The world of real time updates and information is closing in on all of us at a very rapid pace. Twitter and Facebook updates are now indexing in Google search results, opening up all* comments to the entire world to read and absorb. This has implications for businesses in regards to reputation management, as noted in a previous post on consumer feedback, but also serves as yet another tool for SEO (search engine optimization) if utilized correctly. It increases the value of social media for business in that a keyword rich status update could get indexed and found by a customer searching on Google, instead of before, when that update was limited to Facebookers eyes only.

*If for some reason this is upsetting to you as a user, there’s really no need to be alarmed. Facebook has recently released a new and much easier way to control all privacy settings on your account. You can choose who see’s what on your profile- including status updates- so if your settings are restricted to “Friends” or “Friends of Friends” only, Google will not be able to index your content. One important note is that Facebook is recommending (and automatically updating) your status updates to “Everyone” (meaning it WILL get indexed- unless you change it) so it’s important to know how to do this…

And very simple.

Select “Settings” and then “Privacy Settings” from the top link next to your name. From there you can select and save your changes accordingly. (“Posts By Me” are you status, photos, links that you update at the top of your page.)