Comments on: Using Facebook friend lists

By: Kelly Wester

Kelly Wester — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:47:12 +0000

I have spent the last three weeks going through the learning curve of internet marketing and how to incorporate social media. My head is feeling pretty saturated!

I have a Linkedin account, but I have a gut feeling that Facebook is going to overshadow Linkedin. I also have a personal Facebook account with a business fan page that I run from it. I added a blog to my website and opened a Twitter account. Except for my personal Facebook page, everything else is intertwined with links.

I decided that Twitter will only be for my translation business themes, and it gathers my feeds at the end of the day and submits them to my blog as an entry. In addition I make occasional blog entries.

As far as Facebook and those (potentially) embarrassing photos – I agree with the idea of limiting the friends list to current friends and family. You can always untag yourself from photos that you don’t like no matter who posts the picture.

By: Web 2.0. Privacy minacciata e procrastinazione

Web 2.0. Privacy minacciata e procrastinazione — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:25:50 +0000

[...] sull’uso della Facebook friendlist come strumento per generare contatti di lavoro in Thoughts of translation di Corinne McKay: “Social networking websites are becoming a crucial arrow in a freelance translator’s [...]

By: Eve

Eve — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:04:22 +0000

I was just discussing this earlier today with a colleague and now read this post! I use the FB/personal and LinkedIn/professional approach. All this social media is kind of confusing. FB lists is a good idea, but might be too much work for me. If professional contacts can’t see anything, why are the on my list at all? Not sure how it will all shake out as we all figure out the developing social etiquette. Interesting post.

By: Loreto Riveiro

Loreto Riveiro — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:21:56 +0000

I, too, am for using FB for friends and family and LinkedIn for work. Although I am quite new to both, I am grateful for this post, since I knew about friends lists, but not that you could set restrictions for a whole group.

I am trying to start in this, and up to now I only have one work contact in my FB, but I have set a list for work contacts as you suggest. It’s simply more comfortable than worrying about things all the time, specially if your work contacts come from a totally different cultural background.

By the way, it`s the first time I leave a comment, although I have been reading you for quite some time. Thank you for so many interesting posts, and keep up the good work! ^.^

By: Abigail

Abigail — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:43:42 +0000

I made a decision a few months ago to restrict Facebook to family and friends, but to include translators who I considered personal friends rather than simply colleagues. I post very little about my work and am very careful what I do write, as you never know who your “friends” know. If I do get requests from colleagues, I point them to my (admittedly rudimentary) LinkedIn profile. That being said, I did indirectly land a project through Facebook at the end of last year. I reconnected with someone who I studied translation with and he recommended me to a friend of his who worked at a large German waste management company.

By: Kevin Lossner

Kevin Lossner — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:13:55 +0000

You raise a very good point here regarding FB, one relevant to more than just business contacts. I, for example, face the perplexing problem of an old friend living off a trust fund trying his best to emulate Hunter S. Thompson in his mountain cabin, and some of the stuff he posts on FB is simply bizarre. Amusing on occasion, but perhaps difficult to explain to some others who don’t know the source. Is it possible to put individual filters (call them “muzzles” if you will) on FB friends to make any of their posts unavailable to others (as opposed to restricting a particular person’s access)? This is a topic I will surely have to research in detail some day….

By: Judy Jenner

Judy Jenner — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:44:30 +0000

I am still trying to decide exactly what to do with Facebook. I have many friends on FB, dating back to elementary school in Mexico, and it’s been fun. I do post a lot of status messages, and usually it’s about stuff I am working on. My Twitter account, which feeds into FB and my blog, is mainly used for business updates and interesting resources for fellow linguists. I don’t really have anything controversial to post, but of course, as you point out, you can’t control what people write on your wall (no negative experiences thus far). I like the idea of friend lists — thanks! I also have LinkedIn, Xing, MiGente, etc., which are quite useful. I do think a rule of thumb is to not every put anything out in the Wild Wild West that you might possibly not be comfortable with someone knowing.

Social media is a powerful thing – to be used wisely. I still have to report on any direct business that came to me from social media, but it’s all long-term and not necessarily direct response.

By: Serena Dorey

Serena Dorey — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:24:33 +0000

I too have always used Facebook for friends and family and LinkedIn for business and, like you, Corinne, I’ve always been a bit wary about mixing business and pleasure on Facebook. I quite like the idea of having two separate Facebook accounts or two different friend lists but I’m not sure how effective it would be for my own business contacts. Personally, I find LinkedIn more useful at present. It would be interesting to hear about your experiences as your business Facebook activities develop – in a follow-up post in a few months, perhaps?

By: Natalia Real

Natalia Real — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:00:20 +0000

I have my regular FB account, which I opened back in 2005 or so, and last year I made one for work purposes. It’s too confusing–and risky–otherwise. And I didn’t want my ex-boss or even students to see me in a bikini.

With this approach, though, I have ended up with almost 500 contacts on my regular FB account and about 60 on my work account. But that’s the way it’s going to be. I can always work on nurturing my work account, which I sporadically do.

Lately, alas, I’ve lacked the time to work on my Twitter, LinkedIn, and work FB.