Ship of Fools: Facebook Advice please

Thread: Facebook Advice please Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :

A future possible employer has sent me a Friend Request on Facebook. This is an online English teaching site, who obviously does some contacting of students via Facebook, and posts various exercises/quizzes/news etc there.

I'm not a Facebook addict by any means, but I have friends who send me cheeky messages occasionally, or who post "witty" but slightly dubious quotations. I will sometimes, but not often, respond. Generally though my Facebook activity is boring.

But my question is: if I "friend" this company, will they be able to see my Wall, and read - should they wish to - my friends' dubious comments ("got bladdered last night. What fun LOL" etc) Which may give a skewed picture of me and my activities.

Should I "friend" the company, when in not doing so, I may scupper chances of working with them? How much of my activity on Facebook will they be able to see?

As you can see, I'm a bit of a divvy when it comes to this sort of thing, so some advice would be appreciated!

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I've just done the experiment of going to a couple of friend's walls from posts which appear in my news feed. And I can see the posts/comments in situ which are also appearing on my feed.

OTOH, they may regard FB as a form of broadcasting - they want to push content to their 'friends' (in this context more business contacts), but hide postings from them - unless they like reading student chatter.

Would a more viable option just be to Like their page? That then feeds their posts to your page, but without any reciprocity.

Is there a way of finding out delicately what it is they think FB is for?

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :

You can set your security so that they see very little. If it is a company, it really should be set up as a page, not a personal profile. If so, then once you like them the information is really quite one-way. They can't see your page at all and you can post there.

Posted by Amorya (# 2652) on :

Set up a new Facebook account for professional stuff maybe? It's technically against the terms of service, but I doubt you'd be found out.

I haven't friended anyone at work, and I do have to use my Facebook account for work stuff sometimes (I write iPhone apps, and some of them post to Facebook, so they need testing). Nobody's asked about it, but if they did I would mention that I like to keep that part of my personal life separate from my work life.

Posted by Gwai (# 11076) on :

I have a "friend" who I don't trust 1/3 as far as I could throw him, partially because he's gone to jail for stalking type activities. I friended him as a favor to his mother, but I also set my profile so that he can't see ANYTHING but what is public. I advise doing so with this company if it is actually a friending thing and not the liking of a page. Well, I would allow them to see a wee bit more, so that it's not too ultra obvious. Also when you accept maybe send a message warning them that you don't use fb too much. That warns them not to expect too much content from you and of course tells them not to prioritize anything they do see very highly just in case something comes through that you didn't want them to see.

Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :

You can hide posts you're not happy to have on your timeline, whoever they were posted by.

Facebook is one way for a potential employer to vet potemtial employees, and you're probably right to be cautious.

Cattyish.

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

That request already makes me suspicious about the potential employer.
I would start by finding out their reputation as an employer. Do they have unethical practices, especially with their employees?
What have they done with information with other potential employees.

I know of a young person, of whom I would have expected more insight, who posted pub-type remarks on Facebook about her employer and was consequently given the sack, though I am sure she would generally be a conscientious and hard working employee.

While you may have lots of different sets of friends of whom you expect little interaction in real life, on Facebook they are all lumped in together. It is true that you can restrict each post to a listed sub-set, but who knows how Facebook will subvert this in the future if they can make a buck out of it.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

I solved this problem by marking a particular friend as an "acquaintance", and setting my privacy that only friends except acquaintances can see my page. This person can see she's still in my friends list, but she can't see anything posted unless I change the settings for an individual post.

Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :

Latchkey Kid, I'm sure I read something very recently that down here such a request from an employer etc can be refused and employer has no redress if this happens. I am on FB, joined for family photos and then we set up a different system. I never use it and am very suspicious of it.

Posted by Latchkey Kid (# 12444) on :

quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
I solved this problem by marking a particular friend as an "acquaintance", and setting my privacy that only friends except acquaintances can see my page. This person can see she's still in my friends list, but she can't see anything posted unless I change the settings for an individual post.

Facebook can change the rules any time to suit themselves. What is private now will be public later.

Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :

Thanks for the advice. I am thinking of contacting them to ask exactly WHY they want to "friend" me, citing the excuse that I prefer to keep my personal and professional lives separate.

Then see what happens...

Posted by Hazey*Jane (# 8754) on :

I would just not respond.

They probably didn't single you out for contacting - there was probably some batch suggestion of recommended contacts that they sent friend requests to. Thus they might not necessarily notice that you personally did not respond. Contacting them, however, will draw attention to it.

I would always keep personal and professional stuff separate where I could on Facebook. I've recently left, however, as I do not trust Facebook to keep my personal stuff private. It's a very leaky sieve. Just because you set your privacy settings to protect your privacy today, doesn't mean they won't be undone in some complicated and hard to fix way in the future.

As to why the contacted you? Advertising, pure and simple.

[ 15. October 2012, 08:08: Message edited by: Hazey*Jane ]

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amorya:
Set up a new Facebook account for professional stuff maybe? It's technically against the terms of service, but I doubt you'd be found out.

I haven't friended anyone at work, and I do have to use my Facebook account for work stuff sometimes (I write iPhone apps, and some of them post to Facebook, so they need testing). Nobody's asked about it, but if they did I would mention that I like to keep that part of my personal life separate from my work life.

I know a few people who have done that. It confuses me, because both are under the same name (and they've friended me on both accounts)! But it's definitely being done. It would be easier to keep straight for your friends' sake if you could append a title, degree, membership/credential, etc. to the name of your professional identity, perhaps.

Also, I know someone who has her own account and another under the name of an organization she runs.

Posted by Dormouse (# 5954) on :

Interestingly, having sent a message asking why they wanted to "friend" me and saying I prefer not to mix my professional and personal lives, I've heard nothing. I offered to set up a professional account, if the reason was to contact students, but not a dicky bird!

Posted by kankucho (# 14318) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Latchkey Kid:
...What is private now will be public later.

An excellent point, and one which we would all be wise to consider in all our actions, within or without the medium of Facebook.

Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on :

Indeed!

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