Away Messages, Facebook Status Messages, Twitter Messages, etc.

When I was in high school (not so long ago), the way I connected and communicated with friends and acquaintances was through AOL's instant messenger. This continued to be the primary means of communication throughout college, even with Friendster and Facebook starting to come around it still remained the primary means of communication. Status messages would change every five seconds and they would make your "friends" aware of what was going on with you and give them an update about your status. It was common to see "Working on killer math homework, someone help?," or "Showering," or even "Out at Pepe's." It was a time when you probably knew most of the people on your friends list and you didn't really have to be too concerned with people knowing your every move. If you didn't want to see someone's message, then you could simply ignore them. However, if you wanted to know what people were up to you could go and easily find out. Even though AIM is no longer the primary means of communicating for many, the status message is very much a part of social networking and communication.

The status message is essentially the "What's on Your Mind?" on Facebook or the "What are you Doing?" on Twitter. Although who gets this message has changed significantly since my days of Instant Messaging. The messages are no longer a couple of words and your friends or followers see a list of long of everyone who they follow. Today individuals have hundreds to thousands of people with whom they are friends with and these messages show up on their feeds or to their phones. So a message like "cutting onions" may not be something that most of your friends would want to see.

I do continue to post my status on my gmail account. And the people who see that message are people whom I communicate with over e-mail. I didn't really think about my message until my supervisor made a comment about something I had posted, but because we use Google for calendars and document sharing she sees my messages (unless I decided to block her). This isn't a big deal since I never put up anything that I wouldn't want her to see.

I use Facebook to stay in contact with Friends and acquanitances. And I do use the limited profile settings and the Facebook lists in order to protect who sees what information. The types of messages I post on Facebook are:

• articles that I find interesting and I think others would also, although this is not necessarily all of my firends;
  
• status messages about my life and my family to keep me connected with friends who I don't always have time to call;
• posts to gain insight, advice, or help from other people; this is what social networking is really all about.

I use Twitter to connect with people whom I have never met, but have similar interests. I wouldn't post on Twitter messages about what my daughter is doing right now because I don't know most of the people that are connected to me. Because my messages are out there for anyone to see, I have chosen not to post any type of message that I wouldn't want the whole world to know. I post the following types of messages to Twitter:

• Articles of Interest
• Links to Websites
• ReTweets (other people's messages that I think are good enough to share)
• Messages that seek to get other people's comments

I do link my Twitter Account with my Facebook account to update the status messages. So anything I post to Twitter goes to Facebook. If I do a lot of posting then it could be cumbersome on my facebook friends.

It's important to look at your friends, fans, or followers and decide the type of messages you want to post. If you personal account is used for business purposes, I would suggest you think about the type of message you are posting and what the reader on the other side might think.