FaceBook Connect… Cause SolidSmack Loves You and Your Comments

• Franco-Folini
  Josh,
  DisqUs and Facebook are changing the way people interact. Conversations are not anymore constrained to a single website or blog, they can start on one blog and continue on the next one without any interruption. Also we don't need anymore to bring the content into FaceBook in order to share it with our friends and colleagues. Now FaceBook comes to the content. IMHO we are not yet fully realizing the implications of this paradigm shift.
• Rod_Uding
  I find your comment "Now FaceBook comes to the content" intriguing Franco. It could be easily applied to any other site, blog or network even. However, I will still maintain that as a social site, Facebook will not be viewed by employers as "professional". At work, we have the Websense filter that blocks access to nearly every single social site. However, we can access LinkedIn. Facebook is one of the blocked sites. Facebook seems to me about people seeing who can have the greatest number of "friends" whether or not those friends can contribute anything to them or if the person can contribute to them.
• Josh M
  Franco. I see where Rod is coming from. Even though a lot of the social sites are gaining more acceptance among people, companies see them as distractions, which they rightly can be.
  
  Many companies, like NoveEdge and SolidWorks, heck, even some manufacturing companies are seeing the benefits of having a presence on there along with their employees. It's definitely something to be evaluated from a corporate standpoint, but having visibility in the social sphere does not always mesh with a companies goals/mission.
  
  For me, I'd be fine with a company filtering out my resume. They're probably not someone I'd like working with. : ) I bet though, if a company like NovEdge was hiring, they wouldn't mind someone having a Facebook profile. In fact, it may even help. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to keep it presentable though :) - goes for any online profile really!
• Franco-Folini
  Josh,
  At Novedge we will be having an intern student from Holland for a few months starting February working on online marketing. She is on Facebook, on Twitter as @mirjamhart, on LinkedIn, and she has a blog. To me this was a plus. I know she is aware of those social media tools, and I know she will do a good job for us. May be if I were looking for a designer to work 8 hours a day on AutoCAD, or an accountant I would have a different approach.
• MatthewWest
  I'm getting an intern in here this summer to do some of my dirty work. Posting videos to YouTube, pictures to Flickr, and other things that I just don't have the time for. Good for you.
• Franco-Folini
  Rod,
  May be Facebook is not your kind of "social network", I can understand that. Once the paradigm has shifted, the social network can be Google, LinkedIn, or something else. What is important is that we will be able more and more to bring our network of friends and colleagues with us when we visit a website or a blog. We will be able to see which books on Amazon our network's friends loved and the comments and reviews they did. The possibilities are endless.
• Rod_Uding
  No, Facebook is definitely not my kind of social network. I like using Twitter for a social network. It is a minimalist approach for me. I can use TinyURL to get links out quickly. I can get short questions out and quick answers back. And if necessary, by using Twitblogs I will be able to post expansions on my short request. I can use Twitter to follow people who can give me a different and rational viewpoint looking at problems or solutions.
  
  My honest opinion of Facebook, MySpace, etc is they work for most persons. I however am not one of those persons. Twitter suits my personality and goals much better. As long as Twitter goes with the paradigm shift things will work out in the end.
  
  Thank you Franco for your insightful and thought provoking comment sir.
• Jeff Sweeney
  Facebook needs a way to have a professional side and a personal side.
  
  There are pictures of me out there that I would want my co-workers to have easy access to...and if my friends and neighbors saw just the professional side of me, they would think I am even more boring than I really am!
  
  Bottom line, as it is now I don't want my professional world knowing of my Facebook page. :)
• Josh M
  Hey Jeff, I totally understand man. I had to do a lot of thinking about this. With SolidSmack, as well as various social sites like Facebook, everything about me had the potential of becoming very transparent. I decided, because of what I wanted to do with SolidSmack, that it was in hte best interest - that while this would really affect my opportunities in profession, it would also provide a personal side to what's typically a pretty static 'professional' CV.
  
  Some don't like having all that personal info out there and that is cool. For me, knowing, I mean really knowing the poeple I work with or will work with makes the work, the environment and the relationships much richer. Which, by the way, I think a lot of companies are looking for - the people magnet they can add to their software/industry.
  
  By the way, you guys are doing it already on the 3DVision blog. a face in the post. That's huge in a customer driven biz like yours. I see a business doing that kind of stuff and it's the first place I'm going to. Find ways to do it more and I'm positive business will grow even more!
• MatthewWest
  Facebook has mechanisms that let you choose who can see which photos. My wife uses it to control who has access to the photos of our kids. It's a sad state of affairs, but I've heard too many examples of companies and individuals taking pics of people's kids and doing improper things with them.
  
  As for Facebook having a professional side, that's why LinkedIn exists. But I see where you're going with that.
• Rod_Uding
  Facebook just isn't my cup of tea. I see it a place where kids hangout. Linkedin would have been a better connection IMHO.
• Josh M
  I agree... just a little :) Here's why. The social sites, like facebook and linkedin are only as valuable as the users on it, right? Facebook has changed a bit over the years and I'm finding a more frequent, stronger connection with the people I know on Facebook. I'm also finding more quality in the conversations and the people I'm finding and getting connect request from - I'm also getting more requests on Facebook.
  
  granted, I would refer my LinkedIn profile over my Facebook Profile, mostly because it has the most detail of my work history/knowledge, but from a social connection perspective, I'd choose Facebook, even for professional use.
• Rod_Uding
  Recently, I did run across a statement made by someone who had submitted a
  resume to a recruiter. While talking with the recruiter, the guy found out
  that most of the companies were filtering our any resume of anyone who was
  found on Facebook or listed it in their resume.
• BRS
  This might sound naive, but what is the point of doing that? soo many people out there have a Facebook or like blog, social prof. they could be throwing away some really big offers. I personally would use it to my advantage to help me find potentials out there if I were a recruiter.. That's just me tho..
• MatthewWest
  I think he may have been mistaken. Most companies are looking at those sites these days, especially LinkedIn. They're looking for things on Facebook that may be potentially embarrasing, but no one would be so foolish as to throw those resumes out altogether.
  
  Like MySpace, the average user on Facebook is trending older, into the 30s if I remember correctly. It's not just kids.
  
  But in a lot of ways, I'm with you. I cancelled my Freindster account a few years back, and my MySpace account last year. I only have a Facebook account so I can manage the SolidWorks presence. I'm one of the people who are experiencing "social network burnout" after having used them for 10 years now. Like you, I prefer Twitter these days because I can use a systray-resident app (no opening browsers) and it doesn't require a major investment of my time, of which I have precious little.
• Charles Culp
  To filter singly because they even have a Facebook page is going to hurt them from recruiting anyone who is younger. Everyone I know under the age of 25 and above the age of 15 has one. I cannot think of a single person who does not. Of all the people I know that are between 25 and 35, I can only think of two people who don't. Just for reference I fall in that category, so I know hundreds of people who are in that age category, and only two who don't have a Facebook page.
  
  In the same tone of your posts, however, I do not use Facebook as a professional resume. I have a LinkedIn profile for that purpose. I use Facebook to stay connected with my friends and family. Both of my parents have a facebook page, and they both use them frequently to stay in contact with those around them.
  
  My father regularly posts information to Facebook. I can assure you until he retired earlier this year he was well respected professionally. I can't imagine him interviewing for his "retirement job" and having them say "no, sorry, you use facebook, we can't hire you." In fact, if an interviewer said that to me, I would be very wary of working for that company, they are obviously lost in the past and out of touch with reality. Much like, say.. the Big 3 of auto.
• Charles Culp
  Also, in addendum, I will not be linking my disqus comments with facebook. No one I am in touch with on facebook will be interested in what I have to say on solidsmack.com. This is said with absolutely no offense to Disqus, or to Josh. I think it is great that these things are being interwoven, and I look forward to other similar enhancements in the future that I might want to take advantage of.
  
  I will mention, however, that another option would be to create two facebook pages, one professional and one personal. I am not pursuing that option right now, but it is something I have been considering.
• Rod_Uding
  Well, as I stated before, Facebook works for some people. In the example you have given Charles it shows that no matter what your age, Facebook can work for you. I am very happy that your father is being active online and tech savvy. In many cases, though younger persons without a lot of restraint have done really boneheaded stuff. You can refer to fark.com for a lot of the examples.
  
  If I were to decide to use Facebook, I would probably keep everything set to private and only allow the persons I deem to be my friends to access to my information that I wished to share. I would have no reason to be "friended" by 99.99% of the people on Facebook or any other social site. I would only like to be "friended" by people who have similar hobbies/knowledge areas (SW, AutoCAD, Tech,etc). I would definitely only use a screen name and leave as much of my personal information out as possible.
  
  I can see how a company would either toss everyone with a Facebook account or use their Facebook page to get an idea of what the person is like to see if they think they can get a feel if they might fit into the company culture. Or they could be trying to determine the attitude and views of the person in advance. Whether this is right or wrong is a moot point. Some companies will be doing this and others will not
• Hayden Morgan
  Nice to connect using something that I already use. Well done.
• Josh M
  Glad it helps Hayden! I'm hoping more people feel free to comment.

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