Protecting Your Facebook Privacy for Dummies (Not!)
January 25, 2010
You’re not a dummy, bunny! I just wrote that headline to get your attention.
You are actually quite brilliant at what you do, so why the heck should you be all knowledgeable about Facebook and all this techie stuff? Fact is, you shouldn’t, cause that’s my job!! And now that I have your attention, there is an important Public Service Announcement that I would like to pass on to you from an article Girl Friday saw in the New York Times the other day. And because I truly care about you and your marketing needs (you know I do! there’s nothin’ but love here, baby-boo!), I pass it on to you.
Here’s the scoop, served in a nutshell, covered in chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry:

- Status Updates are now seen on Google, Yahoo, etc. search engines: So if you post any colorful updates that you wouldn’t want Mom or your boss to see, you can change your Privacy Setting under “Profile Information” and “Posts by Me” to show your Updates to “Only Friends,” rather than the “Everyone” setting. Because “Everyone” means Everyone.
- Your “Personal Info” is also now set to default to “Everyone” by the new Facebook settings for family and relationships (relationship status) and your birth date (do you really want this information seen to anyone and everyone online? Think about identity theft here). You can change this setting. Go to “Privacy Settings,” “Profile Information” and for each field listed on this page, change the pull-down menu (to the right). You can choose “Everyone,” “Friends of Friends,” “Only Friends,” and “Custom.” The “Custom” field allows you to choose “Only Me,” which might be the best choice for your sensitive data like birth date.
- All of the above Personal Information, if it is checked or defaulted to “Everyone,” is also available to the search engines. Under “Settings/Privacy Settings/Search,” look to see if the “Allow” box is checked. If you do not want your Profile information to be search-able, uncheck this box.
For the complete article, and links to more information on protecting your privacy within Facebook, see the sourced article here.
Now go out there, and take on this Facebook thingy, and don’t be afraid!! ‘Cause once you’ve conquered this small challenge: “You [will be] able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Eleanor Roosevelt said that, and I just love that lady. Have a sunny day! Love, –your Girl Friday

Cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies this month (January 2010), so guess what?? YOU may be the lucky recipient of sales calls AND in many cases, you even get to PAY for that unwanted, unsolicited, annoying call, depending on your cell phone plan!! Ain’t technology grand?
Quick! What’s the quickest, most efficient way to take control of your website, so that you can update it yourself and not be at the mercy of your web designer to make simple changes, add product or new content? Why, the answer is to convert it to a
Are you spending lots of time on FacebookTwitterLinkedIn but not really sure why?? Or, perhaps you know you should be on FacebookTwitterLinkedIn or some combination thereof, but you aren’t really clear on how exactly they all work?? You are not alone!! But it’s not really your job, is it, to figure it all out and then do something about it? Well, yes, so sorry. It is your job. But you don’t have to slog and slosh your way through it by yourself, sweetie. Girl Friday is here to make it all right. There now…feel better? 
Another way to get past the “Live News Feed” or “News Feed” is to Create a List:
which used to live in the right sidebar. In the OLD “Highlights” section, you benevolently placed the updates and posts that received the most “Likes” or were widely read or linked to by Facebook friends. I get it! You have NOW placed those “Highlights” in the “News Feed” section, and you are so kindly determining which posts YOU think I might find interesting based on how many people read, “liked” or “commented” on those posts, or, which posts I commented on. Thank you!! (you could have told us!)
The Moral of This Story: In a way, I think this is a Good Thing…the fact that Facebook has just really messed up your online mojo. Why? Because Girl Friday thinks there is enough irrelevant nonsense on the internet, and in Facebook and Twitter and on and on. If you’re going to write something….make it Entertaining, Communicative, Collaborative, Educational. Give something meaningful to the world. Facebook wants to filter out the boring, irrelevant stuff, and their attempts to do so are just annoying. Why not just provide some quality here, so that the geniuses at Facebook don’t have to spend their time trying to read our minds. Let’s make our Minds BETTER!!! Better as in: Write something edifying, post a beautiful photo or incredible video, or uplifting song, or quote from JesusBuddahMohammedOprah…whatever you are passionate about. If you do that consistently, Facebook may have to lay off some of their workers, which will be unfortunate, but they may then go out and start serving Curry Without Worry and making the world a better place in a new and different way and they will all get away from their computers which is what Girl Friday is going to do right now.PS: you can learn this stuff if you really want to. Girl Friday teaches workshops, barn dances, and cow-tipping…no, not really. She teaches a workshop on Online Marketing. Send her an email and ask about it:
Sound familiar?? It sure does to Girl Friday! You can’t imagine how many times she has heard that sad story. But how could you know, really, that even though your brother-in-law did read “HTML for Dummies” cover-to-cover, he really doesn’t know how to build you a site that actually functions as a website should – that is, as a marketing tool to promote you online!!
Make your online community (blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) a place where we want to belong. You are the expert. We want to trust you and like you. We really do want what you have, whether it’s a product you’re offering, a service, or just the coolness of belonging to your groovy group. You just have to remind us that you’re just like us, we’re just like you, we all want the same things. Help us remember our desire.
