Facebook suggestions and best practices
Hello, Oscar the Grouch here. Here are some suggestions that I have for my friends and colleagues who use social media — Facebook, particularly.
These are based on my observations; while they probably overlap other lists, that’s coincidental. (This posting was prompted by a story, “The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers, on CNN.)
1. Please use a real profile photo of yourself.
Don’t use a funny glyph. Don’t use a picture of your kids, your pet, a celebrity, or yourself as a small child. It’s nice to see what you look like. We’re your friends, after all.
2. Please don’t give away too much personal info.
Don’t share what year you were born, your mother’s maiden name, or stuff like that. Think “identity theft.” Review your privacy options often to restrict information to just your own friends (not friends-of-friends and so-on). In any case, don’t reveal too much.
3. Please don’t talk about your travel until you get home.
Never reveal travel dates on Facebook or any social network, or disclose that you’re currently out of town (“Must go to bed early, we’re leaving on our cruise tomorrow morning” or “Wow, we just saw an iceberg off the port bow”).
If your friends post something onto your wall about your current or future travel (“Have fun in Alaska next week!” or “Did you see any glaciers today?”), delete the post as soon as you can. When you get home, tell everyone that you’re back and you had a great time.
4. If you have changed your name, please tell Facebook about your other name(s).
Sometimes I get friend requests from people whose name is not familiar because they have married (or divorced) and changed their name. (Go to Settings -> Name -> Change to fill in an alternate name.)
5. Please don’t post a link to a story, video or other website without offering a little context or commentary as to why you’re sharing it.
I don’t need a clipping service, and I can find my own funny Web pages, thank you! Go ahead, share an interesting or relevant link — but add some value of your own. Just please avoid just a bare URL.
6. Please don’t over-post.
A half-dozen posts a day is more than enough!
7. Please don’t link your Twitter account to automatically update your Facebook status, but if you do, remember it when you tweet.
8. Please don’t let your Facebook apps and games bombard your friends with their own status updates.
Nobody cares that you got a score of 16/20 in in Advanced Star Trek Trivia or befriended a lonely sheep in FarmVille.
9. Please don’t invite all your Facebook friends to sign up for fan pages that you’ve just discovered.
Or join your favorite groups, play your favorite games, take your favorite quiz or attend your favorite events. Facebook likes to send such invites to everyone in your friend list. That’s great for the application developer, but bad for your friends. Don’t let Facebook do that. If you want to send out such invitations, pick specific people to send them to — people that you’re confident will appreciate them.
10. When you post photos, please share only the good ones.
Filter, filter, filter! Don’t post blurry or dark photos. Don’t post your entire “camera roll” — you don’t need to share pictures of everything you saw or did. Instead, post only the photos that you’re proud of, because they’re beautiful or meaningful. I’d rather enjoy ten lovely photos of your trip to Alaska instead of wading through 300 mostly lousy ones.
Do you have other Facebook best practices to share?