What ever happened to the old Facebook?

Before I begin, let me make it known that I am aware that I have never been one to accept change. With that being said, bring back the old Facebook.

The new and improved FB (yea, I did it) is too much for me to handle. First of all, there are too many connections to other social media sites like twitter and foursquare that I find myself having to click on links  just to finish reading an update...#toomuchwork.

The messaging system is awful. Whenever my grandma messages me on facebook chat I get a notification that I have an inbox message. I get all excited and click on it only to see my chat pop up...?

Creeping pictures is no longer fun.

The questions game from people you haven't spoken to in months is a little bit weird. No, I do not want to know what you think of me.

Why can't I copy a picture from my friends album and then put it in my album and pretend it was mine from the beginning? I don't want to have to download every picture. right click, save as?

I'm done for the evening.

Putting it all together...

For weeks I have been talking about how to represent yourself on your Facebook account but there is a very important factor to this that we have missed. Privacy settings.

Privacy settings are so important because not only will they help filter out all the weirdoes that treat Facebook like an online speed dating session, but they allow you to control who can search you and see your pictures, info etc.

For instance, if a potential employer google's you and views your profile, privacy settings can allow you to adjust how much of your profile they see. I highly recommend you do this. I am confident they don’t want to see your latest tagged pictures of you partying for St. Patrick at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Keeping your account secure by adjusting your privacy settings is step one.

Step two is making sure that you think before you click. There are so many scams on Facebook now that you don’t want to be caught up in this mess. If Miley Cyrus had a photo so disgraceful, it would not be an application on Facebook. If interested in Miley Cyrus’s personal life, check Perez Hilton before clicking and allowing applications to be linked to your profile.

If you are concerned about your profile not being appropriate for work, I suggest you create another account that is strictly professional. This will allow you to have a more open profile for employers to search you.

Some people are more strict with their privacy settings than others; I want to know what you think! Do you have any tips on what to do?

I will leave you this week with some helpful links on how you can make your profile private

Vanessa 

1. Privacy Guide 

2. Top 10 Privacy Settings 

3. The Evolution of Privacy 

Relationship Status

You can be in a relationship, single, in a common law relationship, in an open relationship or it can be complicated. Regardless, I recommend that you think carefully before changing your relationship status.

I don’t want to tell you to not change your relationship status because some people who are married or are committed to someone else may want to display that. My only concern is when people change from “in a relationship” to “single” and visa versa every time they have a crush on someone.

I don’t know about you, but with my friends, relationships aren’t ‘official’ until they are on facebook. I think this is absolutely insane. I made the mistake of changing my relationship status once in my life, and I will never do it again. Here is why.

When you break up with that person, it sucks having to change it to single. For some reason people feel the need to comment on it and ask what happened and if you are ok. No, I am not ok and if I wanted to talk to you about it I would have told you personally and not via my profile.

Unlike other aspects on Facebook, I don’t know how “wrong” it is to change your relationship status. Socially, it is not unacceptable to be single, or in a relationship. The only reason I bring it up is because as you mature, you many not want to display your love life to the rest of the world.   

This can be an interesting debate because people feel differently about the subject. Tell me what you think! I will leave you with an amazing article in Time Magazine.

Vanessa

Comment

I am a huge fan of commenting on Facebook activity. It is such a great way to interact with your friends and be included in conversation. It also gives you an opportunity to be funny and give your opinion on a subject.  However, similar to the like button, one can over comment.

If I am not close with you, please do not comment on my Facebook activity everyday. When people are constantly commenting, you know that they are always looking at your profile. It’s a little bit weird.

To help me explain a comment, I once again turned to urban dictionary to help me understand. A comment is defined as: A persons positive output on a certain creation.

I want to point out here that the key word is positive. Just like I said before, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it all. It’s very immature to be rude or negative to someone on Facebook and it may come back to bite you.

I am interested to hear what you think about commenting, this is a touchy subject and can be seen differently by people.

I did want to leave you all with some funny comments that have been submitted to Lamebook. The best way to learn how to comment and what is appropriate is by learning from others triumphs and mistakes so check out the website! 

Enjoy!

Vanessa  

Edit Profile

It is no surprise that I think your Facebook profile should be carefully monitored. If used properly, Facebook is a great tool for building your personal brand and networking.

One aspect of your profile is the Info section. This is a tab that allows you to explain a little bit about yourself, your interests, hobbies, favourite television shows, and artists. Please do not be fooled, this is not a section for you to write whatever you want. Here are a few tips to creating a great Info section.

# 1. Be honest. Whatever you write about yourself should in fact be the truth. Do not tell people that you are something you are not.

# 2: Be clear and concise: *-*ThErE iS nOtHiNg WoRsE tHaN pEoPle wHo wRiTe LiKe ThIS*-*. I know in grade 8 it was the thing to do, but not only is it hard to read but grammatically, it doesn’t make sense.

# 3: Be Confident. If you are a huge fan of the Backstreet Boys, do not be afraid to like their page. If you love to curl with your grandma on Sunday afternoons, tell people! Every person is different and the corky things that you do and like make up who you are.

# 4: Be private. I would suggest that you don’t put down any personal information such as telephone numbers or addresses. I know that some people type their BlackBerry pins in their profile, but I think that is okay because you are able to decide if you would like to accept the add or not.

Basically you need to remember that you are portraying yourself to a lot of people and you want to give the best representation as possible. Don’t be afraid to be yourself and have some fun with it!

What else do you think is important when editing your profile? Does anyone have any tips for what not to do? 

Here is a great website on some more tips. 

Vanessa 

You Like This...

The "like" button. This simple invention allows you to agree with someone or show appreciation with a click of your mouse.  You no longer have to spend a few seconds thinking about what you want to comment; all you have to do is click “like”. Besides, who actually wants to engage in conversation these days?

Okay…I’m being a bit harsh. I will be the first to admit, I really like the “like” button. However there has always been something about it that really bugs me, and it wasn’t until today that I even knew what that was. 

A friend brought the term “straight like” up to me today. I didn’t know what it meant so naturally, I turned to Urban Dictionary to help me understand.

Straight like is:

“When someone goes straight down your Facebook page and likes everything, including wallposts, comments, statuses, etc. Usually it's a close friend of yours, or someone who's bored to death”

There are a million things I can think of doing if I am ‘bored to death’ over liking every single post my friends make. Please don’t do this.

The best thing about the like button is that it is a once in a while type of use. There is no possible way you can like everything, and if you do maybe you should be a little bit pickier.

The next big thing that people are saying is, “I dislike this”. Personally, I hope Facebook does not come up with a button to dislike something because my mom raised me to believe that if I don’t have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all.

I would love to hear what you think about the "like" button. Should people stop liking and start actually typing words to express their feelings? 

Upload Picture...

Now think carefully. Do you really want to upload that picture of you stumbling around at the bar? I don’t think so.

Profile pictures are the first thing people see when they view your profile. They are a direct representation of your personality and provide a visual for all to create a first impression. Make sure your picture reflects the type of person you are...and remember in 5 years from now you may be haunted by your decisions.  

Here are some things that I personally don’t think should be included in a profile picture. Please remember that this is my opinion and I would love to hear feedback from everyone.

1) Mirror pictures. Really all I have to say is, save it for MySpace. There is a negative connotation with mirror pictures so save yourself the trouble and just ask a friend to take the picture.

2) Wording and fancy designs. Now I know some people like to add flowers and rainbows to their pictures and if that is what they like, then so be it. However, I really do advise anyone against wording or quotes because 5 years down the road they may not mean anything to you. Even worse, your potential employer may really disagree with what you are saying.  For example,

3) Kissing your boyfriend/girlfriend. Not only will this haunt you when you break up and have to delete it, but no one wants to see your PDA.

Remember, Facebook is your personal brand; the least you could do is invest a little thought into it. For some fun and simple display pictures, click here.

As always, I want to hear from you! What do you think is totally inappropriate when it comes to display pictures? I am curious to hear what people think about beach pictures….

Vanessa