No one will tell you you’ve broken one of the unspoken rules … they will just defriend you, and you’ll never know. Here are my do’s and don’ts for Facebook users to help you not fall into the defriended pit.
1. Don’t post status updates more than three times a day on Facebook! If you want to post more often use Twitter. If you post more frequently than three times a day, Facebook friends will think that you are spamming them. Their own wall will be covered with your updates. There is no faster way for a friend to either hide you from their wall or to defriend you (both which you will never know) than to update too frequently.
2. If you are an avid Twitter user like me, don’t feed your tweets to Facebook as status updates. Disable this push to Facebook and use Ping.fm to update your Facebook and other social networking status feeds with one click and then only two or three times a day. Twitter users love regular updates throughout the day, but Facebook users don’t. See number 2!
3. Don’t inundate people with games. An occasional game is fine to turn your friends on to but not one a day! If you game a lot on Facebook, and I have some business clients’ support staff who have friended me on Facebook, and based on the number of games they play is seems to me that they spend their full work day on Facebook. I wonder if my client knows that.
4. If you are an employer try to Facebook friend your employees. One it helps you stay connected, and two it also allows you a window to see how much time they are spending on Facebook – see number 3.
5. Do use Facebook to share your life but don’t get too personal. People who have connected with you do want to know where you went on vacation, but they may not want to know about your ingrown toenail surgery especially not the gory details. Be careful of saying something controversial aw well, as remember your comment may be posted on your friends, friends, friends wall and not just on your own.
6. Do use the privacy settings on Facebook to control what the public versus your friends see. Additionally, if you find that a friend posts racy or off color comments do right click on the wall post and choose to hide them from your friends or for that comment or for the future.
7. Do post pictures and videos. I don’t think a video of the birth of your grand baby in the delivery room is appropriate, but if you see a funny video on YouTube, share it and give all your friends a laugh too. Remember not just your friends see what you share but friends of friends and the general public unless you have enabled additional privacy settings.
You will never know when someone defriends you or hides your posts and comments from their wall and their friends. So follow these few simple tips to stay connected and not end up just interacting with yourself on Facebook as everyone has blocked you.