How To Make Sure You Have A Grown-Up Facebook

Posted on 6/9/2013

Written by Liz Wassmann

For many of us, Facebook has been part of our lives for almost a decade. And a lot can happen in a decade. As the digital age advances, even the most incompetent HR manager can find and judge you based on your Facebook profile. You’ve grown up and matured, but has your online presence?

Read on for tips on how to help your Facebook transition into adulthood:

1) Select the right profile picture and cover photo. This is the first thing any visitor to your page will see, and the ONLY thing the general public can see. Make sure they accurately represent you. As you grow up and launch your career, it’s smart to choose a profile picture where you’re the only person present. Having a picture of with a group of friends will make you hard to identify, though this type of photo is common among high school and college students. Your profile picture is a big part of building your personal brand, so choose a setting and clothing style that you feel represent you, and don’t change your photo too frequently.

2) Weed out your friends list. In the past ten years, you have undoubtedly been involved with jobs, schools, organizations and clubs that you no longer belong to. Take some time and sort through who you consider a Facebook friend, keeping in mind that friends can see everything you post. Unfriend as necessary. There’s no reason to stay friends with anyone you haven’t talked to in years, and every person you unfriend gives you a little bit more anonymity online. Having more “friends” isn’t really a positive in this case.

3) Adjust your privacy settings. This should be a given by now – but make sure that only friends can see your photos, wall posts and updates. Limit past posts, too. At the same time, if you’re trying to build your personal brand, it’s great to make certain posts public, such as interesting links related to your industry, quality updates on your company, and posts that show off your personality and passions in good taste. Hint: There’s an option on Facebook to look at your profile from a public stance – Choose “View As > Public.” Then you can play around with privacy settings until you’re satisfied with how the public sees it.

4) Don’t use a wall post like a direct message. If you want to make plans with someone, make plans via one of the other countless methods we have of getting in touch. Not only is cluttering up someone’s wall with plans for coffee annoying, it could get you in trouble if your boss sees why you’re really coming into work late.

5) Don’t use Facebook like a teenage girl. During your teenage years, you probably spent a lot of time on Facebook. Teens today certainly do. But once you’re a little older, spending too much time online is not good for your mental health or your reputation. If you’re always the first to like a post or comment on something, people might start to wonder what you’re doing with yourself that you have so much time to social network.

6) Create friend lists. In your privacy settings, you can create lists of different categories of people to tailor the audience of your posts. I would suggest creating lists for “Everyone,” “Close Friends,” and “Restricted.” Most posts don’t need to be sorted, but things like party or vacation pics are best for just close friends. If nothing else, create a “Work” list so you can exclude your bosses from certain personal posts.

7) Consider restricting public search. When you restrict public search, your Facebook profile page won’t appear when people search for your name in a web browser. To apply this setting, go to “Privacy Settings>Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline?” and uncheck the box. Think through whether you want Facebook to pop up when someone Googles you. If you are proud of your Facebook presence, or use your page to promote your business, then by all means link to it. But if you would rather other results pop up first (Twitter, LinkedIn, personal website, profesional articles), then restrict public search.

8) Go through your tagged photos and untag. Every once in a while, go back through your old tagged photos and untag any that don’t fit the public image you want to portray. Something you may have thought was fine to display when you were 25 may look a little differently 5 years later. Also untag if there are tons of duplicates from the same day or event; people scanning through your Facebook want to get a sense of who you are, not see you pose twenty different ways in the same outfit.

And remember, no amount of privacy settings mean it’s okay to upload scantily clad or otherwise inappropriate photos. Facebook stores all and anything that goes online could come back to haunt you.

Meet Liz

Liz Wassmann is on the Dot Complicated editorial team and has written for a variety of Bay Area publications over the past several years. When she’s not reading or writing, she can be found daydreaming about her next trip overseas and practicing parallel parking.

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