This morning when I logged into Facebook I was notified of the privacy settings being changed.
Right now, if you just accept the default privacy settings when you partake in their update, that means that EVERYONE on the internet will be able to see your updates / thoughts that you type.
For some, that suddenly makes Facebook as viable an option as Twitter.
I’ve never really been focused on Facebook because of how they restrict general access to updates.
The only marketing a business could do on Facebook would be to drive clients to their Facebook account and ask them to be a friend or a fan (If you made a ‘page’) and put them through the hoops of doing that.
Twitter has been a massive success because anything you tweet is seen by anyone looking for what you’ve tweeted about. Then if folks like what you say, they follow you.
For some reason, Facebook never changed their business model of accounts and it was a limited service.
On the other hand, Facebook is an awesome connection tool for friends and family to hook up and say hi to each other. And in the meantime, keeping it private between family and friends. It’s been invaluable to me in these last weeks because via Facebook, I found out a family member has been gravely ill.
Now that Facebook has opened up the updates, they’ve also created options for users.
When you’re presented with the options, you can select the new privacy / visibility options, or you can select your old options.
Furthermore, at least with me so far, when you make a post (What’s on your mind), there is now a padlock symbol below and to the right of the share window.
Here, you can choose who see’s your thought:
- Everyone,
- Friends of Friends,
- Only Friends, or a
- customized option.
I like this. For running a business, Facebook just became an option that I actually now care about. Plus as I market my writing, not only will my professional associations see my work on Facebook, my friends and family will see why I’ve been absent 9 out of every 10 days in the past on ‘The book.’
Good add-on Facebook. You’ve finally come around to making your services that much more user-friendly!
UPDATE:
With these new settings that Facebook is not letting anyone slide with (IE: Making everyone change), some things are not under our control.
What can everyone see, that’s not under your control?
- Name,
- Profile,
- Work & School networks,
- Pages you’re a fan of
Though I first toughted the virtues of letting the user control what they broadcast, this can level out the playing field. That means that if you work for your Episcopal Church, you can’t be a fan of a Satanic page. Everyone from your job at church can see this.
This to me, seems like they’re making their site more advertiser and business friendly. This will draw the business minded advertisers to them and help Facebook out. For the user, screw you. What you consider to be private is in fact, not. If you have private pages you’re a fan of, well, we all know about it now.
In fact Facebook as stated that they don’t consider your friends list to be private either. Experts have said that even one’s friends could help generate a profile that even breaks down to sexual orientation per an MIT study.
So though you may friend everyone in your life, you still have some things you want private, you might want to ponder how to go about that.
There’s always Yahoo or Gmail. (I hear you saying huh?)
Git out there, git yourself another email address, and make up a name. As you can see, Bruce Simmons has been compacted down to BruSimm. That was easy enough. If you’re Liz Abrecomre, you could be LiAbre. Or something like that. Then you can get out there and relax about somethings you’d rather not have co-workers, peers or family know about.
ONE MORE THING:
You know those “fun” games & quizzes that you’re sinking your time into on Facebook? Those are a marketers dream.
If you recall, when you started playing the games, you gave the application permission to access your profile. Yep. Did you forget that? When you let these apps access your profile, you’re also giving me up. Huh? Yea, it’s in the itty bitty tiny print. When you let these things access your portfolio, the apps also access some of the info on your friends.
I’ve never played one of those apps, nor have I accepted a single invite to any of those things either that folk keep sending me. So I’ve not given any of your info away either.
Just saying.
