What Do You Want From Facebook?

Chances are you’ve been a member of other social networking sites, whether it’s Friendster, MySpace, LinkedIn or Bebo. As you started each profile, had you given thought as to the actual goal of these profiles?

Your Facebook profile may serve many purposes. You might want to give it out to family and friends only, so a fun, open, whimsical profile might work. However, you might want to use it as a business networking tool. In some cases, your profile might straddle both worlds.

Before you put any information into your profile, think about the purpose of this page and how you want it to reflect your personality. What kinds of relationships do you want to build with this profile? How do you want to portray yourself? Unlike some other social sites, Facebook relies on people being honest about who they are. You’ll have to decide exactly how much information you want to divulge.

This goal will shape everything that you do from here on in—from the information you provide to your profile picture to the friends you choose to be associated with. This doesn’t mean the goal of the page can’t change in the future, but it will help you craft the profile you need and want now.