Five years with Facebook

I was one of those super early adopters of Facebook. I was in my early 20s, impressionable and highly excitable. I liked to talk about how exciting my life was, and always had a giggle about my latest social antics. When a friend told me about something called Facebook – basically a place you could talk about how exiting your life was and share silly photos of random nights out but for the world to see – I was instantly sold.

2007 was an eventful year. I visited the local pub in the town I’d lived in for 20 years on at least 50 occasions; I learnt to cook about ten different varieties of pasta dinners; I lost – and found – my cat twice and I got upset with traffic jams and late trains almost every other day. I also swapped proper human conversations with friends in favour of ‘poking’, ‘giving bear hugs to’ and ‘throwing sheep’ at them. I suddenly found I had over 200 friends – much more than I ever imagined. An obligatory part of going out involved making sure I got a new profile picture, meeting at least one new person I could add to my Facebook tally, and giving the world a running commentary of how much fun I was having.

Fast forward to 2012, and having once been an avid Facebook user, I can feel its novelty finally wearing thin. As much as I enjoyed the antics of 2007, I feel they had their day and were best left buried deep in the abyss of cyberspace. Yet suddenly, they’re available at a single click thanks to Timeline. I also used to use the Facebook chat facility, until several of my random 400 “friends” tried to stalk me every time I went “online” to talk to someone else. Speaking of randoms, I have acquired about 350 of them thanks to my relentless 2007-9 popularity contest. Now, each time I go to update my status, I think of how many types of people are in my “friend” list; ex-employers, relatives, school friends, colleagues, my ex-next-door-neighbour’s friend’s dog… Is there really anything I have to say that I would be happy to share with everyone? Ok, Facebook has introduced ways to pick and choose how you share information. But who has the time these days to sit and adjust the security settings on each and every post?

The final straw came for me when Facebook “checked me in” at my own home. There, for the world to see, was a map showing exactly where I live. Not something I really want to share, and certainly not something I knowingly authorised. That – along with the re-emergence of thatembarrassing photo from 2007 – is enough to make me pack my virtual bags.

The lesson learnt from all this is of the importance of closely managing online reputation. The same theory applies for business users as for personal users – sometimes it is best to take a step back. It is imperative to understand the capabilities of social media and the internet; it is now easier than ever for people to discover all sorts of things about you, even if you think these things are hidden. Managing reputation will only become more difficult as social media and technologies evolve and, as PR professionals, we need to take a leading role in getting this right.

By Jess Matthias