Social Networks – Keeping Private Stuff Private on Facebook

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The gap between freelance writer and social media manager (or whatever you want to call it) is getting smaller and smaller isn’t it?  Many freelance writers are finding that clients want them to write things like blog content but they also want them to write content for their social media sites and sometimes they even want them to manage them.

Some freelance writers are choosing to include social media services with their writing services.  This can be a great way to increase your income.  When I found out that I love social media, I started including social media services and expanded my business.

But when you apply for jobs that have social media responsibilities, you might be asked for links to your social media accounts – your Facebook account, your Twitter account, your LinkedIn account, etc.  And this makes sense.

Why do clients want your social media accounts?

Well, think about it this way – if someone wants to hire you as a writer, they want clips to your published work so that they can see what kind of writing you are capable of.  Do you know basic English?  Can you identify with your readers?  What kind of style do you have?

When you apply for jobs that have a social media slant, clients want to know how you communicate in your social media.

• Do you share too much personal stuff?  Are you professional?
• Can you get a reaction from people who follow you?
• Do you know how to choose engaging content to post?
• Are you communicative?
• And most of all – are you utilizing social media in your professional life already?  Because if you aren’t how are you going to manage to do that for them?

When I asked freelance writers on a board that I go to often what they wanted to know about social media, one of the big questions was how to keep their professional and private lives separate if they are asked to share their social networking.  It is a good question and one that should be addressed.

Keeping Facebook Accounts Private

I think that Facebook is the biggest social network that this concern comes into play with.  Yes, Twitter could have this concern as well, as might YouTube, but I’m going to focus on Facebook today.

As you may already know, Facebook has a one profile per person policy.  That doesn’t mean that you can’t try to have two profiles (I know many people that do) but you run the risk of getting one or both of your profiles banned.  If you are using Facebook as a social media platform that you want to get jobs with, getting banned would not be a good thing.

Instead, I have two possible solutions:

1. Have a Facebook Page that you can direct potential clients to instead of your profile.
2. Build and use lists to choose who your content will be shown to.

Method 1: Have a Facebook Page

If you are a freelance writer and take your profession seriously, I do recommend having a Facebook Page anyway.  Your Facebook Page is your professional presence on Facebook.  And with all the changes that Facebook has made to pages lately, there are so many ways you can use it!

So, with this method, when potential clients ask to see your Facebook account, simply respond with something like this:

I choose to use my Facebook profile to keep in touch with family and friends that I know in real life and because of that I keep it private; however, I do have a Facebook Page for professional reasons.  On my Facebook Page you will see that I interact and share information with those who are interested in my business.  I also communicate with other professionals and use Facebook Pages as my professional Facebook network.

Of course, before you can do that you will need to build up a Facebook Page that demonstrates this!  Hard work, but worth it if you want to get jobs in social media because this is one of the things you can be expected to do.  So, before you start trying to get jobs using your Facebook Page, build one up that is ready to impress!

Method 2: Build and Utilize Lists

If you aren’t using Lists on Facebook already, you’ll be thrilled to find out that this is a way that you can decide exactly who you want to share with and what you want to share with them.  Lists take time to set up but once you have them set up they are fairly easy to maintain.

I have several lists on my Facebook profile.  I have Students (since I used to teach and all of my students wanted to be my friend), Family, Teens (for my children and their friends), Co-workers (from when I had a day job – certain things just should never be shared with people you work with), Online friends (and this is where I put all my online networking acquaintances), and finally Limited (which is where most of my game playing friends go).  Generally, Limited friends have access to nothing but me on the actual games.  Online friends get omitted when I talk about how mad I am about something stupid one of my kids did.  Other groups get omitted for various other reasons.

Let’s set up a list…

• Go to Account (top right of the page)
• Click on Edit Friends
• Click on Create a List (top of the page)
• A box will pop up with the Create a List title and there will be a box that says Enter a Name – put the name of this list there.  Make sure it is something easy to remember.
• Now, under that box are all your friends.  Check off the friends that you want to be on that list.
• Click Create List when you are done adding people

Now you have a list!  When you add friends in the future (by your request or by theirs) you will have the option of adding them to a list.  If you miss that part you can always go back to Account and Edit Friends and find their name and add them to the list later.

How does a list help?

Once you have a list set up you can truly decide who sees your content and who does not.  Let’s start with status updates.

Let’s say you’ve written something like this:

I just can’t take my teenager anymore!  If I have to hear “You don’t know anything anymore” I’m going to kick her f*&^ing a## out on the street!

Now, you obviously don’t want your online social networking friends to see this do you?  Well, you shouldn’t.  So, don’t hit Share yet!

Beside the Share button there is a little padlock with a down arrow beside it.  Click on that down arrow and then click on Custom edit.  A box will pop up and if you’re a private person you’ve likely already chosen to make your status updates for Friends Only.  But now, there are certain Friends that you don’t want to see it.

There is a section called Hide this From where you can enter in the names of specific people.  You can also enter in the names of…yes, you got it!  Entire Lists!  If you enter in Online Friends (or whatever you called that list of people that you only know through social networking) and Save Setting, the people on you Online Friends list will NOT see that status update when you click Share.

If you didn’t already notice, you can make this your default setting, too.  If most of your status updates are going to be personal, click off the box that you saw beside Save Setting that says, Make this my default setting and all of your future status updates will be hidden from your Online Friends.

If you want to post something that you DO want your Online Friends to see, just click on that little padlock and remove Online Friends from the bottom box and click Save Settings.  As long as you don’t check off the Make this my default setting box again, those setting will apply to the current status update ONLY.

You can use this in other places on Facebook  as well, but I’ll save that for the next blog post.

So, are you using Lists yet?  Try it out and then let me know how it works and do come and ask me if you have any questions!

Tagged as: Facebook, Facebook features, Facebook Page, LinkedIn, social media, Social network service, YouTube

Article by Danielle

I'm a social media junkie and professional freelance writer living in small town Manitoba, Canada. I drink a lot of coffee and love my computer (named Garcia after Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds - the ultimate girl geek!), my kids, my husband, and my cats. In 10 years I hope to be that crazy lady travelling across Canada and the States with her three cats and her loving hubby. :) If you're interested in my professional services please visit my professional writer's site to find out more about my services or check out some testimonials from some of my clients.

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