Setting Boundaries: Separating the Personal & The Professional on Your Facebook

Timeline and Brand PagePresented by Geoffrey Colon, Vice President of Social@Ogilvy

Overview• Why it's important to divide personal and

professional news on your social profiles• FTC rules on disclosure• Why your Facebook profile is your social

graph and your brand page an interest graph– Privacy Settings

Overview• Best practices on when you promote

professional news on your personal profile• Maxing out: when it's time to defriend on your

personal timeline to enhance your professional timeline

• Branching out: why Facebook is good for some things but other social networks are better for others, Subscribe funictionality

• Questions

Why Divide?

• Privacy• Engagement• Opportunity• Relevance

Disclosure

• It’s important to disclose at all times whenever you’re posting about client work on your personal page

• If you don’t, you’re breaking FTC rules• Which could result in fines• And ultimately trouble for your client

Disclosure

• Always disclose that you are mentioning a client with a disclaimer, with (cl) or with the word “client” in a status update

Social Graph (Personal) vs. Interest Graph (Brand)

• 5000 friends• Personal photos• Only friend people you know• Intimate and social content

• Unlimited “Likes” or Subscribers• Professional Content• Synchronicity with applications• Potential to build advocates to

leverage for professional reasons• Professionally relevant content

Privacy Settings

Privacy Settings

Privacy Settings

Privacy Settings

Privacy Settings

Promoting Professional News on your Personal Profile

Maxing Out

• Once you’re nearing 5000 friends on your personal profile, it may be time for a brand page.

• Consider defriending people who you added early on and now realize you have no real connection

• Only friend people you know. It’s ultimately what Facebook is set up for in terms of using your personal profile to the maximum benefit of the platform

Branching Out

• If you reach 5000 friends but do not want to start a brand page, allow SUBSCRIBERS. This allows anyone to follow your posts. If you allow subscribers, you should be cautious about what you post, since strangers can see your content.

• If you want to post personal content, open a Twitter feed where interactions between strangers seeing your tweets is commonplace.

Subscribe Functionality• The Subscribe functionality…

• Allows your status updates and posts to be followed by anyone on Facebook• Is used heavily by celebrities and thought leaders• Opens Facebook up to “Twitter-like” functionality with more visual

enhancement

Subscribe Functionality• You can find people to subscribe to via the following…

Subscribe Functionality• You can find people to subscribe to via the following…

Subscribe Functionality

Subscribe Functionality

Personal Profile vs. Brand Page vs. Subscribe Functionality

Personal Profile Brand Page Subscriber Functionality

5,000 friends max Unlimited fans/likes max Unlimited subscribers max to your personal profile status updates

Timeline functionality Timeline functionality Timeline functionality and subscribers receive your status updates in their news feed

Linking to open graph apps

Linking to open graph apps

N/A

Two Distinct Properties still Equals One Distinct Brand

There is a rule that you are still one brand in the world of Facebook, “You, Inc.” no matter how many properties you have on Facebook. Remember this prior to posting the following:•Defamation against other clients, agencies, companies, or people•Photos you wouldn’t want your parents to see•Material that you might later regret a potential employer seeing

Two Distinct Properties Equal One Distinct Brand

•If a post contains opinions of your own, make sure to note this via (this opinion is my own and not that of my employer) following the update or state on your profile that “opinions are my own.”•Act like an expert in whatever you do, whether it’s photography, writing, sports, social media or philosophy

Do Employers have a Right to my Password?

NO. Even Facebook is suing companies asking potential employees for passwords. If a potential employee asks, politely decline and say you’ll ACCEPT a friend request from them instead or log into your profile for them to see in real time. You can also politely decline as many states are banning the practice (Maryland just passed a law). If the HR rep does accept your friend request, you can then defriend them after they have reviewed your profile or in 24 hours. You are not even required to do this but it’s more in line with Facebook T&C’s.

Read more on this at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/job-seekers-getting-asked-facebook-080920368.html

Thank You!

Geoffrey ColonVice President, Social@Ogilvy

Facebook: facebook.com/geoffrey.colon or facebook.com/socialogilvy

Questions?