digital persona management for ibmers

Digital Persona Management for IBMers

Joshua ScribnerSocial Software AdvocateIBM SWG, [email protected]@joshscribner

Version 2.3, Updated: 8 February 2012

Enterprise Benefits of a Social Network

Maintain your most valuable asset: your network

Efficiently manage inbound and outbound information from your network

Create an online identity to represent yourself as a thought leader, expert or client contact

Grow your network through existing contacts

Personal Benefits of a Social Network

Reconnect with old friends and contacts

Efficiently manage inbound and outbound information from your friends and family

Create an online identity to represent yourself as a person

Grow your network through existing contacts

Find people with whom to share interests, activities, etc.

A Facebook dramatization…

…I apologize in advance for the crude language.

http://www.youtube.com/v/LrFdOz1Mj8Q

This video gives you an idea of the Facebook dilemma:

Risks of a Social Network

Information shared between your network circles may influence other’s opinion of you

• “Wolf’s club: Let’s all go howl at the moon tonight!”• “I’m Bob’s friend; I eat butterfly wings”

Indiscrete over-sharing may influence other’s opinion of you• “Here are my sexy photos from Spring Break” • “I need a mental health day… at Disneyworld!”• “…just checked into Starcafe GPS x-y” (downstairs from competitor’s client)

Some information aids identity thieves• “My favorite color is lime and my hometown is San

Francisco”• 10/31/08: “Happy 30th Birthday, Maria!”

Risks of a Social Network: Business

Manage your personal brand: your client will Google you and find all public content that bears your name.

• One Josh Scribner is an IBMer, another is a horror novelist, another is a surfer.

• The absence of information is not a positive impression

Your network is valuable and must be protected from misuse• “I’m Jan’s friend, can I have a job?” • “Phil, why are most of your ‘friends’ our competitor’s reps?”

Scary! Should I still use Social Networks?

Yes.

The benefits make it worth using, but you must mitigate the risks.

It’ll take 30-60 minutes to set up each network. That’s a worthwhile investment.

Personas

We show different facets of ourselves in different situations. These are our personas, they only exist in the context of our social groups.

Just as you are one person in real life, you only need one “identity” online. But you need to manage that identity’s online personas by defining the social groups in which you will reveal them.

Objectives

1. Create groups for your friends, family, hobby and professional networks

2. Distribute profile access selectively to different groups, disable default access to your profile

3. Retain control of your own data: applications and functions to avoid

The rest of this presentation:

Setting up your…

Summary and final thoughts…

Slide 11

Slide 52

Slide 74 - coming soon

Slide 77 - coming soon

Slide 80

Social Network: Facebook

Social Network: Facebook

● Primarily used for non-business interactions, but often for IBM camaraderie

● Extensive privacy configuration necessary

Personas: Use “Friend Lists” to differentiate social groups

Accounts: Use one account

Create Groups

Write down a list of the groups you will create. Think about the people who would make up that group. An individual

can exist in multiple groups. Define each group so that you know its purpose.

Examples:Family – Mom, Sister, Son, Husband, Grandpa. People I am closely related to.

BestFriends – Jill, Jack, Jane. People I trust with anything, and would share anything.

MoreFriends – Sally, Maria, Marco, Neha. People I’ve known for a while.

IBMers – Mr. Chu, Mr. Palmisano, Mrs. Arbusto. My Colleagues at IBM.

Professional – Bob from my last job, Kim from the Java class. People in my professional network.

InternetAcquaintances – firefighter345, southernbelle. People I don’t know but friended.

Also consider: school networks, hobby groups, societies

Facebook: Objective 1

Create Friend Lists from your GroupsFirst, open up the Lists manager by going to your “Home” page, clicking “More” in the left column, then click the word “LISTS”


https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/lists

Create Friend Lists for your Groups

For each of your groups (Facebook calls them “Friend Lists”)…

On the Lists manager, click Type in the group’s name, then click Create:

Tip: Enter all groups before adding people

Tip: Made a mistake? Click on the list’s name thenclick “Manage List” in the top left corner, then

select “Delete List”


Create Groups: Assign contacts

For each of your Friend Lists…

Click on the Friend List name

Click “Manage List,” then select “Add/Remove Friends…”

Click on each contact you want in this Friend List.

Don’t forget

to click:


Create Groups: Assign contacts

Go to your Friends. For each of your contacts…

1. Click on to the right of each name to see if they are on a list.

2. To add someone to a List, select it from the options that appear.

You can add a contact to multiple Friend Lists.

If you have a lot of Lists, click “Show All Lists…” and use your keyboards up and down arrow keys to navigate.

If you realize you forgot a list, you can create a new one by selecting “Show All Lists” then navigating to “New List”

Your goal is to have every contact in a list.FYI: Your list may span multiple pages, click the arrows to move ahead


Alternative

Control Access - BasicsFundamentals: When controlling the privacy of the information you share on Facebook, you will be able to either select types of friends (“Only friends”, “Friends and Networks” “Everybody” etc.) or a subset of friends.

The subset is the best level of control, because you can decide which of your Friend lists can -- or can’t – see a particular piece of information, and by extension if applications they run can see it. Facebook usually offers this granularity on privacy controls, but not always.

When I Customize a setting, it looks like this:


TIP: Don’t trust a “Network” -- you can’t control it and it doesn’t offer the safety of IBM’s intranet. Create a Friend List to parallel each Network, add/accept friends selectively, and then Customize the access for each Friend List.

Control Access - Your DataOn the previous slide, we saw how to customize access for a data Item and set it to some Friend Lists. You can use this technique on nearly every data component of your profile.

Using the control to the right of most of your profile settings, you can control who can see that data.

Next, we'll look at each of the profile settings and the ramifications of sharing it.


Timeline users, and all users after 1 Feb 2012:

From your profile page, go to "About" and click on the sections of your profile you wish to change.

Non-Timeline users:

From your profile page, click Edit Profile.

You can also use the links at the top of the next few slides as shortcuts to get to Profile Editing controls.

Example:

I have customized my employer information so that it is only visible to some people in my network. When I select Custom, I can decide who sees this data.

Control Access - Your DataCurrent City and Hometown -- I don’t mind being approached by childhood friends/alumni, so I have allowed Everyone to see this. Decide what is best for you. Bear in mind that some password "secret questions" on other websites are "the town you were born in" and you should never select that option if you have revealed your Hometown through a Social Network.

Gender -- This is relevant information, likely already identified by your name, and you can leave it Public.

Birthday -- No one. This is fodder for identity thieves. Don’t share it, and I wouldn’t even recommend putting in a real birthday.

"Interested In" -- your intimacy preferences are not relevant in a professional setting, and as such there is no need to allow it to be seen by your professional Friend Lists. You can make your own decision regarding other lists.

Languages -- the languages you speak are an important asset, as they enable a more global audience to feel comfortable reaching out to you. You could leave this visible for all, with the caution that it reveals something about your ethnicity and nationality.

About Me -- This is where you should put your Bio, keeping it high level and business appropriate. You can include personal details. Provided you are comfortable, I would encourage you to leave this Public so that others can see it, and who you are.

Edit Profile > Basic Information

These are my recommendations for these settings. It is up to you to decide if the advice fits the way you want to use Facebook and if it complies with IBM’s Business Conduct Guidelines as they apply to you.


Control Access - Your Data

Include a Business-appropriate picture as your Profile Picture. This picture will be displayed for anyone who looks at your profile, make it as generic as possible.

If you do not want to use a real picture of yourself, consider a sensible caricature or representative icon. Bear in mind, however, that should someone (i.e. a client) view your profile, studies have shown they are more likely to trust you if your profile contains a photo of you rather than an alternative image.

Do not use IBM brands or logos as your profile picture, and be cognizant of the background of your picture.

If you want to display pictures that are reflective of your personality or interests, you can upload them later and decide who is allowed to see each of them.

Edit Profile > Profile Picture




Relationship Status -- If you are in a relationship, it may be helpful to indicate that here and to make this Public or Friends visible, thereby dissuading unwelcome advances. If you are uncomfortable displaying this information, restrict this setting.

Family -- set this to Custom and select only groups you want to see your family and relationships (i.e. your Family and close friends)

Friends -- on the far right side of this setting is an option that allows you to hide your Network. I strongly recommend preventing people from browsing your friends. If they want to interact, you can introduce them. This mechanism does not reflect your Friend Lists and therefore does not separate friend groups. Mine is customized, and set to “Only me.” This also becomes important on your Timeline (discussed later).

Edit Profile > Friends and Family




Employer -- Consider who should be allowed to know where you work, or have worked, and set this accordingly. I have customized this to my “IBM” Friend List.

College/University -- Consider who should be allowed to know where you received your degree, and set this accordingly. I allow a broader audience to see this, as it is relevant both in my professional and personal life, and I don't mind being found by fellow alumni.

High School -- Allow this field to be visible if you want to be "discovered" by childhood friends, otherwise there's no need to share it.

Edit Profile > Education and Work




In general, you should simply Customize these items so that they are only visible to your personal Friend Lists, and not to your professional Lists:

Religion and Political Views -- You’ll want this set to Custom as you should generally avoid sharing this with colleagues; it is rarely appropriate for the workplace.

People who Inspire You -- Unless these are ALL indisputable icons of humanity, or heroes in your profession, you should probably treat this like Religion and Political Views. If you have switched to Timeline, this is now part of your "Likes."

Favorite Quotations -- While this could say a lot about you, treat it like Political Views.

Edit Profile > Philosophy




If you have switched to Timeline, this has moved to your "Likes/Favorites" page

Music, Movies, Television, and Games: These topics are rarely appropriate for sharing in the professional space, and are better kept to your personal Friend Lists. You can always bring up a favorite movie during a meeting break.

Books: If you want to focus this section on professional or business books, it may be appropriate to share with your professional Lists, but otherwise you should keep it to your personal Lists.

Favorite Sports, Favorite Teams, and Favorite Athletes -- Sports and sporting allegiances can be a sensitive topic; bonding over sports is common in the business world, but team rivalries can quickly taint a negotiation. It is more likely that someone cheers for a different team than you do, so I would not recommend sharing this with your professional Friend Lists.

Edit Profile > Arts and Entertainment and Sports




Activities and Interests -- Though slightly different in purpose and editing interface, these two items are treated the same in Facebook. They appear on your Profile Info, and can be clicked on to see a short description and who else (in a viewer's network, not necessarily your network) has recently posted an update that contained that keyword in its text.

You cannot differentiate your interests, to show some to one List and others to a different one. Either ensure all of your activities and interests are suitable to share in the professional space, or restrict this to your personal Friend Lists. For example, at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston (2010) a CIO gave the example that "skinnydipping" is an inappropriate interest to display on your profile.

Other Pages You Like -- Provided this does not contain a conflict of interest or link to a page that is clearly inappropriate for the workplace, you can generally share links to other pages that you like. You should revisit this list regularly, as smaller websites often disappear, their domain names acquired, and the pages replaced with unsavory content.

Edit Profile > Activities and Interests


An example of how Facebook displays Activities, Interests, and Other Pages You Like.



Emails -- set this to “no one.” People can contact you by private message, or they already have your e-mail address.

Mobile Phones, Other Phones -- this is a really easy way to provide friends and colleagues with a phone number, but you should restrict it to select groups. Set your access to Custom and decide who should, and should not, be able to see your phone number.

IM Screen Names -- Your Instant Messaging names are often your private ones. You can't differentiate access for personal vs professional IM accounts, so it is best to set this for your personal Friend Lists, if you share it at all. By sharing it, people will be able to contact you, view your IM status, and know when you are in/away/busy/etc. Facebook also has internal Instant Messaging, should you choose to use it.

Address, City, etc. -- set this to no one, or perhaps only to your closest friends. There is no reason for this information to be more widely available on the internet; you don’t need an internet acquaintance making a surprise visit.

Website -- if your website is a professional one, such as a blog like “8-bar,” restrict it to colleagues and clients – your professional network. If it is a personal site, restrict it to friends.

Edit Profile > Contact Information




Your Map is a relatively new component of your Facebook profile, in particular it allows you to connect photos and events to geographic locations. As with all geographic data, be aware that sharing this information could indicate your daily routine, when you're not at home (or sharing photos while on vacation), and even potentially the clients you've been visiting.

The content displayed on the "Map" view all adheres to the restrictions you've set elsewhere for it. We'll talk more about this in a few moments, but for example, a photo that you have only shared with your family Friend List will only appear when they view your map.

Other people can also Check You In at a location. For example, if you go out to dinner with a friend, they might indicate they were at that place, and that you were with them. We will control Check Ins under "Lock it Down -- 'How Tags Work.' "

Edit Timeline Profile > Map



Control Access - Don't appear in ads

Don't authorize advertisers to use your picture or personal information in their advertisements.

1.On the Facebook Ads page, click Edit third party ad settings and on the subsequent page, select "No one" from the list, then click "Save Changes"

2.On the Facebook Ads page, click Edit social ads setting and on the subsequent page, select "No one" from the list, then click "Save Changes"

Account Settings > Facebook Ads



Facebook offers a mechanism for you to view your profile from the perspective of someone in your network. This is a very easy way to become comfortable with the restrictions and privacy controls you have put in place, and to ensure you have protected yourself as you intended.

In the top right corner of your Profile, you will find the following button:

Click it, then enter in the name of a person in your network, you will be able to see your profile from their perspective.

View As


Control Access - Your Timeline

Most likely you have switched (or been switched, as of 1 Feb 2012) to Facebook's "Timeline" format for your homepage. The timeline arranges your information chronologically, so that your network can see when you have been active around particular topics at particular times over the years. Facebook offers a page that more fully describes Timeline.

The Timeline profile follows all the same privacy rules as previous incarnations of your profile. In particular:

●If you locked your network as recommended, a user can only view when you added a mutual friend, not people whom they do not know. This protects your network.

●When you post to your wall, the posts follow the privacy controls you have set.

●If you allow third party applications to contribute content to your profile (which we will tightly restrict in a moment), they must follow the default Friend List visibility that you set.


3 - Retain ControlFacebook applications can access any data you permit them to.

Applications run by your friends can access any of your data that you have permitted your friend to see.

Since your friend may not know what that application does, you need to be careful.

To address this, we’ll Share Smart, Lock Down Applications and Stay Aware.


Share Smart – Photos and Videos

Me!

1. Go to your Profile page, then click Photos on the left. If you have previously created albums (always organize photos and videos in albums) they will appear at the top. Otherwise, you will only see "Profile Pictures."

2. To create a new album, click or

3. Use the controls at the bottom of the page to manage your album's privacy. As before, change the privacy by selecting “Customize” then specify “Some Friends” and identify which Friend Lists should be allowed to see the photos or videos.

4. Finally, upload some photos or videos to the protected album.

5. To protect an existing album, click on the album, then click Edit Album.

HOT TIP: Facebook has a webpage that lets you view all of your albums, and manage their privacy, from a single page. They don't make it easy to find, but here it is: Your Albums



Share Smart – Your WallWhen you post to your wall, or cause a status message to appear on your wall, you will usually have the option to decide which Friend Lists can see it.

You should always check to see who you are sharing with. This is an important control point in maintaining your privacy and control of your information. If you do not want your friends to share what you have posted, either explicitly inform them (or reconsider sharing it on the internet).

On the next slide, we'll discuss setting default Friend Lists for these posts.



Lock it down - Basics1. Pull down Home > Privacy Settings

2. In the middle of the page is the default privacy setting for content you post, such as photos, wall posts, etc. Select Custom:

3. A “Customize” box will appear, as shown in the previous slide. Select “Specific People or Lists”

4. Click in the box that appears, then start typing in the names of your most trusted Friend Lists. Select them when they appear, then start typing in the next one:

Next Slide: Which Friend Lists should I add?


Lock it down - BasicsMost Trusted Friend Lists?

When you pick the Friend Lists for your default settings, be selective. Only pick the Friend Lists that you can trust with everything, as you won’t always be able to remove the less trusted friends right away. Posting to too wide an audience, by default, is how leaks happen; the results of which can be seen in the tabloids.

If you post content that you wish to allow more people to see, you can edit it later to add more people.

Some Facebook applications are sensitive to this issue and will give you the option to add or remove Friends/Friend Lists when you post. But this – your default control – should be the most restricted


Lock it down - Privacy SettingsYour Privacy Settings page has a number of settings. We are going to address these three, the last of which (Apps and Websites) will take us into your general settings.

For now, we are not going to use these two settings:

Manage Past Post Visibility only offers the option to weaken your past post access controls to All Friends (we're using the more restrictive Friend Lists). Don't use this.

Blocked People and Apps are things you can return to if you need them. We will talk about Restricted Friends, later.

Your Home > Privacy Settings


Lock it down – “How You Connect”Your Home > Privacy Settings > How You Connect


This only determines how easily you can be found on Facebook, it doesn’t prevent people from finding you.

This enables people to request to join your network. Since you will be granularly controlling what people in your network can see (via Friend Lists), there’s no harm in letting people request to join.

If you wanted to keep out spam, you could prevent anyone from messaging you, but this is in many ways no different than your email inbox.

Don’t allow people to post on your main wall. Let friends contact you privately, or install secondary “Wall” programs (SuperWall, etc) and make each secondary Wall visible only to a specific set of Friend Lists.

Though you’ve prevented your friends from posting on your wall, this ensures that only you can see it.

Why prevent Wall posts by others: We aren’t going to let people see who is in our networks, we’re going to keep them as separated as possible. As such, we are restricting the ability of people in any of those networks from sharing our personal information with other networks by restricting their ability to communicate. Create separate walls to give them the ability to talk about you within the confines of that network of friends.


Lock it down – “How Tags Work”Your Home > Privacy Settings > How Tags Work

When others “Tag” you in a photo or post, it is added to a list of content on your profile. You cannot control the fact that others added your name to a photo or post, but you can make them hard to find and disavow the connection.

When someone says they are posting about you, and that they want that post linked to your profile, you should review the content to decide if you want to endorse it as accurate about you. By allowing it to be linked from your profile, you are tacitly implying it is accurate.

When someone adds a Tag to your post, saying that it is also about them (or someone else), you want to be able to confirm this is true and that your network should also see that linkage.

If you do allow a post or photo on your profile, restrict who can see it

When a friend uploads a photo about you, Facebook’s internal face-recognition software can suggest that it’s your face in the photo, to make Tagging easier. Since we’re reviewing photos anyway, you could leave this on or off.

Don't allow people to track your movements; your location is sensitive data about where you are (and aren't), it shouldn't be available to competitors, jealous friends, or lurking burglars.



Lock it down – “Apps and Websites”Your Home > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites

Apps and Websites is split into several different areas:


Do these three, first.


Lock it down – Other people's AppsYour Home > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > How people bring your info to apps they use

We're now going to increase the restrictions on your friends' apps, in order to reduce the information they can gather about you.

These are my settings, you might want something similar. Do not checkmark your birthday.

When you are done, click "Save Changes."



Lock it down – Third Party WebsitesYour Home > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Instant Personalization

When you click Edit Settings, a video will appear. Below the video, click

In the Instant Personalization configuration that appears, uncheck the checkbox, so that it looks like this:

Finally, toward the top-left corner, click to return to your privacy settings.

The feature we have turned off by unchecking that box tells Facebook that when you are on other (non-Facebook) websites, you do not want it to share your personal information with that third-party site.



Lock it down – Being found by SearchYour Home > Privacy Settings > Public Search

I do not mind that it is easy for my profile to be found through a search; I assume that someone will link to it, somewhere, and it will be found anyway so I might as well make myself visible.

If you want to make yourself a little harder to find, uncheck this box:

Finally, toward the top-left corner, click to return to your privacy settings.



Lock it down – "App Settings"Your Home > Privacy Settings > App Settings

This will display a listing of the applications you have added to your profile.

Do you really need all those Apps? Do you know what they do? Are they from a reliable source? Some applications have been known to spam friend-lists, others are quite useful. Know what it does before you accept a hug/drink/teddybear/etc from someone.

To the right of each App is an "Edit" link and an X. Press the X to delete any app you aren't familiar with or don't use. On the next slide, we'll talk about editing.



Lock it down – Restricting an App Your Home > Privacy Settings > App Settings

Click "Edit," to the right of an App you wish to manage.


Does this App require you give it too much access to your personal data? Click "Remove app" to delete it.

Does this App request access for content that you do not want it to access, and which is optional? You can remove that access by clicking Remove.

Most Apps post content to your profile/wall, possibly sharing your private information. Restrict who can see those posts, using Custom and specifying Friend Lists (as we have done elsewhere).


Lock it down - App private info accessLook carefully at the Required items from an App. Click "See More" to examine exactly what content it wants to be able to see -- and share -- outside of your control. Here are the categories it may ask for:

This refers to content I've made public, not information I've restricted. It's generally OK.

This item is very worrisome; for example I do not want my birthday, religion, or politics shared. Consider removing Apps that require this; remove this item if it is optional.

An App should not require this information, and you should not be required to share it. Consider removing Apps that require this; remove this item if it is optional.



Lock it down - App private info access(continued - part 2) Categories an App may ask for:

Your photos and videos may say a lot about you, and should not be accessed by an App as it may not adhere to the visibility restrictions you've set for the content.

You don't need an App that reports on your whereabouts and Online Presence. It's not good for IBM, nor for your personal security.

Many Apps want to see information about the people in your network. While unappealing that Apps do this, members of your network can restrict the shared information by editing "How people bring their info into apps you use" in the "Apps and Websites" are of their Privacy Settings. It is up to you if you want to expose your network to this potential information gathering activity.



Lock it down - App private info access(continued - part 3) Advice on making App privacy decisions

Tip: If an App on your list requires a lot of personal information, remove it and re-add it. Beyond your Basic Information, an app must request to access each additional category of content. This will remove any data for the App, but may be worth it if the private information it accesses has quietly been increased.

Advice: Most Apps will require a few of those information items that you deem too sensitive. You can remove them all, if you like. Alternatively, you should consider the risk of that information getting out with the trustworthiness of the App's creator. You should also consider whether you think a well intentioned App function will accidentally share your information (i.e. "Find your birthday buddies!" or "See who else visits this coffee shop")

Limitation: Friend Lists do not apply to an Apps' level of access to your personal information. While you can restrict who can see the posts an App makes, you can't granularly restrict an App's access to data within a category.



Retain Control – Stay Aware

When a friend “Tags” you in a photo or video, take a look at it. Do you want that out there, representing you, even if it isn’t listed on your profile? You could ask them to take you off of it.

When a friend tags you in a note, see if you want to stay associated with it. You can remove yourself by clicking “remove tag” (beneath your name) if you don’t want to participate.

When someone invites you to a group or fandom, or offers to be your friend, consider who they are. You can always decline or ignore the request. When you accept a new friend, be sure to assign them to a friend list (first).

When someone gives you a “gift” in the form of an application that you’d need to install, consider if you want that application on your profile, or to be listed somewhere associated with that application. Offers for gifts/applications do not take effect until you take action. They just wait in your inbox. You can decline or ignore them to make them go away.

Stay Aware – and be pro-active


Retain Control – Wandering informationFacebook's Terms of Service and Expectations about rights

This is the most important section regarding your ownership of information:

(as of Jan 2012)

You can find Facebook's full terms of service, here.

You can find Facebook's full privacy policy, here.


Your Facebook tasks

• Create Friend Lists for each of your groups of Friends

• Update your personal information and restrict it -- item by item -- to your Friend Lists

• Update your privacy settings to protect your profile

• Learn how to limit photos, videos and wall posts to specific Friend Lists

• Always add new Friends to a Friend List

• Understand the Facebook Terms of Use

Facebook: Summary

Social Network: LinkedIn

Social Network: LinkedIn

● Primarily used business and employment● Minimal configuration necessary, requires careful

attention to network requests

Personas: Only your professional persona(s)


Your LinkedIn Persona(s)

Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn does not enable you to differentiate between your groups. We can't actually differentiate our personas, as described in Objective 1. Therefore, present a strictly professional persona.

●Assume that clients, colleagues, and future employers are simultaneously looking at your profile.

●Do not try to make one profile for job-seeking and another for representing yourself.

●Do not add friends or family to your network unless they have a meaningful role in your professional life, or you have a meaningful role in theirs.

●Judge for yourself if your non-IBM semi-professional roles (charities, etc.) are appropriate for viewing by clients, colleagues, and future employers.

LinkedIn: Objective 1

LinkedIn offers no representation for your groups

Adding people to your network

After you've done all the rest of these slides, your first question will still be "how do I add people to my network?" so let's answer that now.

To add people to your network, search for their name on LinkedIn or follow a link that they have provided to their profile.

When you find their profile, look for an option to Add to your Network:

Remember, your LinkedIn network represents only a single persona, your professional one. When a friend or family member asks to be added to your network, look at their profile. Are they using it as their professional persona? Is there a legitimate reason they belong in your professional network? You can always friend them on Facebook, think carefully if they belong here.


Control Access -- BasicsThe data you share on LinkedIn can be visible to "Everyone," to no-one but yourself ("Only you"), or to members of your network.

Your privacy controls are separated from the content which they control access to. You edit your content in one place, and manage your privacy elsewhere.

Next, we'll look at each of your data items and discuss the ramifications of sharing it.


LinkedIn describes your extended network in the following manner:

Your connections -- people you are directly connected to

Your network -- your connections, plus everyone connected to them, and to them, etc. etc. Your entire extended network.

Control Access -- Your DataPull down Profile > Edit Profile, then click the word "edit" to the right of your name.

Name -- Use and display your full name, LinkedIn is your online business card.

Former/Maiden Name -- This information could be used for hacking your other accounts, but I would not recommend relying on publicly available information to protect your data elsewhere. You can share this information, to make it easy to be found by old contacts, but you may want to lock it for display.

Headline -- Make this short and descriptive of your role; it is the most prominent thing people will see, other than your name and photo, so you may want to include that you are "at IBM."

Country, Zip Code -- This is publicly available data, there is no risk to including it.

Location Name -- Choose a location that will help people visualize where you are on the planet, but not in your neighborhood.

Industry -- Choose an industry reflective of how you want to be seen by the people most likely to look for you. You can only choose one.


Basic Information

When you are finished, click "Save Changes"

Control Access -- Your DataClick "Edit Photo" at the bottom of your photo

Upload a business photo for yourself. If you don't have one readily available, right click and save your IBM Bluepages profile picture and use that.

At the bottom of the page there is an option to decide who can see your photo, select "My Network" for everyone in your extended network. If you are comfortable being very visible, you can select "Everyone," if you are uncomfortable with your picture being seen, you can pick "My Connections" and only people you connect to will be able to see your picture.

You can opt not to share a picture, or limit who can see your picture, however this creates a negative impression of you. By including a photo, you are making yourself approachable.


Edit Profile Picture

When you are finished, click "Save Settings"

Control Access -- Your DataClick "Add a current position" or "Edit" next to an existing position.

Company Name -- As you enter the company name, companies will be identified. Select "IBM" for IBM positions

Title -- Enter a meaningful external title for this role at IBM

Location -- You do not need to enter a location, unless it is important to describing who you are (global, willing to relocate, etc)

Time Period -- If this is not your current position, enter approximate times for the position.

Headline -- Do not update your headline from here (uncheck the corresponding box)

Description -- Your role may not clearly define your contributions, use a couple sentences to describe the work you are doing. Imagine that a client and a future employer will look at this description.

Caution: Do not include any Confidential IBM information, project code-names, or other protected content.

You can diversify your profile by including your role in professional or hobby groups, but carefully consider how they may be perceived.


Add or Edit a current or past position


Control Access -- Your DataWebsites -- If you have a professional blog, a personal landing page, or a profile on an IBM site, link to it from here. Do not link to favorite bands or other non-professional content unless it relates to your other roles and you feel it is appropriate to include.

Interests -- These are your professional interests, or interests that reflect positively on you as a professional. Your personal interests, favorite band, religion, etc. do not belong here.

Groups and Associations -- In addition to listing recognized LinkedIn organizations, you can also add a text list of professional organizations. You can also manage the visibility of Groups that you have joined on LinkedIn, in the event that some do not reflect on you the way you would prefer.

Honors and Awards -- You can add a list of professional recognitions you have received.


Additional Information


Control Access -- TwitterIf you have a Twitter account on which you tweet only about topics that are suitable for viewing in a business context, you can connect to it from LinkedIn. You should objectively assess the content in your twitter stream and decide if it paints the picture you want clients to see.

When setting up your twitter connection, LinkedIn will ask you to log into Twitter, and it will handshake with Twitter to connect your identities.

When managing your Twitter settings, I recommend check-marking all three checkboxes. The middle one (share only the tweets with #li or #in) will provide you with some controls on what content makes it from Twitter to LinkedIn.

Do not rely on the first (show my twitter handle) or second (show only #li or #in tweets) checkboxes to separate your non-professional tweets from your professional ones. If your Twitter account is not business-suitable, don't link to it at all.


Twitter Settings


Control Access -- Your DataNext to "Education" look for "Add a school," or edit an existing one. You should include your undergraduate and graduate education, and usually not your primary school (high school, elementary school) education.

It is appropriate to include the School Name, Degree you achieved, Field(s) of Study, Dates Attended, and professionally relevant Activities and Societies and Additional Comments.

Grades on LinkedIn refers to each of the years of primary schooling (first, second, ... twelth). Since you are usually not including primary school, it is usually not necessary to detail the Grades that you attended a school. Primary school also generally indicates your hometown, which can be an identity theft issue.

It is not necessary, and rarely appropriate, to include your scores, unless you graduated #1 or #2 in your class, or with an honor and this is a significant and distinguishing attribute. Generally, once you are a few years out of school, it is your professional experience that differentiates you, not your scores. Touting them may also seem arrogant to a client. If you choose to include them, they belong in your Additional Comments.


Add or edit Education


Control Access -- Your DataPhone -- Do not include your phone number here. People who need to contact you will contact you through the LinkedIn system.

Address -- Do not include your address; you do not need to come home to an internet friend sitting on your doorstep.

IM -- Do not include an IM. People who need to contact you will contact you through the LinkedIn system; IM also reveals information about your location and when you are online.

Birthday -- Do not include your birthday. If you feel obliged, include only a year, or a nearby year, to dissuade identity thieves.

Marital Status -- If you are married and feel that announcing it will dissuade unwanted attention, or will improve how a client perceives you, set this value to "Married." Otherwise leave it blank (set it to "Choose..."). Do not pick "Single."


Personal Information


Control Access - Contact settingsOn the bottom of your Edit Profile page isa set of settings that display (to others) whenthey should contact you. All of these areinnocuous enough, however I have uncheckedconsulting offers as it conflicts with IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines.

You might also want to provide some guidanceto people who want to contact you, if you findthat you are regularly contacted with the samequestions.


Edit Contact Settings


Control Access -- Your privacy SettingsYou can control many of the LinkedIn settingsfrom this page. Start on the "Profile" tab, then workyour way through the Privacy Controls. If you didn'tset your Twitter settings before, and you'd like to, youcan do that from this page too.

We're going to jump around through these tabs for thenext few steps.

Activity Broadcasts -- After you have stabilized your profile (added all the basics), checkmark this to turn it on and alert your network to your changes.

Who can see your activity feed -- "Your Connections"; you do not need your extended network/entire world to see what you are sharing. Share only with the people you have specifically added to your network.

What others see when you've viewed their profile -- use "Anonymous profile;" you don't need people seeing where you've been. 8 Feb 2012: This limits your use of "Profile Stats," toggle when you need them.

Who can see your connections -- "Your Connections" is OK; since your network is professional and represents a single persona, it is not unreasonable that the people you are connected to can see each other. This also creates value in being in your network. I treat this setting differently on Facebook.

Viewers of this profile also viewed -- Uncheck this. It would have revealed to strangers some of your network, as your connections are more likely to have viewed other connections in your network. I do not see any benefit to you from this feature.


Personal Settings

Control Access -- Your privacy SettingsOn the "Groups, Companies & Applications" tab, first change the privacy settings on the right.

Then, take a moment to order your groups.

If you would like, you can decrease the way yourgroups interact with you, too.

Turn on/off data sharing with 3rd party applications: click the link, uncheck the box to turn this off, and save. If, in the future, you have a third party application you want to connect with, you can review this setting. At that time, you should do a thorough review of the applications you are using.

Turning this off also prevents applications your Connections install from harvesting information they can see about you.

Manage settings for LinkedIn plugins on third-party sites: click the link, uncheck the box to turn off these plugins, and save. This would have given you some LinkedIn functionality when you are elsewhere on the Web, it also makes it too easy for data to be collected about you by LinkedIn (beyond what you can control with their interface) and opens up an avenue for others to collect your LinkedIn data.

When you have finished changing these privacy settings, click "Select your group display order"


Personal Settings

GroupsGroups are an important tool in LinkedIn for growing your network and meeting like-minded individuals in your area of expertise, or even to meet clients in the industries or capabilities that you focus on. When looking for sales leads in a Group, do not post an ad and hope someone approaches you; rather, engage in conversations and build relationships. Demonstrate your expertise, listen to what people are saying, and remember that not all participants are actively posting -- many are only reading, but they are intently following your conversations with others.

The groups page you are on allows you to sort your Groups anddecide how many appear on your profile. This allows you to belong to Groups that are not immediately visible through your profile (people can still find all your groups in other ways).When you are done sorting, click "Save Changes."

To the right of each group, click "Member Settings"From here, you can opt to hide the logo of the group, adjust the rate of updates you receive, and controlwho can send you messages. Because you can dothis for each Group, you can target specific Groups to network in, versus other Groups where you are only listening in.

When you are done changing a Group's settings,click "Save Changes."

Group membership is not secret, assume any group you join is public knowledge.


Group Sorting

GroupsI like how LinkedIn handles their groups. They describe the process thoroughly, here.●Groups can be created closed or open. ●The content and members of Closed Groups can only be seen by members of the group.●The existence of a Closed Group, on your profile for example, is determined by the Group owner. You can manage the groups that appear on your profile (see preceding slide).●Once Opened, a Group cannot be closed.

What happens when a closed, private group is changed to Open?●All content created in a Closed group remains members-only, but it is still up to the Group owner (not you) to decide who those members are.

Unless you own a group, you do not control its membership, who might reshare content, or even if the existence of the group and its membership is widely known. Assume that the groups you join are public, and that anything you say in them could become public.

Do not discuss Confidential IBM content on LinkedIn Groups. If a conversation moves in a direction that it is becoming confidential, ask that it be continued in a secure conversation system such as email or on protected ibm.com spaces.


Privacy practices

ApplicationsLinkedIn offers 16 applications (as of 6 Feb 2012) which you can add to your account. You can also use the setting "Your Applications" to view/remove Applications you are using.

Connecting to content you have shared elsewhere: SlideShare, Google Presentations, WordPress, SixApart Blog Link, Box.net Files

When you share content across systems, assume that all content you share on that system will now be seen by your professional network. Only include applications where all of your content is appropriate.

Connecting to your workspace: GitHub Social Coding, ManyMoon Projects and Teamspaces, Rofo Real Estate Pro

Getting or display niche content: JD Supra Legal Updates, E-Bookshelf

Share what you're doing*: TripIt My Travel, LinkedIn Events, Amazon Reading List

Sharing content through these applications may reveal information about you that is not appropriate (i.e. the contents of your Amazon Reading List) or that exposes private information such as your whereabouts.

Display 3rd-party reviews about you: Lawyer Ratings

This may be a good way to validate the quality of your work, but it may open up the door for unmanaged negative comments.

Interact with your network: LinkedIn Polls

This is a good way to interact with your network, but be cautious in selecting professional topics, and in the frequency you use these polls.


Application Directory and Your Applications

Control Access -- Your privacy SettingsLet's go back to your settings.

There's one last privacy setting we need to change.On your "Account" tab, click "Manage AdvertisingPreferences"

Manage Advertising Preferences: click the link, uncheck the box to turn this off, and save.

LinkedIn offers to share an anonymized demographics data with third parties as a way to show you targeted advertising on LinkedIn, and on third party sites. Those sites are still free to gather additional information about you can create their own profile. Don't give them any more data than they already have.

Add SSL Encryption to all your transactions: Follow the link I've provided for this item, or select "Manage Security Settings" from your account (if you see it), to enable encrypted traffic when using LinkedIn.

While we're hereCustomize the updates you see on your homepage: to decide what is important to have in your incoming stream of information, and what you don't care about. This is the information you see, not that others see. You can also get this content in an RSS feed using the bottom-right link in the settings.


Personal Settings

How you appearOn the right side of "Edit Your Public Profile" is a list of data that will appear to users who are not in your network or who find you through a public search engine.

You have been careful to show only the information that is relevant to your professional work. Other than deciding on the display of your photo, you can leave the other boxes checkmarked.

LinkedIn does not have a function to view your profile as someone else might see it. Team up with a colleague or a friend to try out viewing each other's profiles as you adjust your respective connection to each other.


Your Public Profile Settings

Retain Control – Wandering informationLinkedIn's Terms of Service and Expectations about rights

This is the most important section regarding your ownership of information:

(as of Feb 2012)

You can find LinkedIn's full terms of service, here.

You can find LinkedIn's full privacy policy, here.


Your LinkedIn tasks

• Treat LinkedIn as a professional persona, only.

• Only add to your network people who are displaying professional personas relevant to your profession

• Update your data and privacy settings to protect your profile

• Understand how to use Groups on LinkedIn

• Learn if and how to add Twitter and other 3rd-party content (Applications) to your LinkedIn profile.

• Understand the LinkedIn Terms of Use

LinkedIn: Summary

Social Network: Google+

Social Network: Google+

● People undecided if it's for business or personal● Uses a novel (unfamiliar) paradigm for friends

Personas: Use “Circles” to differentiate social groups


Coming Soon...

Coming Soon

Google+: Objective 1

Social Network/Microblog: Twitter

Social Network/Microblog: Twitter

● Used for business and non-business interactions, often without differentiation

● Minimal privacy configuration available, anything you post is public.

Personas: Use different accounts for each persona, clearly label the personal one, assume both will be found.

Accounts: Use multiple accounts

Coming Soon...

Coming Soon

Twitter: Objective 1

Summary: Be smart The information you publish on the internet is only as private as you

allow it to be.

• Smart settings, self-censure, and some restraint will go a long way.

The information you publish on the internet is only as private as the people who read it allow it to be.

• Will your friends keep your photos and comments private? It’s a lot easier to copy and re-share material on the internet; be explicit about the trust you place in people and the boundaries you want them to follow with regard to your information.

Avoid the meme trap. Don’t fill out those “ten things about me” or “my ABCs”

• Want to write about yourself? Don’t use the lists – they frequently include the same questions as those “forgot your password” hints.

• Similarly, when creating “password hints” do not pick data that could be easily gleaned from your profile.

Best Practice – Your PasswordsYour content is only secure if you use a lock Follow best practices for creating passwords, such as using a different password on each

website, making the password long, and including numbers, symbols, and mixed cases.

Keep your passwords somewhere safe, such as in a secure password management system on your computer, or in a secured paper notebook.

When you create a password, you'll be asked to supply some password recovery information. Be careful not to use questions or answers that you believe have been shared publicly on the internet.

TIP: you can be intentionally tricky, just don't forget your answers: "City you were born in: Sillystring"

All IBM managed computing assets are required to have tools like Symantec Endpoint Protection that ensure rogue software isn't operating on your computer or mobile device. When accessing your social networks from personal devices, ensure they are similarly protected.

Do not install software from unknown sources.

When following a link (from email or the web) that appears to take you to a familiar site (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc), do not log in if prompted. Instead, open a new browser tab and go to the site's homepage. Log in there. Then reload the page you were trying to reach. If the page was not legitimate, it will continue to prompt you for your secret credentials or personal information.


FYI – Owning your informationTerms of Service and Expectations about rights

Information that you upload to the internet falls into one of four categories:

• content you own exclusively (typically email and private systems),

• content you give everyone rights to use (typically through creative commons),

• content you own but the hosting services, and often other members, have unlimited rights to use (most photo-library sites, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc)

• content you no longer own, it becomes property of the hosting service

Be aware of this last (severe) category. If you want to retain ownership (for future publishing, etc), upload the content to a site with terms that ensure you own the content, then link to it.

Read the terms before you upload content!

You expect everyone will respect copyright, ownership, etc; but these lines are blurred and your rights are generally ignored by other users on the internet. Most websites will remove content “borrowed” from you, upon request, if you can prove it. But are you willing to take the additional legal action of defending your content? Consider how and where you publish content when you expect to be the sole authorized publisher.


In summary… You have compared the benefits and risks of a Social Network.

You have organized your friends, family, colleagues, professional contacts, and others into discrete and manageable groups.

You have configured your information to be available only to the groups that should see it. You have built in controls for the future to manage their access.

You have restricted applications that might have revealed your private data, and learned how to handle new application requests.

You’ll stay aware of requests from others, and be able to handle them with regard to your own privacy.

You understand that content uploaded to some websites and social networks means giving it to those sites.

You’re ready. Enjoy the benefits of Social Networks, confident that you have taken the necessary steps to ensure your privacy and mitigate the risks.

Sources, Additional Reading● Joan DiMicco, David Millen. Identity Management: Multiple Presentations of Self in FacebookIBM: http://cattail.cambridge.ibm.com/cattail/#[email protected]/files/51D35DB04BA73DD7B922A2747F000001

● Cliff Landis – Freshmen Facebookhttp://clifflandis.net/presentation-files/FreshmenFacebook.ppt

● Web Worker Daily: 12 Ways to use Facebook Professionally http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/07/24/12-ways-to-use-facebook-professionally/

● New York Times: You’re leaving a digital trail. What about privacy?http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/business/30privacy.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

● 10 privacy tips on Facebookhttp://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/

● The weisure (work/leisure) lifestylehttp://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/05/11/weisure/index.html

● Dwyer, Hiltz, Passerini. Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace

http://csis.pace.edu/~dwyer/research/DwyerAMCIS2007.pdf

● New York Times: Tell-All Generation Learns to Keep Things Offline

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/us/09privacy.html

● Trust and Identity in Virtual Communities

IBM: http://cattail.cambridge.ibm.com/cattail/#[email protected]/files/BB67766037903DD78EC6240E7F000001

Sources, Additional Reading (continued)

● New York Times: Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options [great diagram]http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/12/business/facebook-privacy.html

● Matt McKeon’s chart showing the evolution of Facebook Privacy over time: http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/

● BBC: Man sued for keeping company Twitter followershttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16338040

● .

Extras

digital persona management for ibmers

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