Facebook – good vs bad

Facebook. I am sure you have heard of it and most of your friends have a Facebook account. However, do you know the main purpose of Facebook? Did you create an account just because everyone was doing it?

As stated on facebook.com, their ultimate purpose – facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. This can be seen from the various tools available on Facebook allowing you to connect by writing on a friend’s wall, viewing and commenting on pictures uploaded by a friend and many more. Undeniably, Facebook helps you connect with exisiting friends or old friends. With facebook, you can even make new friends, those who have similar interest with you. This can be done by joining groups or becoming a fan of a certain page. With facebook you can widen your connection and/or group of friends.

Facebook can also be used to promote a business/brand by using groups or page. The difference between group and page:

Page	Group
Will appear on search engine result	Will not appear on search engine result
Check visitor statistics	Not able to check statistics, but communication is more personal to a certain extent (notifications sent to email)
Connect with the fans without having to add them on facebook	Connect with people in the same group through discussions

Both page and group features on Facebook have its own advantage and disadvantage, but ultimately it depends on the business/brand preference and use. If a business wants to have a rough gauge of the number of people who favour their products/services, setting up a page will be better since visitor statistics can be checked. Recent updates of products/services offered can also be made available on a page. On the other hand, if a business/brand wants to have a discussion over a new product, setting up a group will be better.

Despite all the advantages facebook have to offer, there are disadvantages to it too. How many of you have been guilty of looking for information of a new friend through facebook? Maybe some of us are embarrassed to admit it, but I know a handful of people who do so, including myself. With information made readily available, all you have to do is just type in the person’s name on facebook and you can view his/her profile. In some ways, it has made society more stalkerish.

Even employers view your profile, to check if they should or should not hire you.

According to a June 2009 CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers, almost half (forty-five percent) of employers reported that they used social networking sites to screen potential employees during background checks, twice as many as the 22 percent who viewed social networking sites in 2008. In addition, eleven percent of employers planned to start using social networking sites during the background check process.

Also according to the survey, some of the information that might kill your chances of getting a job would be;

• Posting of provocative photographs or information
• Posting of content about drinking or using drugs
• Bad-mouthing previous employer, co-workers, or clients
• Displaying poor communication skills

With technology, any information about you found online could be used against you. So make sure you clean your facebook profile! All in all, I think Facebook is an excellent tool to connect with exisitng or new friends and re-connect with old friends. However, one have to ensure that not every single information about oneself is made availble online since people can track you down and form judgements too early. And for Facebook addicts, do not annoy your friends like the people in the video! :p

• Showing poor communication skills (29 percent)
• Making discriminatory comments (26 percent)
• Lying about qualifications (24 percent)
• Sharing confidential information from previous employer (20 percent)