Facebook Tip: Beware of Privacy Slippage

Who can see what you post on Facebook is a tricky concept. After numerous complaints FB made a lot of changes to their privacy settings but it’s still complex, and not all of the settings are “sticky” – you may think you are fine but unknowingly did something that makes everything you subsequently post a LOT more visible than you thought.

The most dangerous privacy slippage I’ve seen recently is one that may be setting ALL your status updates to be publicly visible – including to job interviewers, co-workers, etc.

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Facebook Tip: Creating An Event Owned By Your Corporate Page

These days when people are promoting a local happening they usually create a Facebook event (and frequently ONLY that for PR – but this is not about the limitations of that as a PR scheme).

So often I feel like banging my head on the monitor when I see how some folks undermine themselves through not understanding the details necessary for a Facebook event to be found and seen by their audience.

I was planning to list a number of tips, but explaining how to do this first one is sufficiently complex that I’ll save the others for a later post!

If your event is a personal social activity (e.g., a birthday party), go ahead and create it as your personal Facebook persona. HOWEVER – if the event is an activity by a “corporate” entity such as your band, your catering service, etc. it is important to create the event as your “Page” persona.

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How to Avoid Reposting Urban Legends

You’ve seen the emails and Facebook posts from your friends:

  • OMG – this famous actor just died!
  • Please take these actions to protect my Facebook privacy.
  • Watch out for this new computer virus!!!
  • A friend of a friend woke up in the bathtub with his kidney missing!!!!!

Frequently followed by a request to repost/forward to all of your friends.

But before you do that, take this step in order to avoid passing on an Urban Legend:

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Planning For And Handling Sudden Blog Notoriety

If you are relatively new to being a public blogger one of your goals is probably to attract a larger readership. But are you ready for the day one of your posts suddenly goes viral?

It happened to me last week – I wrote an article giving my point of view on a topic about Amanda Palmer. She referenced the link in her subsequent social media communications and suddenly I had 4000 page views in 48 hours! Here’s how I prepared for this (in general – you can’t tell what post may go viral) and what I did to manage the resulting visibility:

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