I make it a point to not add any business contacts on Facebook in an attempt to keep that as a personal site just for friends. When a client of mine wants to add me on Facebook I send them a request via linkedin with a note stating that it is the best social network to keep in touch with me.
Source(s):
http://www.linkedin.com/

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I can understand you hesitance to let a business contact into your personal world like that, but I think you are more likely to offend. Check over your profile and make sure you don't have anything overly embarrassing, but more than likely this contact is seeing you more as a friend than a co-worker, giving that he's requesting to be added.
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I think it's totally appropriate to have separate sites for professional and personal contacts, and if you explain it like that, I'm sure they'll understand. Who knows, maybe they're trying to get some dirt on you!
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If you have a good page, add them- it may lead to a more friendly work relationship. Otherwise, you could either ignore it (if you simply got a friend request) or email them saying you like to keep business and personal life separate.

If you have bad pictures, you can choose to show them only your limited profile, which doesn't include pictures!
Source(s):
Myself

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That's a sticky situation and depends on how you use facebook. I personally use facebook to connect with friends so I don't want colleagues / business associates to see my interactions with friends.

Regardless, you need to live by the following.... if you don't want your momma to read it don't put it online.
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With John Favreau, Obama speechwriter, who posted some embarrassing pictures of him and a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton, on Facebook, this is a good and timely question.

There's two questions here. One: Is there anything on Facebook that you would be uncomfortable with a business contact knowing? Maybe it does not rise to the level of Jon Favreau's faux pas, where he hoisted a beer bottle to the Hillary Clinton cardboard cutout, but maybe you don't want the contact to know that you were out partying last night instead of working on his contract.

The second question is, even if you lead a fairly virtuous life on Facebook, do you want business contacts following you at all? If not, then you want to politely decline the friend invitation, saying something like, "I appreciate the invite, but I use Facebook primarily for social purposes."

You might also suggest LinkedIn to him, and get a Linkedin account for yourself for business and professional networking. Linkedin is much better for that sort of thing anyway because it has places to add resume info and recommend other people.

Good luck. And remember, no matter what happens, it will not be as bad as what happened to John Favreau.
Source(s):
http://www.mahalo.com/Jon_Favreau_Speechwriter

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/12/04/one_more_question.htm...

http://www.mahalo.com/LinkedIn

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Just make a separate facebook account of business contacts.

Why stress yourself out?
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Add him to Linkedin www.linkedin.com
Source(s):
http://www.linkedin.com

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I say do it! In today's "social" world of the Internet, I think it is best to keep you business contacts as close as possible. This way you can see if they are doing business the same way they handle their "friendships"... honestly and friendly. If a business contact can't keep his friends how can he keep your business?

It is obivous that Facebook has a good business model for getting people to do business with other people within their walls:

Here are some links to prove that:

http://facebookcoach.com/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/poll_linkedin_facebook_business_contacts.php

http://www.relativitycorp.com/web2marketing/article21.html

http://www.aboutmybusiness.co.uk/discuss-business/business-question_379
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Do it. Businessmen nowadays look for their clients in social websites like Facebook. It is an important factor to them because they also look for your personality through this website. But before adding them, make sure there is no negative thing in your profile.
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No, no, no. Would you fart in front of him? Would you tell a dirty joke in front of him? Would you invite him to your birthday party? Would you let him know you're depressed. Would you discuss politics with him.

etc. etc. etc.

No. No. No.
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You essentially have three options, ignore the request, block the person, or accept their friend request and edit what they can see from your profile.

Assuming you can't do the first two, here is how to edit privacy settings:

Facebook is designed for those who want to keep their information private. You can use your privacy settings to remove your business contact from seeing anything you don't want them to see.

First, go to your top menu bar on facebook and roll your mouse over the word "settings". You'll see a pop down menu appear, click on "privacy settings". On the page that appears, you can change privacy settings for your profile, search, news feed, and applications. In the Profile section for example, you can change sections that say "only friends" to "custom". When you do that, you'll see a popup that has a box saying "except these people". There you can type the name of the person you want to block from seeing that part of your profile. Be sure to save your changes once finished. The only downside however, is that you'll have to do this on every section of your profile. Its a bit time consuming, but it will keep your business contact from seeing unappealing info.

Finally, if you don't like that option you can always say you prefer to not mix friends with business and hope they understand. Then offer to friend them on a more business oriented social network like LinkedIn.

Hope that helps!
Source(s):
http://www.new.facebook.com/help.php?page=419

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I think it is a very difficul question. My first question is who are your contacts on facebook, do they have pages you need to be concerned about? if they do, i would not do it.

what does your page look like and what groups do you belong to
Source(s):
No sources

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