Social Media & Privacy. Consider locking down your Facebook.

Taylor — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:28:13 +0000

As social networking sites continue to grow, multiple, and become more and more popular, the line between our professional lives and personal lives is becoming blurrier by the minute… and it can be a little nerve racking. ealize how much information on us is out there for a complete stranger to view. It’s good to be aware of this, and to take certain steps/precautions.

Making your Facebook page a little more private, is a great place to start. There are tons of networking sites to find people through, and Facebook is a good tool for after you have already made those connections.

Here are some tips from Drew McLellanon how to protect your privacy on facebook.

Ten Privacy Setting You Should Consider:

Use your friends lists — everyone doesn’t have to see everything.

Remove yourself from the Facebook Search results — if you only want to be found by people you reach out to — this is an easy fix for eliminating most of the unwanted friend invites.

Remove yourself from the Google search– Facebook listing seem to grab great Google juice. So if you want to be found, leave it be. But if you’d prefer more privacy, you can remove yourself from the listings.

The dreaded photo/video tag — this one has cost people jobs, relationships and their own dignity. With a simple change in privacy settings, you can make it so that no one (or just those you choose — think friend lists) can see those tell all photos and videos.

Not everyone needs to see every picture — this holds true of your photo albums as well. You can set privacy settings for each one separately.

Prevent “stories” from showing up on your friends news feed — is there anything more awkward than when your friend goes from in a relationship to it’s complicated or single? Avoid that embarrassment with a few simple settings.

Keep your application updates from being published– do you really want people to know you’re looking for a tommy gun in Mafia Wars or that you’ve wasted yet another hour hitting a new high on Bejeweled?

Make you contact information private – for some people, their cell phone number is public information. But for others who might have arms lengths relationships at best with many of their Facebook friends…a bit less shared would be good.

Censor your friends…keep their thoughts off your wall! – I think this is one of the most critical on the list. You can control who sees your wall and who can write on your wall. Do you really need your frat buddies sharing stories with your boss? I’m guessing not.

Keep your friends private — this isn’t just about your privacy, it’s about your friends’ privacy as well. Remember, anyone who is a friend of yours can pop onto your friends list and cherry pick them for whatever reason they’d want.

Risk: What is the value?

Taylor — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:56:45 +0000

When is taking risk the road to success and when is it too dangerous? How much do you risk? In what ways? What is the value in taking risks? Media Relations Blog (written by the team at Misukanis & Odden) says, “The point is this, some times you have to take risks to be successful. If you really believe in your product or service (and you really should!), it is worth taking a risk. You don’t become an innovator by playing it safe.” Ray Lucia CFP, talks about taking financial risk in “Buckets of Money: How to Retire in Comfort and Safety“. Lucia lays out what he calls, “Lucia’s Laws” and one of them states, “the biggest risk may be taking too little risk”. Of course he is taking about how to invest and save your money etc., but I think this law applies to much more. Another way to look at it is — the best way to win to avoid loosing. If you don’t risk anything, there is most likely much less to gain. Julie Ross an e commerce, advertising, and Internet marketing executive with over 20 years experience in traditional and online marketing wrote an article about taking promotional risks. In it she says, “Are you willing to bet your marketing, advertising, public relations or promotions career on your willingness to take a risk? If you do not include this risk in your promotional strategy, while your competitor does, what will happen? Will your marketing competitor win market share that you have lost or will the safe road you have taken pay off?” She goes on to say that you must take risks, especially in this recession, in order to build brands that wills tand the test of time. Great words, great advice. I think most agree with the phrase, “No risk. No gain.” Back to our friend Ray Lucia – he seems to be a person that is willing to take risks in the way that he runs his business, willing to take a risk on people and opportunities that he believes in. The key is that you can’t just take dumb risks without researching or thinking it through. There is a good and bad way to take risks. You can’t throw everything to the wind and say, “hey what the heck… let’s see if this works!” As important as it is to take a risk, it has to be a smart risk. Arrange your affairs in such a way that you set yourself up for the best possible outcome, but once that is done, don’t be afraid to step out onto the ledge.

Risk taking people earn my utmost respect. It’s exciting! And people that are willing to take risks on things they have faith in and are excited about energize those around them. This is something I hope to add to my personal mottos. In my experience, every opportunity that has made me nervous, overwhelmed and excited (in a terrified kind of way), has been an incredibly rewarding experience in the end. Whether it be a job interview that seems out of reach, a public tap dance performance, pitching an new outlandish idea to your boss, or whatever else – if you have something to loose, you usually have the world to gain in return.

Taylor J Graves.com » risk

Social Media & Privacy. Consider locking down your Facebook.

Risk: What is the value?