want to “reject” friend requests from your students, but don’t want them to be able to see you sunbathing in Puerto Rico. There are two ways to do this, creating a limited profile, where you choose which friends you don’t want to see your profile, and creating an exclusive friends list, where you choose which friends you do want to see your profile. I would recommend the latter as if gives you a little added security because you have to consciously choose who gets to see your profile.
Take a look at my screenshot tutorial on How to Create an Exclusive Friends List for step-by-step instructions. Repeat steps 3-5 for any element of your profile that you want to be private.
Quick Tip: Still unsure whether your profile is actually private? Test it! Type a friend’s name next to the “See how a friend sees your profile” box and Facebook will show you how they would see your profile.
2. Search Privacy
Search visibility depends a lot on the purpose of your facebook account. Take a minute and ask yourself: why am I on facebook? Through Search Privacy, you can control who can find you in a search. I often recommend being searchable, just not viewable. That way, people can find you if they want, but you control what they see. Here are the settings I suggest:
| 1. Unless you want to be invisible, set your Search Visibility to Everyone. Now that your profile is super private, your search visibility doesn’t have to be as strict. | 2. Choose your Search Result Content. Your “Search Result Content” is what people see about you when they search for you. A profile picture is useful to distinguish you from other people that share your name. | 3. Decide whether you want to be searchable on Google. The last area of Search Privacy, “Public Search Listing” allows Facebook to send a link to your Search Result Content. I recommend this for anyone interested in establishing their personal brand or looking for a job, but otherwise it is probably not necessary. |
3. News Feed and Wall
The last section of your privacy settings, News Feed and Wall, gives you some control over what your friends see on their Feed (their Facebook homepage). I unchecked all of the fields on my account, but it is really your choice.
My Personal Public Service Announcement: As a parent, you should be telling your kids about social media privacy, not vice versa. 13% of teens said they posted naked or semi-naked photos or videos of themselves and 28% of teens posted personal information that they normally would not have revealed in public. It is your responsibility to know about social media privacy and to inform your children of the dangers of revealing personal information on the internet.
And there you go; your facebook is now guarded against rando stalkers and creepy colleagues! Congratulations! Enjoy your new worry-free social network. Check back next week to learn how to interact with your sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, (weird kids next door, students, god-children, etc.) without appearing like the technologically-challenged older relative.
August 21, 2009 | Filed Under Post, Uncategorized | 1 Comment
So now you know why you need to manage your online reputation. As an artist or as a job-seeking individual, future clients and employers are looking and you need to take control of what they see. Let’s look at a few easy things that you can do today to clean up your Facebook profile and avoid missing out on opportunities because of embarrassing content.
chug chug chug (lochnessjess on Flickr)
1. Untag any pictures you wouldn’t want your boss seeing.
Be ruthless with this. I don’t want to see any pictures of your first keg stand or the outrageously inappropriate costume you wore for Halloween.
2. Don’t let embarrassing pictures be taken of you in the first place.
If you are thinking to yourself, “I’m going to have to untag this” then maybe you shouldn’t take it in the first place. Also, there should be absolutely no pictures of underage drinking or illegal drug consumption in your profile.
3. Make an exclusive friends list for your pictures.
Most people create a “Limited Profile” list of friends, where they choose who they don’t want to see their pictures and other content. Instead of this, try creating a “Pictures Viewable” list of friends, where you choose who you do want to see your pictures. This reduces the number of random people viewing your content, because you have to consciously choose who gets to see it.
- Go to your Friends page and “Create New List” titled “Pictures Viewable”.
- Now click “All Connections” and select the friends you want to see your pictures by clicking “Add to List” and selecting “Pictures Viewable”.
- Go into your Profile Privacy Settings. Select “Custom” on the drop-down menu next to Photos Tagged of You.
- Select the bullet “Some Friends” and type in “Pictures Viewable” or whatever you named the group.
- Uncheck any networks you had selected previously.
Now, in order for people to see your pictures, they must be manually added to this exclusive group.
4. Change your privacy settings.
Facebook, by default, allows almost everyone to see your profile. This is probably, not what you want. Explore the Privacy Settings menu and customize to your liking. In my opinion, the safer the better. Here are my suggestions:
- Limit your profile visibility to “Only Friends” or something more exclusive.
- Have your Search visibility set to Everyone, but only allow people who find you in search to see a Profile Picture, link to add you as a friend, and a link to message you.
- Create a public listing for search engines. You still want people to be able to find you, just not able to stalk you.
5. Don’t forget your profile pictures.
Even once you have created an exclusive friends list for your pictures and untagged any embarrassing photos, you still have to go in and manually delete any profile pictures that you might not want visible. Click directly on your profile pictures to browse through your Profile Pictures Album. Hit Delete Photo for any pictures that don’t meet the same criteria you used to clear up your other photos.
The 9 most frequently searched terms on Google about “facebook privacy” are about breaking into private facebook profiles. The most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to remove any and all incriminating content. Manage your online presence, take out your digital trash, and enjoy a spotless, searchable reputation.
August 7, 2009 | Filed Under Post, Uncategorized | 1 Comment