Is Your Boss Your Friend...On Facebook

Is Your Boss Your Friend...On Facebook I just read a great article about  the pros and cons of friending a boss or colleague on Facebook  in last weeks Globe and Mail. It can be hard to decide if sharing your more personal side with co-workers and supervisors is a good thing or a bad thing. The article recommends some strategies for accepting and declining invitations without sabotaging your professional relationships. Here are some other points to consider when deciding how to use  Facebook  or other online networking tools.  Every online networking site has the potential for good and bad. Even if your boss or colleagues arent connections, you still need to manage your online identity responsibly. Each time you post something online, think about how you would feel if others outside your social circle could view it. Sometimes a phone call or a face to face conversation just makes more sense.Whether you like it or not, Facebook is now a mainstream social networking site. Recruiters use it, hiring managers use it, and compa nies build corporate groups on it. One day someone who is in a position to share a job lead with you may find you on it. Use it to build meaningful relationships based on trust and reciprocity, not to share every random thought that you have. Its fine to share experiences, photos, personal victories, insights, and recommendationsthis is what makes Facebook so valuablebut its best to share them in a mature and tasteful way that adds value to someones life.You dont have to share everything with everyone. Facebook allows you to create closed groups. This feature can be used quite effectively to create exclusive circles based on certain interests without offending other connections.Facebook is not the only game in town. If there are certain aspects of your personal life that you prefer to keep private, perhaps Facebook isnt the right forum for every side of you. For example, you can create a closed group on Ning rather than sharing everything on Facebook.Its important to become an educa ted consumer when it comes to any business or social networking site. Two great reads on online networking are  Im on Facebook.Now What???  and  Im on LinkedInNow What???