I’d been drafting this blog post before I saw this posting on BBC News.

When I started using facebook nearly three years ago, I had no idea I’d ever use it for work. However, I’ve found more and more use for it both socially AND professionally and, it’s fair to say, the two are not always mutually exclusive.  I now use facebook both as a social and a professional tool.  The groups I access are mainly work,  my time on facebook is fairly evenly split and almost exactly 25% of my 325 “friends” are work related.  I’ve used facebook to meet new work contacts, establish new professional relationships and keep abreast of the latest news and good practice.

I also spend a fair amount of time ensuring my professional and personal presence on facebook don’t run into conflict.   So, I thought I’d write a blog with some instructions on why and how to use facebook for work and some of the dangers involved in this. The resulting posts will then be published on my site as a downloadable file, along with any comments that come up along the way.

It should be noted that this guide will shos the use of facebook FOR work, not the issue of using facebook AT work.  While we’ll look at the issue of separating personal and professional content and not doing your personal contact at work, you might well find that your organisation doesn’t see a need for you to use the web socially at work.

Personally, I think that organisations with appropriate systems should let you, during your breaks (ie outside paid work time), access websites that are not against company interests and do not cost them additionally for you to access, as I think they should let you use telephones at your own expense.

However, there are many reasons both good and bad why many places of work don’t and, not being an expert on employment law and rights, it’s a minefield I don’t want to get into.  Increasingly, workplaces are seeing a key need for a professional use of social networking and are allowing those who make a business case for its use use it.  If you think you can do this, go for it!

Even if you can’t use it at all at work or from a mobile device, you may well still,  in your own time, till use facebook as a professional tool and there are things you may need to know and think about.

Finally, please note that I’m writing this about facebook because that’s the tool I use.  There are other social networks and Web2.0 tools that some of these rules apply to and others that they don’t.

Cue “working with facebook”

Part 1 – Mix’n'Match – Separating Professional & Personal

Part 2 – Privacy Issues – Who can see what and what’s not to see

Part 3 – Who you know – Building a facebook professional network