CHAPTER 20: Social Media and Skype
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assume anything you say is completely visible to the world; indeed, you should make
this same assumption for any website you post information to.
Facebook allows multiple types of posts, from quick status updates to photos, videos,
and longer notes. You can also link to articles, videos, and pictures hosted outside of
Facebook, as well as add apps that incorporate games, group reading lists, and more.
Facebook is also moving toward a universal Like button that allows you to interact with
pages and websites outside of Facebook.
You might wonder how you manage both personal and business contacts on Facebook.
You can do so in a couple of ways. One approach I don’t recommend is to create
multiple accounts. If you create multiple accounts using your real name, it will only serve
to confuse you and your contacts when they try to add you as a friend.
The two approaches you can take are either to friend everyone and assign them to
friend groups through the privacy settings or to create a fan page. Fan pages (officially,
Facebook just calls them “pages”) got their name from the way people used to add
them to their feed. Users would “become a fan” of a given page. Facebook has changed
this mechanism to a simple Like button.
TIP: Currently, Facebook has a 5,000-friend limit on personal accounts. If you anticipate
reaching that limit between clients, fans, and good friends, then you need a fan page. Even if you
don’t anticipate an overwhelming deluge of clients and business contacts friending you, it may
still be disturbing to manage personal and work acquaintances in the same social space.
Creating Fan Pages
You set up fan pages through the Ads and Pages application. If you don’t have any
pages, search for “Ads and Pages” from within Facebook. We suggest using a desktop
browser to set this feature up.
The advantage of using a fan page is that you can make a fan page an official company
presence without needing to be friends with any of the fans of the page. The
disadvantage is that you do not see the activity fans generate anywhere outside of that
page. Whether or not you want your business contacts mingling with your classmates
and relatives is a personal decision. However, you should decide how you want to
handle the situation before you get your first friend request. It’s a lot easier to have
separate spaces established in advance than it is to move everyone over to new spaces
later.
CAUTION: Whether or not you are Facebook friends with colleagues, business partners, or
customers, it’s just bad business to badmouth any of them. They may not be able to see what
you’ve said, but it’s not hard to copy-and-paste. The last thing you need is for casual gossip to
get back to the person you badmouthed. People have been fired for less.
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