Facebook, Disgruntled Ex-Users, Reputation Management

Former users of Facebook claim that deleting their account left them visible to Google search.

From iMedia:

Instead of being able to delete their entire account, a handful of former Facebook users found that their profiles could still be located through a Google search. While most of the information in the account was deleted, the search still revealed the users' network of friends.

Facebook chalked up the incidents to a technical glitch, which it insists has now been fixed. While Facebook continues to grow as a social network, the company has taken heat from users, many of whom angrily rejected the site's ad platform, Beacon, last fall.

An old adage says that "No publicity is bad publicity". But, for professionals who must compete in a national (even global) market, the way social networking sites - like Facebook - are used becomes important.

Your Online Activities Aren't Invisible

In the Internet Marketing World we have a practice (part of any good campaign's core services set) called reputation management. We begin by explaining to our clients that their online activities may not be as visible as they would like when business related, and may be entirely too visible if they show up on smashed and randy on YouTube in a chicken suit, rum and coke in hand, trying to solicit a Carpathian midget for discrete "personal" services.

Whether you can stomach rum and coke, and whether vampirish midgets do anything for you, the simple truth is this: If you jump into the social networking community for fun, be aware and be wise. Your online activities aren't completly invisible.