Keep Your Hands Off My Facebook

day one-two-three: dear brynn, sorry the VW broke your nose

I have been on-and-off the job hunt for the past year. It’s a detail of my life that I’ve kept under wraps, mostly, but that’s for another post. Recently I met someone who’s looking to hire writers to produce web and social content for clients, pretty standard gig.

When I asked if she needed any writing samples or my resume, she said, “All I need is your Facebook.”

“My personal Facebook?”

“Yes.”

Woah, sister, let’s pull it back a notch. I manage social media profiles for brands, am very active on Twitter, and I blog for a company and for myself (oh, hi there!). Through my LinkedIn profile you can see the breadth of my experience with links to all of the social savvy that I want to show you. It won’t lead you directly back here, but a little Internet sleuthing won’t carry you too far away from the rabbit hole. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not quite living “off the grid.”

“Here you go,” I said, and handed her my business card that lists my name, Twitter handle, LinkedIn profile, and blog, then I politely turned away.

I have not followed up with her, and I don’t plan to.

My Facebook is private

I jumped on Facebook as soon as my university gained access to it in 2005 and we’ve had a love/hate relationship ever since. But I’ve stood by it, through redesigns, privacy-setting curiosities, and the fact that it introduced brands into our life.

I closely guard who I am friends with, what I post when, and why. Sometimes I’m silly, but I am not stupid. I don’t risk opening the floodgates for someone to go through pictures I posted over the past five years and judge me based on a comment a friend left back-in-the-day. No way.

I’m an early adopter, damnit, and I know what the platform was meant for.

I have a personal social media strategy

I know the value of social media and I personally implement a different strategy when engaging with communities on different social channels. What I post on my blog, share on Facebook, and broadcast on Twitter are very different messages. And what I share and write on behalf of a brand is channel specific and different from my personal strategy as well.

If you are run a content marketing or social media agency, you should know this.

In her defense

People trust people, over brands. That’s why social media is here to stay. That’s why as a marketer, you will have higher click through rates if you craft a message that is shared and retweeted by individuals other than your brand. Likes, comments, and shares prove that your message has value. That formula for success is true for brands and for posts on personal networks.

My background is in content management and knowing how to write with audience in mind. I have higher level of engagement on posts I send out through my personal Facebook page than through the brands I represent. So I can understand why she demands that level of access. She’s being transparent, and I should respect that, but that still doesn’t give her the right to my personal Facebook page. Be a little savvier and take me out for drinks, then we can “friend” each other and you can spend the next few months seeing how I work uncensored, recruit me that way.

Woo me, I don’t “friend” on the first date.

With that said…

As someone who plays online, I expect every single person that I interact with to Google, Bing, and Gist me. It’s their job—as potential friends, employers, and enemies—to figure out who I am. I’m easy to find, probably not easy enough, but I’m out there, and I’m not giving you an all-access pass.

Photo Credit: Anna Gay

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4 Responses

  1. Great post – I think it’s quite bold to have asked for access to your facebook – because then, where does it end?

    1. I have friended people who I currently work with and people who I’ve worked with in the past, but that’s after we’ve gotten to know each other. That’s where she was bold and turned me off.nnI ran across this article about employers who are “spying” on their employees to make sure they follow company culture off the clock. As I wrote in this post, this behavior is something I expect, though with the spying, I’m weary of the system they use to determine who’s slacking. Anything automated on social is kind of dangerous…nnhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/voices/is-your-boss-spying-off-the-clock/5043/

  2. Great post – I think it’s quite bold to have asked for access to your facebook – because then, where does it end?

    1. I have friended people who I currently work with and people who I’ve worked with in the past, but that’s after we’ve gotten to know each other. That’s where she was bold and turned me off.nnI ran across this article about employers who are “spying” on their employees to make sure they follow company culture off the clock. As I wrote in this post, this behavior is something I expect, though with the spying, I’m weary of the system they use to determine who’s slacking. Anything automated on social is kind of dangerous…nnhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/voices/is-your-boss-spying-off-the-clock/5043/

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