How many co-workers from your work place are on Facebook? MySpace? AIM? Twitter? Are social networks acting as a buffer to real life social interaction at your office? These social networks and many like them have enabled a different type of co-existence in the work place. You can be involved in a person’s “life” depending how much they post notifications or photos about themselves for your viewing pleasure.

How many times have you sent a message via a social network to ask, “What’s for lunch?” when the co-worker your asking is right next to you or really close by? There can be so much interaction with a co-worker on these social networks without actually having to come face-to-face with people for days, weeks or months. This may or may not be a good thing for a relationship in many respects. For example: You’re able to see how their vacation went just by looking at their photos (once they are posted) without ever actually speaking to them in person. According to what you see, it will be left to your assumption. There is also the lack of emitting physical emotions by just words. To slightly assist with the emitting of physical emotions, emoticons and certain symbols have been created.

Can these social networks get you into trouble? There have been many instances where you have read about a co-worker or you have vented about work on these social networks. At this point, it is your own responsibility to partake in the venting or ignore. What if you were scrutinized by a superior at work for a posting on your profile related to the work place? As the social media revolution rises, tracking what an employee does or says has become a lot easier. There have been recorded instances where an employee has been fired from their position due to a venting or complaint about their work place.  Also, there have been recent findings that employers check social networks when your application is received, meaning that if you have indecent pictures, comments or posts you might not even be considered for that position without looking at your credentials.

Some social networking tips for the work place:

• Try not to post in anger. Even if you delete it afterwords, there is a possibility it can be found by a simple Google search.
• Many of the social networks offer privacy settings that allow you to decide who you chose to connect with. So set up filters and even block people you don’t want to connect.
• Be wary of the photos you add and are made viewable to everyone in your social networking circle.
• Try not to associate accounts or profiles with a work e-mail account if you are provided one.

Bottom line is – Watch what you say. Watch what you add. Watch who you connect with.

Everyone is going crazy about the facebook pages! I mean to be honest I never really thought about decorating our facebook fan page  until someone asked for my help to do theirs today. I just feel like it’s best to give minimal information then send them off to the real stuff (which is at your website). That’s my personal opinion, but then today I started to get into decorating our facebook. There are a few really cool applications for fan pages for businesses that I think is useful. Below are some tips and applications I think will be useful to those who are planning to create a fan page or fix theirs up.

1. If you have a blog (if not I highly recommend getting one as soon as possible), connect the RSS feed in through your facebook. This will allow facebook to publish your feed without having to post it yourself. You want to try and get your content to as many places as possible and this is a great way.

• How To Do This: Go to your fan page, click edit page on the left (under your picture), then go to the notes application (should already be there if not go to more applications and add that app to your page). On the right hand side click on ‘Edit Import Settings’, then just add your blog feed!

2. Another cool new feature is that you are now able to connect your facebook and twitter. This will save you time so you only have to post on one social networking site rather then two!

• How To Do This: search for the twitter application in the search bar. On the left hand side click Add To Page. Then go to your settings and sign into twitter and allow the application.

3. Some of these fan pages have additional pages that will allow you to insert HTML. This is useful if you want to add pages about your company, updates on a content, etc. The best application that I have found is fbml. It allows you just add multiple pages and insert whatever content you want.

• How To Do This: Go to the search bar and search for fbml. Then on find static fbml. Once you click on that you will see add to page on the left hand side (under the photo). Then go back to your fan page and go to edit page. Find the static page and click edit. Edit it to how you want it! Something that I found a little tricky was how to add more. What you have to do is go back to one of the Old pages you created with fbml and click add new page on the bottom. You will have to also store all your photos on an outside server (you might want to get a graphic designer & web designer involved)

4. A cool app for videos is Posted Items Pro. This will allow you to embed multiple videos from youtube, yahoo, and google videos onto your facebook page.

• How To Do This: Go to your facebook fan page, click on edit page (under picture), then go to add applications and search for Posted Items Pro

5. It’s important to find a way to get people to go to your facebook fan page. Setting up a contest, survey, giveaway, etc is a good way to get people. You will need to get a big fan base so place your facebook links on  your website.

Now the argument is wither facebook or twitter is better. Honestly they are both two completely different applications and I feel that they both have their own parts. Facebook will be able to give you more information then twitter, however twitter easier to get followers that aren’t part of your group of friends, family, coworkers, etc. So in the end I think they are both important!