In response to Jennifer Grinder’s Facebook question in #190, I agree with you that you can’t expect people to not find on you on Facebook. I also agree that the answer can’t be as simple as concealing content from users that are not your “friends.” But you do have more control over what others see than simply choosing either Everyone or just Friends.

You can control who sees photos you’re tagged in, your political and religious views, posts your friends make to your wall, your birthday and more.

Ultimately, if you’re going to have professional friends on Facebook, I think it’s important to still engage them in the ways that Facebook was designed for:

-sharing photos
-sharing links
-uploading videos
-sharing comments
-etc.

It can be done pretty effectively, so long as you’re a little bit diligent about setting it up.

1. Sort your friends into lists. My lists are basically Personal and Professional.

2. Set your privacy settings to be inclusive, not exclusive. In other words, configure your privacy settings to only show photos you’ve been tagged in to your Personal friends instead of to show them to everyone _except_ your Professional friends.

3. Use the Preview My Profile tool to see how friends in each of your lists will see your profile.

There is an updated list of settings at http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/. I started work on a how-to video that shows exactly how to configure (and test) some recommended settings, but I never did finish it. If someone would actually find it useful, I’d be happy to publish it.