Facebook now lets you search for EVERY post
Facebook will now allow all public posts “ever made” to be searchable, according to an Ars Technica web article. This is apparently a part of their new Graph Search tool and is intended to work with the new ‘hashtag’ option. PRNewser picked up the story and expanded upon how it could potentially affect public relations:
“It will allow for more in-depth research if needed, because you can exhaustively pore over the history of a potential client/person of interest
You can more accurately gauge the public’s perception of a given topic, company or personality
Reputation management projects may be even harder for clients with sketchy posting histories, because now you have nearly a decade’s worth of material to review”
The last point I believe is woefully understated. I know that I by myself in just pictures alone have:
- A “Bruno” pose in front of a poster of the movie of the same name
- Several photos across a three day party of me halfway up and upside down on a stripper pole
- Several more photos from the aforementioned party featuring a wheelchair that mysteriously wound up in the location, which we proceeded to use for…games…
- A couple of trips to a certain theme park, one which included riding on the carousel atop a giant green rooster…which I referred to by an alternate name in the tagline
I’d like to think I’ve been pretty conservative with my account, at least compared to the posts I’ve seen from family, friends, coworkers and acquaintances, a list that includes many business owners and professionals.
P.S. I know some will be thinking about the Privacy option for Facebook accounts. I’ve never confirmed this, but a friend claimed he was almost penalized for having pictures with alcohol on school grounds by the private university he was attending for undergrad. His profile was private, but the college controlled the network and had open access.