Clean Facebook vs. Private Facebook
 

So I don't know how I ended up thinking about this (probably because rush school is ALREADY starting!), but now I'd like different opinions. Which is is better for the PNM's chances? Cleaning up your facebook for rush, or just making it private (or both, perhaps, if you have a friend who's an active). From the search engine, it looks like most of you think making it private. But I've heard girls in different sororities say they love public profiles because they can facebook stalk and get to know you a lot better than they could otherwise. What do you all think?

i totally agree. While personally, i liked open facebooks more as a rusher, (for obvious reasons) i certainly didn't think badly of a PNM with a private facebook. I think just showing profile pic and some brief info would be the best.

I hate private - totally private - profiles.
It's like when I get a friend request from somebody I don't recognize right away. How does this person know me? Maybe that's her married name? But all the info is locked up so I no way to determine whether or not I know them.

I need a little info to make sure that's the person I'm looking for. A picture, college, high school and some other details to make sure I'm looking at the right Jenn Smith. At the very least!

i would say for pnms to go private-much easier than stressing that someone might misconstrue one of your photos or a post on your wall. most sorority members place their facebooks on private when their silence period begins(or they should).

People can also tag you in photos and/or add you to groups without your permission, so if you are public and "clean", a friend can ruin that in under thirty seconds.

I have my profile set up so that only I can see photos of myself that are tagged (if you come to my page). Of course, the photos are still visible on the "taggers" profile, but having privacy settings on your photos can help too.

Be sure you have your settings to allow messages from people who aren't on your friends list. I found that having that security setting up means that I can't get the message along with the friend request telling me who they are.

ETA: And I just realized my settings are STILL set that way.

Message them and ask them. There are myriad reasons people may have an unfamiliar name on their profile (I mentioned teachers earlier) and it's kind of rude to expect them to risk their privacy just so you can figure it out without stepping out and asking.

To the OP: Make everything private. "Get to know you a lot better" really means "try to find out if she's a slut/lush/geek etc." It's NOT a positive thing, however they may try to spin it.

I'd advise doing both.

Keep your FB profile as clean as you can. Nothing risqué, no strong religious or political posts or groups, no references to use of alcohol or other drugs. Even if you think your profile is totally locked down, you never know who's watching, and FB always seems to be changing their idea of privacy. :rolleyes:

At the same time, keep it relatively private. I HATE getting friend requests, clicking on the name, and seeing only "John Doe, Sex: Male, 1 mutual friend". (I get at least one of these a week, as I play several FB games. I routinely ignore them.) Let the world see your name, sex, maybe hometown and a few interests (which may spark a conversation during recruitment), and that's it.

Like!

Never assume what you put on the internet is private, always do both!

I'll be honest. Err on the side of private. When I have in the past checked out a PNM's facebook page and found it completely open, the first thought running through my head is never "Oh, she likes Gossip Girl". It's usually that she's a dumbshit for leaving everything completely open like that. While she may be easier to stalk, my reservations stem from the idea that she, as a future sister of mine, will have all this crap out for the world to see while representing my organization.

Privacy is overrated. Especially in a competitive recruitment. Spend some time updating your profile to make it sell you better. Folks will be looking. Why pass on an opportunity to make a favorable impression? There aren't too many opportunities to do that in a competitive recruitment.

Because every active sorority member has suggested it so far?

I personally appreciate when people leave their profile pictures (as long as they're all tasteful) on display, because it really helps me put a name to a face. At the very least, make sure that one recognizable photo is viewable on your page, because for visual learners it could help you stand out and be remembered. Also a few (clean!) interests, like TV shows or books, could help spark a conversation. Facebook, if used well, can also help you figure out what a person is passionate about, which is part of what I'm looking for during recruitment.

Also, I've been known to google names during recruitment, so make sure that your presence over all of the internet is clean, not dramatic, and generally positive. That should also be a golden rule for life, not just recruitment.

Wow, this is awfully sunshine and rainbows for you, bro.

In a super competitive recruitment, girls aren't looking to Facebook for ways that PNMs can impress them. They're looking for ways that they can cut the 8 zillion PNMs they know they'll have to cut.

One profile picture, head shot ONLY, and your HS and college is ALL that needs to be showing. Don't show your friends list either - you might be friends with someone a sorority member can't stand.

Put me down for a keep it private vote...just let non-friends see your picture (which should be appropriate, as everyone has said), your school, and if you wish your interests, just make sure you delete anything a little risque. I do not think it will hurt you to put your profile on private, and of course leaving it public without any limitations could cause far more problems than making it private could.

I vote for both as well. I keep mine basically on lockdown :p You can see my name (first and middle only), picture, high school, and college. That's it. But I also try and keep my facebook super clean! You just never know!

exactly!

We use facebook to refresh the memories of our members during membership selection. When you meet 100's of women in one day it is hard to remember who you have and haven't talked to. I would have a private profile so that the only thing we can see is a great profile picture that looks like you. No other people in the photo either. No boys, booze, bongs or sleaze types of things (sounds crazy but you would be surprised at what we see sometimes).

If you're an out-of-state PNM, or go to a geographically diverse university, your hometown is 9000000x more useful than your high school. If you're from a small town and you go to Cow Town High, that's one thing, but there are about 6000 St. Mary's and Episcopal and Central High School... a state and town are so much more useful. But for schools that tend to recruit out of the same area, high school may be more useful. Also, try to make your picture something interesting as well as tasteful, if possible (for instance, you next to a major landmark makes you stand out more than your generic senior portrait/glamour shot). I would also try to stick to the same profile picture for long periods of time, and try to be the only person in the picture.

I'd recommend as a general rule for anyone, whether or not they're rushing or even going to college, to keep it clean and private. Why depend on only one layer of security when you can do both?

In the future, when your network matters, your best job prospects are going to be through your acquaintances; in other words, Facebook friends. Also, with the ever changing privacy settings, you never know what can leak. This is all solved when you have nothing to leak. If you're like most college-aged people, you probably have >100 friends on FB; ask yourself: honestly, does everyone on there need to know about your not-so-clean activities?

A limited amount of privacy is good for extra measure.

Amen to this post! I feel like I'm still surprised at least once a week by what people put on facebook. I'm all about having a good time, but the photographic evidence doesn't need to be shared with the world.

The entire post is FaceBook worthy. The highlighted part is for recs - many GLOs ask for a head shot and a full length shot.

This doesn't quite make sense.

I only friend people who I know (before you ask, I consider some GCers people I know) and I don't think those people are about to show their employer, friend or whoever I'm supposedly getting a job from the picture of me balancing a beer bottle on my head.

And like many other people...I don't friend people I work with unless we are VERY close friends outside of work. It's just not worth it. Just because you see someone every day does not make them a friend in the true sense of the word - i.e. someone who cares about you.

Don't make a point of friending everyone from your high school/college/city/GLO and you really won't have problems. In other words...don't friend acquaintances. Friend FRIENDS.

This really depends on what you're using social media for.

This is sound advice for 18-year-old Suzy PNM, but for 27-year-old Amy Alumna, having a network of friends and acquaintances (Hey Amy -- I met you at the Industry Gala. Are you on FB?) is often useful.

And the topic of the thread is.......

Clean vs. Private: Which is better for a PNM

Amy Alumna can use LinkedIn if she wants to make career/job connections. That's what it's for.

The modern-day insistence on meshing your work life and your private life in every facet squicks me out. Everybody just lets it happen more and more every day and I don't think they realize how effed up it is. To speak for me, I give you Frank Pembleton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixla8T8GVZI

I agree with this 33girl. Its like a lot of people were never taught boundaries, so with today's various electronic mediums they are unable to separate disparate aspects of their life.

Creates enormous potential for drama.

This is just slightly related but funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX2L5egeR7I

Ha, like people use LinkedIn to the same extent they use facebook.

It's perfectly possible to manage your personal life and professional life both on facebook if you like, the privacy options are there for that reason. Of course ideally there's nothing in one that would interfere with the other, but this isn't an ideal world. Run two accounts, control your privacy filters, or just don't post the really stupid shit that'll get you in trouble if your boss sees (or you know, don't friend your boss at all, just people you consider friends.)

The topic of the THREAD is re: PNMs.

Thanks to excelblue, we segued into "in the future"

Amy CAN use LinkedIn, but it's not limited to that. In my industry, we're encouraged to mix and mingle using ALL forms of social media. Just pointing out that HOW you're using SM can make a difference.

:)

I was going to suggest these also. However, you can run into problems with 1) nebby peeps finding your nonwork account and asking you what's up with that (so you should probably make your nonwork account your dog's name or something if you're going to go this route) 2) people who are FB savvy enough realizing that you're keeping them out of vital parts of a FB profile like your pictures, wall, whatever, and getting offended by it.

You're encouraged, but encouraged =/= have to.

People at my old job were "encouraged" to put their home/personal cell number on their business cards, but that doesn't mean you have to. It's up to you how much of your personal life you want to give up to have "success" in the corporate world. I just think that nowadays a lot of people do it without thinking about it, and that really frightens me. It's not about people seeing a picture of you doing a body shot and not getting a job because of it, it's about not keeping a clear line of demarcation between life and work.

(I'm pretty sure we have had this discussion on here before.)

Meh. I think this is reaching.

As many have said, it's up to you how much information you put out there. If you're concerned about people getting your info, either don't use SM or don't put too much out there.

I was just pointing out that for some (particularly in my industry), social media is a networking tool, a la After Hours or Meet and Greet events. It's not uncommon for people to have acquaintances following/friending them on SM outlets, so that's a non-issue to me.

If I want to say something to my FRIENDS, I will call/text/email/meet them. Of course, not everyone is in this boat, but realize that there are people who do the same.

You can make your account entirely unsearchable and again, who cares if you have two accounts. Using a pet's name seems overcautious. If you want to, fine, otherwise tell them you like to play Farmville and it's your Farmville account if you must make something up. And if you have no problems posting content unacceptable for work, you probably shouldn't give a shit about people being offended by not seeing content.

My mother was *shocked* that I have a family filter on my facebook page. "What would you want to hide!" But she'll get over it, I filter out when I don't want family to see things and problem avoided. (And she never had to know had I not chosen to tell her the other night.)

Those two things are related how???????????? :confused::confused::confused::confused::confused:

Because, put the big kid pants on if you're going to post big kid pants things.

If you're going to post something you know could be offensive or get you in trouble so you partition it off, then you should also be capable of handling someone who's whiny about you partitioning them off. Assuming you choose to tell them in the first place.

Facebook really isn't that complicated. If someone chooses to keep their info private it's not hard to do so. I'd argue that the issue is people who don't think, or don't care about what they post.

I am honored, Lady 33.

I have friended a number of professional colleagues. They go into a "professional" group and do not get to see my Mafia Wars / Farmville / etc. posts. I also connect with them and other professional colleagues on LinkedIn, as that's what it's for.

Dealing with mom or 15 year old cousin being whiny is another thing. Dealing with your boss questioning you on why you don't have photos or why they can't see your wall is quite another. I personally choose to avoid putting myself in that position and just don't friend them at all.