Guest Blog Post by Property Pal.  You would have to have been living under a rock recently not to have noticed the furore over Facebook privacy issues.  They have certainly got something of a huge reputation management problem on their hands at the minute.

We’ve taken a quick look at some of the visualisation tools available on the web and had a look to see if their potentially shark jumping moment can be pinpointed.

Blogpulse

Blogpulse monitors social mentions across the blogosphere, by examining terms inside blog posts.  This particular graphing visual shows ‘facebook privacy’ becoming more of an issue mid April to present, with more and more mentions.  At its peak the term existed in 0.12% of blog posts tracked across the blogosphere.

Delicious

Delicious provides visual analysis of the number of bookmarks being bookmarked by users across the web at any one time.  In this particular graph the snapshot has been zoomed out to current.  In total across the Delicious network there have been 54760 bookmarks tagged “facebook” + “privacy”, showing the concern of web users in general.  The graph also illustrates the jump in the number of bookmarks in the past.  January 2010 showed 1386 saves with these two tags.  March 2010 has exploded with 2472 bookmarks – a 78% increase in the number of bookmarks.

This graph from delicious shows the trend for people tagging Facebook alternative Diaspora, indicating a negative response to the internet giant’s current policies.

Google Trends

Google Trends at a top level shows that around December 2009, a number of stories broke out about Facebook’s privacy.  Online rights organisation Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) labeled aspects of Facebook’s privacy change “downright ugly”.

Drilling down further into a month on month data set, we can see news reference volume making a gradual linear increase.

Google News Trends

Following the roll out of Google’s new interface, Google news archive search graphically shows stories that have been launched on the topic of Facebook privacy.  The peak in this case shows that most stories were generated in December.  However, it is worth noting that the blogosphere is not included in this dataset – only the larger multi-author publishers and newspapers.  This represents much more mainstream media and their impact.

Digg Trends

Digg Trends show that the most stories on Facebook privacy (and promoted) have been during this month.

Further diving into the data shows that this month, there has been about 15 more stories than the average promoted and Dugg.

The data for stories that weren’t promoted is just as interesting – for the number of stories submitted, regardless of whether they have been dugg or buried, there has been a 335% increase.

Twitter Trends

Trendistic monitors tweets across the Twittersphere, and as the other visualisations have show thus far, there is definitely still a correlation with data from elsewhere along the graph.  Notice December’s mentions nowhere near the peak for May.  Another Twitter meme tracker reports over 4 thousand links in the past week alone pertaining to the privacy issues.

Overall we can see from some of these meme trackers that the stories are continuing to percolate through online communities and social networks.

Some thought leaders such as Tim O’Reilly have figured that privacy being open may actually be a better scenario for the web.  Gary V thinks we’ve taken our eye off the ball, with Facebook continuing to evolve, adapt and change over time to satisfy its users.  Lest we forget ‘beacon’.

Facebook is attempting to put out the fires, but it will certainly be interesting to see how things progress from here on in and how they handle this obvious growing online concern.  What do you think?  Will it become an issue?

About PropertyPal

Today’s guest blog comes from Paul Anthony, who works as Internet Marketing Manager for Northern Ireland’s largest property website, PropertyPal.com. His role within the company includes managing all search engine optimisation, search engine marketing and social media activity.

PropertyPal.com is Northern Ireland’s number 1 property website, displaying details of more homes for sale and rent than any other website. It has around 95% of all properties for sale and rent, and at any time stocks over 40,000 properties to buy or rent. Including at time of writing approximately 5,000 houses for sale in Belfast, and 1,770 houses for rent in Belfast

It is independently owned and has more properties to rent in Belfast than any other Northern Ireland website since January 2010.

You can also find them on Facebook.

This blog doesn’t normally deal with issues of child safety, however this week’s news reports of bullying by sexting have for some reason fuelled my otherwise calm demeanor!  Needless to say, I’ve deleted a list of things to do to the foul creatures involved in this behaviour.  See any Roald Dahl book for suggestions.  In place of anger, I’ve drawn up a list of things children/teens and parents can do to keep themselves safe in the digital age.

While I often extol the virtues of social media for business purposes, I feel some things need to be said.

1. Kids/teens: it’s time to stop ‘acting the wain’ about your own safety online.  Giggling and pretending to be silly doesn’ cut it.  And, remember while you’re negligent about your own safety online, that probably includes your little brothers and sisters or younger friends too, if they appear in any pictures and videos.
2. Parents: you need to stop using the ‘I’m not very with it when it comes to computers’ excuse.  Get with it!!  There are many tutors, courses and workshops in public libraries and offered by other organisations (including Sensei), many of them free.  It is up to you whether you provide your child with a phone.  If you do, there is little to stop someone sending them obscene material, or material you would find upsetting.  That choice is up to you.  With regard to online access, again, you need to maintain control, while you’re paying the bills.

When it comes to social media, the following would make a great start for all parents and kids or teens.

Keep Your Profile Private

Sites such as Bebo, MySpace, Facbook, Twitter and the like are sometimes called profiles.  This is because they outline who you are, what you look like, where you live and what you do (work and personal).  Profiles can be private or public.

Private profiles can be closed to everyone, but open to the owner and his or her friends, or open to other users of the social networking site.  Different sites work differently.

Public profiles are open to the world.  No passwords or special permissions are required.

To find out if a profile is private or public, log off your own profile, type the URL of the profile into the address bar of any browser and press Enter.  If the page appears, with no restrictions on what can be viewed, it is public (to the world).  If it appears only with a name, photo and perhaps location, with a Login button beside it, it is private.

Friend Friends

Connect with your friends.  Avoid random strangers.  This limits the damage that can be done by sharing your profile – and often your location and what you are doing – with anyone.  Depending on how their (and your) privacy settings are set up, their friends may also be able to see your profile.  Pay attention to privacy and security setttings.  Do not simply assume that your or your child’s profile is secure.

Keep Your Date of Birth Offline

Yes, I know.  It’s lovely to receive a Happy Birthday message, but don’t your friends and family already have this information?  There is no need for it to be online on social networking profiles.  Your DOB can be used by those who would wish to steal your identity and use it to commit fraud.  Alternatively, it could be used by people who want to know what age you are, in order to make contact with you for illegitimate reasons.

A word of warning to teachers.  I have encountered what appeared to be innocent contact between a teacher and his pupils online recently.  I’d doubt if the parents would take the same view as I did, that it was a genuine contact.  Others may view it differently.  In our suspicious and litigous society, I’d steer clear of making contact with under-18s online.

Keep Your Location Offline

My advice to under-18s is to keep your location offline.  Once you turn 18 and attend uni  or get a job, you may wish to add your location in.  In any case, I’d limit this to the name of the country you live in, unless there’s a specific reason.  Once you are in the workplace, your location is likely to be easy to find in any case via the Contact Us page on your organisation’s website, for anyone who wishes to know.

Keep Pictures Private

Be your own moral judge of what pictures are appropriate to place on your online profile.  Suffice to say that when you reach 18, any prospective employer is not likely to be impressed by dubious, silly photos he may discover while researching you online, before offering an interview or job.

And, what you DO post online, keep private for friends only.

With the news this month that sexting (bullying by sending sexually explicit photographs via mobile phone) is on the increase, this makes a whole lot of sense.

If you’d like me to come and speak on this topic at your children’s, youth or parents’ organisation, club or school, drop me a line on 028 9043 6634.  We already deliver seminar and talks to schools and youth organisations on various topics.

All Sensei speakers are trained in Child Protection and are cleared to work with children in Northern Ireland.

Image credit: ChrisL_AK.

We’ve already covered the basics: CVs, Virtual CVs, Jobs Boards and Covering Letters .  Most employers are looking to see a CV these days.  Many will insist on an application form being filled out, which does the same job, except for the trick Extra Info bit at the end.  (I’ll probably blog about that in a later post.)  So, do online profiles really matter?  If an employer receives your CV or form, do they even take the time to look you up online?  Yes.  Suffice to say, they might.

What does your online profile say about you?

Does it show you in all sorts of compromising poses, or states of inebriation?  People do indeed have the right to enjoy their down time.  However, what you make public says much about how you view yourself and how you respect others, family and friends, who may be embarrassed by your antics and words.

There have been several high profile cases recently.  The one you may be most familiar with is this:

The M16 Ambassador to the UN whose wife revealed details of their flat and children on Facebook

Of course, there are admittedly admirable, flattering and interesting cases, too:

The tweeting PM’s wife

Restrict what the public can see

If you are in the market for a change in career, my advice is to use all tools at your disposal, to keep private what could compromise your opportunities of gaining a new position.  It may matter more the higher up an organisation you travel.  It is likely that more research will be conducted into your background.

I do not feel personal Facebook profiles currently offer a professional looking image to showcase your skills.  Many people use Facebook however.  It may simply be worth limiting personal stuff to people you place on a separate Personal Friends list, and keeping basic work information (including media where relevant) open to Professional Friends list and/or the general public.  Those who look for you there will find you, but the information is strictly cringe-free.

With sites such as Twitter, you are sometimes able to make the profile temporarily private, or restricted only to those who ‘follow’ or ‘friend’ you.  This is a straightforward solution.  You need not delete your profile.  Just be thoughtful about the effect its appearance may have on a prospective employer.

Revamp all profiles to reflect the role you want

You could be very clever, and revamp the business or work sections of your online locations to reflect the role you would like.  If prospective employers are searching via keywords or industries for candidates on sites such as LinkedIn, they are more likely to arrive at your profile.

Remember, be smart.  Do not lie, and avoid exaggeration.  You could find you are asked about something that appears on an online profile that you chose to leave off the application form.  In that situation, you are not prepared to be quizzed on it.

Take your time writing about each previous role you have had.  Sites such as Visual CV and LinkedIn offer free text boxes in addition to factual space for you to highlight key responsibilities and really make your portfolio sing.  There’s opportunity for testimonials from previous colleagues, bosses and clients.  This makes for very rounded profile for a prospective employer.  I find it helps add a little something when pitching for a contract.  In addition, with VisualCV, you can add media to enhance your profile.

If you need any assistance on how to do this, leave a comment below.  Or, if there are any other topics you’d like me to hit in this series, again, drop a comment in.  Love to hear from you!