Privacy and Facebook

I recently became involved with the social media committee of the Houston American Marketing Association (AMA). I'm responsible for tweeting for the AMA (@AMAHouston) and monitoring the social media sites (like LinkedIn). This also means I manage the AMA Houston Facebook group, page, and updates, so I've been getting a ton of friend requests from people who are involved in the AMA but who I don't know. I don't want to not accept their friend requests (they could be valuable business contacts in the future, of course!) but do I really want a potential future client or employer to see those photos of me out with girlfriends for my birthday last weekend? Hmm, that's hard -- no.

So given that privacy settings are pretty important to me and my two-sided relationship with Facebook, I was stoked to find out that Facebook is implementing better privacy controls -- or more importantly, simpler ones. The old ones were a bit unwiedly and confusing (they took 6 pages to work through!), and they often required a lot of trial and testing to see if they worked. Now, you'll be able to decide right when you post an update to FB publisher who should see that one particular post -- everyone (meaning the WHOLE world, or anyone who goes to your facebook page) or only your friends. Got a complaint about your job? Send that post out to your close friends only. Want to announce a cool AMA event (like I often do)? Post it to the world. They are also ditching the regional networks, which were confusing for a lot of people, and putting all the privacy settings on one page.

So in summary: Although FB didn't really add any new privacy settings, the entire process of deciding who should see your info and updates will be greatly simplified. However, will anyone bother using the new settings? Most people I know use FB for either all professional networking or all fun social stuff (or they mix the two and just don't care :) ). And although I suspect these new settings will be a breeze to use, some less tech savvy people (ahem, my Mom, who yes, is on FB) still won't get it. It's just too much/too many choices for most people.

Maybe FB is trying to be too much to too many people. LinkedIn is all professional, MySpace is all social, and Twitter is 100% public. Facebook is trying to do it all -- and do it so it is simple and easy to use. Is that even possible? I guess I'll see when I get access to the new settings in the next few weeks.

Facebook Privacy Enhancements

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Do you use FB both socially and professionally? If not, will the new privacy settings change that?