Facebook is a perfect example of the work world meshing with the social-digital sphere, but for many executives, the social networking site puts them in a gray area. Nearly half of executives are uneasy about being ‘friended’ by the employees they manage (48%) or their bosses (47%), according to a recent survey.
Developed by OfficeTeam, a staffing service company, the survey asked 150 randomly selected senior executives at the nation’s 1,000 largest companies, “How comfortable would you feel about being ‘friended’ by the following individuals on Facebook?”
The individuals listed included the boss, coworkers, people you manage, clients and vendors. For example, nearly 50% of respondents revealed that were hesitant about reaching out to business clients via Facebook, while 62% reported the same about the vendors that work for their companies.
“The line between personal and professional has grown increasingly blurred as more people use social networking Web sites for business purposes,” says Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. “Although not everyone is comfortable using sites like Facebook to connect with professional contacts, it's wise to be prepared for these types of requests.”
Hosking advises employees and employers alike to familiarize themselves with privacy settings and form different friend lists to control how, and with whom, information is shared.
Knowing what to share and with whom, can be an overarching balancing act. We all have those friends who share entirely too much information or commit other annoying acts, taking unfortunate advantage of the social networking site. Recently, CNN.com reported on the 12 most annoying types of Facebookers.
The following are some common Facebook situations professionals may encounter and how to handle them:
- You’re tagged in a mortifying photo. Untag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends.
- You’re ‘friended’ by someone you don’t want to, frankly, be friends with. Delicacy may be your best bet in this situation to avoid hurt or resentful feelings from co-workers, but add them to a “work” list and adjust your privacy settings so you can effectively segregate your job from your personal life.
- You’re pondering ‘friending’ your boss. Though this may seem a natural move to build familiarity, it could backfire, causing awkward tension.
- You want to join various groups. You should join groups that intrigue you. But if you don’t want the colleagues in your network to know you’ve joined “Wisdom for Winos,” remember to adjust your application settings.
- You would like to become a fan of certain pages. Becoming a fan of pages on Facebook is visible to anyone who can view your profile, so you should avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with coworkers or business contacts in your network.
- You adore quizzes. Pause for a moment before taking the online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page, unless you want professional contacts to know which Disney Princess you most resemble.
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