A few weeks back, Centennial College’s Corporate Communications and Public Relations programs held the third annual Talk is Cheap unconference. I was lucky enough to squeeze into a speaking slot, thanks to the shuffling of some awesome organizers, and attended the event with my curiosity piqued. I wondered to myself: How do the students in aforementioned programs utilize social tools? Would their questions be personal or career-oriented? Would there be that oh-so-addicting McDonald’s orange drink?

As it turned out, I was quite impressed by both the calibre of discussion and the pragmatic nature of the questions asked by the attendees, who were both students and professionals. While there was a fair amount of “Social Media 101″ style questioning, the presenters tended to allow other attendees answer questions, provide useful examples, and extend the scope of the original discussion. All in all? Great.

As for my presentation, I brought a new and improved edition of my “Privacy and Social Media” presentation from Podcamp 2010, which included a few more practical examples and addressed a key question that came out of that first presentation. If online privacy is a concern, what do we do about it while still utilizing these new tools on behalf of ourselves and, potentially, our clients?

Well, below in convenient point form are my thoughts.

1. Awareness: Be aware that there are those who would misuse information you have voluntarily placed online. A few quick searches would pull all sorts of recent articles on privacy, information usage, and popular social media platforms.

2. Learn the tools: Investigate the strengths and weaknesses of social media tools you would like to use. What are the default privacy settings, and how easy are they to understand, utilize, and control?

3. Determine your goals: What are you hoping to accomplish through the use of these tools? Is it to make professional contacts? To share your opinions? To editorialize on a topic that is near and dear to your heart? Or do you just want to keep in touch with friends?

4. Match platform to needs: Now that you know the strengths and weaknesses of each tool, and you have an idea of what you’d like to accomplish, match the two.

5. Engage: Dive in! Use your common sense, of course, and be sure to keep an eye on privacy settings, but if you’ve matched your needs and the tool or network correctly, you should have no issues balancing between the utility of the service and the value of the information you are sharing.

6. Evolve: Investigate new tools or services as they appear. If something isn’t working with your current methods (e.g. Grandma is having to join several networks just to see your pictures from recent trip), maybe it’s time to re-examine alternate tools or services. However, do remember that the goal of many of these tools is to have you so invested as to make it difficult to leave. Keep your eyes and options open.

Many of us unconsciously – or perhaps even consciously – follow a similar process when evaluating new tools, but is there anything else you think we should add to these steps in relation to privacy concerns?

Over to you in the comments!