Personal branding on Facebook

You need to remember, your profile can be search on the Internet and whatever you say will not really be private information. This can be a bane and a boon at the same time. With Facebook now, you may be seen as a thought leader as you share your views.

Joining different groups, sharing ideas and networking on Facebook also brings a lot of opportunities, but your Facebook profile need to be kept “professional” if you are interested to do professional networking or you have professional contacts on your Facebook profile.


Do you need a separate Facebook account for work?

I know of many people with 2 separate Facebook accounts, one for work, and another for private use. I personally feel it rather redundant, however, for some people, it may seem necessary when you feel a strong need to connect to some friends.

However, if you manage your settings correctly, you do not need to have 2 separate accounts.

1) Privacy Settings

Follow the below tips and protect your profile.

a) Personal Info. – it is important to fill up your personal information so that your old friends can connect with you and know it the “real you”
i. Avoid inputting your home address to avoid unnecessary dangers like stalking.
ii. If you don’t want to be called by everyone, make sure you set the privacy settings under “Only friends”, so only people on your friend list can view your phone number.
iii. Set “Photos and Videos of Me” to “Only Me” as you can never tell what photos your friends will tag you in. (Your friends can still see your photo albums.)

2) Add only friends you know.

Though you may play Facebook games and meet a lot of new friends, some of these “Friends” may be spammers, and if you need to add them, add these friends to the “Limited Profile” list on your friend list.

i. Create a “Limited Profile” List. (Under Friends -> Create List)
ii. Add people you don’t know personally into the “Limited Profile” List
iii. Set privacy settings on your Facebook Profile to exclude people you don’t know that well, and hide some information from these people.
(Settings – Privacy Settings – Edit to “Hide this from” -> Limited Profile)
i.e. You can allow friends to comment on your posts, and prevent people from “Limited profile” List to do so.

3) If you play Facebook games, prevent these games from posting on your profile.

You do not want people to see that you are playing games during office hours and you do not have any other Facebook activities besides playing games. (If you want to use it for personal branding)

4) Think before you post.

This may be harder that it seems, as it is common for people to post what they think. However if your manager or professional contacts are your “friends” on Facebook, and think before you post, lest you may regret what you post later.

-- Robin Low