I find so many people have gone out and created accounts on social networking platforms, such as Twitter and others, and then they sit back wondering what to do with them. A common concern that people have when getting started is how much information they are putting out there and how it could potentially damage their privacy.
If you're worried that someone could find out where you live or more personal information on the internet than what you're comfortable sharing, you should keep a couple of things in mind.
- On the internet you have no privacy.
- There's probably already information about you on the internet that would make you uncomfortable.
Between Google indexing phone records, reverse phone number searches through whitepages and other means, and public tax records your City or Township has posted online, if people want to find you they will. Do a little search on yourself and you'll see what I mean. It's something that those who choose to market themselves online have to realize and accept as a price for their marketing efforts.
Some try to protect their privacy through the privacy settings that Twitter and other platforms offer to their users. Is this effective? In short, no. The reason why is clear when you understand how Twitter aggregates their information. Your Tweets may be private, but not all of your followers will choose to Protect Their Updates. Your followers tweets in response to your tweets will still be visible, and they will contain your user name.
An example of how this could go wrong for you goes as follows. You're tweeting about a situation at work through your Private, Protected Tweet Stream. One of your friends replies, rather snarkily: "You're not the only one with an A$$hole Boss!" If your boss or someone at your company is inclined to search for you on twitter and knows what to look for, they will find that tweet. The part that hurts you is that you may not even have called your boss a name. But without your tweets being visible the impression you make on the reader is obtained from the reactions of your followers on Twitter to your invisible Tweets.
When you combine this prospective problem with the general bad impression that having a privatized account makes on a potential client, it's clear (to me, at-least) that privatizing my twitter account is a bad idea.
What is the solution?
Honestly, different people will have different ideas, but let me share with you my approach. I've given up on the idea of having privacy online. Instead of focusing on protecting myself through privacy settings, I focus on protecting myself through content. I double check anything I write to make sure that I'm ok with it being published, recognizing that once I hit that button, its out there for anyone to read who might be interested. I'm very cognizant that my image is tied to my messages, thoughts, comments and writing that I post online, so I have no issue being cautious about what I write.
I've found that this strategy is actually liberating for me, because it allows me to focus on actually building new relationships, which I find is much easier when people can openly find all the information they want on me through my online presences.
Yes I know that people can find my address, and other personal information on me online, but because I'm careful about what I put out there, I know that if they find me, it will only be because they want to do business with me.
Jason Sanders
Business Networking Specialist
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