I wonder how many people realize what Facebook is doing to their reputation (personal brand). I think most people who use Facebook and play games (add applications) and don’t realize that some of these applications actually notify their entire network, invite them to play or join in an attempt to build traffic.
A great example of this, is when someone sends an announcement “soANDso has challenged Lotus Ravenmoore to a team battle! soANDso needs help taking down Lotus Ravenmoore!” I understand the kind of critique I’m opening myself up to here. Stuff like, “that’s what you get for having 930 ‘friends’.” I’m fine with that, and I have no issue hitting the “ignore” button for invites or causes that don’t make sense to me. My concern is that the people who are sending these messages out may not even really understand that they’re doing this. You know, pre-checked boxes that say things like, “notify my entire network”.
Bottom line: this is building the Facebook game developer’s brand… and killing your own reputation. Whether you do it knowingly or are an unwilling accomplice, I see streams of messages and invites from people and I find it annoying at best.
I’ve read all about adjusting my security options so I don’t get these messages/invites, but that’s not the point either. I want the people who are “sending” them to be educated. I want them to know how badly it’s hurting their reputation. I want them to better understand how these channels connect and the image they are projecting looks like to others.
When Tom Peters started the Personal Branding craze (over thirteen years ago now), there was no way he could have seen how social networking would change one’s ability to quickly develop and define your own Personal Brand. With the amount of Facebook spam floating around these days, my guess is he’d be equally mortified on how quickly it could hurt one’s personal brand as well.
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