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There are two very good reasons to take extreme care in mixing clients and your Facebook friends. You may not want to grant certain people access, and you may see certain things you wish you hadn’t.
First, the access thing. Recently, I posted about a client that I had to let go. I didn’t post it on my outside blog, so it didn’t hit my Facebook page. I never would have fired them if he was as motivated as she was, but he is in la la land, and after 2 years enough was enough. Still, I did my best to let her down easy. I had no choice.
A day or two ago, I wrote a post entitled 2 Ways to Kill the Sale of Your Home. Like most of my posts, it went to my outside blog and my Facebook page. I was greeted this morning to the following, since deleted:
This was pure sour grapes. I bear no ill will, but my Facebook page isn’t the forum for working out your frustration that your husband can’t commit to a home purchase.
What I see on other people’s Facebook pages tells me a great deal also. For instance, if I am chasing you down for documents for your mortgage or short sale and you explain that you’ve been out of commission due to illness, it is bad for you to then post all your “Mafia Wars” conquests from the day prior, complete with full conversations with fellow Mafia War people. If you can reach level 17,495,736,363 in online games you can get me bank statements.
Another instance was when I was interviewing a young lady who was considering getting her real estate license. She added me as a friend and I was then privy to hundreds of photos of her partying with her friends. I love the sight of attractive young women in cocktail dresses (and less) holding drinks. But would I want that as my agent?
Facebook is a fantastic tool for networking and building our businesses. I have already gotten a deal from it. However, it is like atomic energy. It can do great good and it can also do great damage. So, like atomic energy, proceed with caution.
