How public do you want your life to be?

A Google search can be a reminder of how key words and tags for a site drives traffic to a site. If one is trying to create that traffic, the term is “search engine optimization.”

If you are birthdayinabox.com, you want to generate that kind of traffic. If someone is search for “Harry Potter birthday,” you want them to find your birthday supplies.

But if you are an 8-year-old  (or her parents), do you really want everyone finding your Harry Potter-themed birthday party photos?

Well, maybe yes and maybe no.

With Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and other social networking sites, you can share photos, videos and even tweets of when you are going on coffee break.

A very important discussion to have with students is how public their lives can be through social software. Social software is letting businesses and individuals promote and advertise without having to go through the media. So learning about the power of social software should be part of every communications program. However, those Facebook photos of a too-good-of-a-time at a party will be out there online even if students close down their sites later, such as when they go on the job market.