Why your profiles on MySpace and Facebook should be private

Social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and others are always a ton of fun. Nowadays, they’re used more than ever to communicate with friends online and to meet new people. If you’re reading this blog, chances are pretty good that you have a profile on Facebook or MySpace.

The problem with such social networking sites is that they provide immediate access to your information for someone who only knows your name.

Everyone hears talk about stalkers, pedophiles, and sexual predators online, and by now we’re all used to the warnings about disclosing information to absolute strangers. This is nothing new.

But what about people who are just interested in looking at your profile to learn more about you? People who don’t really know the real you, but want to? Yeah, secret admirers will do this, but can you think of anyone else who might want to learn more about the real you?

How about colleges? How about possible employers?

The dangers of public profiles

If you aren’t very worried about your overall privacy, you may understand the appeal of having a public profile. Perhaps your MySpace profile is well-designed, or you really like your profile picture. Maybe you’re just really open to the idea of meeting people. And all of that is fine.

If you’ve ever had a parent or a teacher add you on a social networking site, you’ll know how awkward it can be merging those separate parts of your life together. Now, imagine that it’s not your parent looking, but a college admissions official. It’s very uncomfortable to think that this person might be judging you based on what you have written by and about you on the Internet, but it’s possible.

For example, if you’re applying for a job, but you have pictures online of you screwing around and having fun at your old job, this can reflect poorly on you. You can give a great interview and come across very well, but if your prospective employer sees pictures of you goofing off, your job chances are going to go right out the window.
Should I make my profile private?

Consider if you’re waiting for any kind of a judgment about you, such as employment, scholarships, or college decisions. Then, consider if you have anything to hide, or if you’re simply uncomfortable with the prospect of someone trying to judge you based on your profile.

You should be especially conscious of whether or not your profile is public if you’re awaiting a decision, and it may be best to make it private at least until a decision has been made. However, if you have any information up that may affect your current status (like a picture of you goofing off at your current work place), you should definitely make your profile private to avoid taking the risk of one of your employers stumbling across it.

Even what someone else writes on your profile could hurt your chances. If someone leaves a message about getting high, this won’t help your case much either.

Making your profile private will never hurt your chances of being hired/chosen/accepted/whatever, but having your profile publicly visible can. General privacy reasons aside, if you’re at all concerned about someone passing a negative judgment on you based on a profile, you should make it private.
Can my profile really affect my college admissions?

While I strongly doubt that all colleges look at profiles to determine if you’re worth accepting, I’m sure that some do. All it takes is one curious admissions official to take a glance and see something he doesn’t like for your chances to be sunk. If you’re already a borderline decision, your profile may be what pushes you over the edge either way.

If you’re at all worried about whether or not your profile will reflect poorly on you, it’s always best to take the safe route and make it private, just to be sure.

Facebook and Myspace for Teachers

I recently recorded a conversation held between me and Stephan Spencer, president of search engine optimization company, Netconcepts.

Spencer talks about the basics of both social networking sites, such as whether or not you should make your profile private if you are worried about your job, or prospective jobs. There are plenty of cases where exactly this has happened.

I can recall myself a time when my company was hiring and it was possible for us to gather a lot of personal information about the candidates just by going to their social networking profile. I had never thought of using these websites to learn more about the prospective employees, but it does work.

It’s not just making your profile private, but you also have to be weary when you are making comments on other people’s public profiles which can then later be associated back to you.

I also link it back to teachers, making the point that teachers could make a better connection with their students if they were found on the social networking sites. All they have to do is make sure they are actively moderating comments for anything that may be inappropriate.

Make sure you listen to this conversation for more information about the two popular social networking sites.

Why you need a socialmedia page

If you havent noticed already social media is everywhere. There are so many websites and tools to take advantage of but which one is going to give you the most for your precious time. The one tool that has been a success for me is the FaceBook Fan Page. FaceBook allows you to interact with your prospects or clients through Fan Pages. These pages allow you to have an unlimited amount of Fans or people who are interested in you or your online business. Unlike your main profile where you are limited to just 5,000 friends, with Fan Pages you can have an unlimited amount of people connect with you.

Here are some ways to use the fan page to grow your online business.

1. Integrate with Blog RSS Feed. You can integrate this fan page with your blog RSS feed or your website and ensure that it has a steady stream of content coming in for content hungry users.

2. Announce Your Events: If you are having a free webinar, teleseminar, or will be any of the social networks like Twitter live you can announce that event on your fan page and create anticipation for it. Also it keeps your fans in the loop of what your doing.

3. Explain Youre Business: Use pictures, videos, articles, and comments to really explain what you do. Be careful not to pitch in your Fan Page. This is an immediate turn off. Instead give case studies of things you have done to help people and share it with your Fans.

4. Interact With Your Fans: Make sure not to remain silent. Interact with your fans as they come to your page. You will soon experience your fans interacting amongst each other and giving you great feedback and/or word of mouth advertising. This is invaluable and shouldnt be taken for granted. However you must be patient and allow this time of process to build. Once done ” it is the greatest asset and social proof you can have.

These are just a tip of the iceberg of what you can do with FaceBook Fan Pages. It is that simple. Once you have put one together its also a good idea to be a fan of this page yourself. Once you are done, you can send this page to friends on your list and ask them to do the same. This will spark the viral component and have your Fan Page reach everyone in your FaceBook network.

Realize that social networking is the future and if you utilize the tools provided like a Facebook Fan Page you will be 5 steps ahead of everyone else in your online business. So start taking advantage of this great social networking tool and grow your business today.