Hey guys, welcome to Shama.tv. Today I’m going to answer a question that I got from one of my Facebook friends. Facebook is a pretty hot topic, it has been for awhile, and people have a lot of questions about it.
Well, this question is about how to separate your personal and professional lives, and this is a question I get while speaking as well. It goes a little something like this: “I have my group of personal friends that I interact with and I try to use Facebook for that, and then I try to use LinkedIn for my professional, but can I keep it separate?”
Here’s what I’m going to tell you: As time goes on, it’s going to be really, really hard for you to keep your personal and professional lives separate. I know that’s hard for some people to hear, but that’s generally the direction we’re headed. You may think that your using Facebook for personal use, so it’s OK to put up, say, pictures of me with my college buddies and maybe humorous lines, but let’s say that you applied for a job, or a client is checking you out… they’re going to look at your facebook profile, and they’re not going to give you same leniency, if you will, and think this person is just using this for personal use. They’re not going to see it in that light or that respect.
My advice to you is that when you’re using Facebook, or when you’re using LinkedIn, whatever social networking site it may be, keep it professional. Even if you have personal friends on there, that’s fine, but feel free to delete things off your wall that are inappropriate, or aren’t a good reflection of your character or what you’d like to portray. These things will add up, and this is all public. Remember that anything you put out there is indexed by Google, and stays on the internet forever, so be really careful.
And, yes, it’s going to get harder and harder to separate your personal and professional lives, so you’re just going to have to make the distinction and the choice to be a little more professional overall on all social networking sites.
March 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Good clip Shama and so true.
Nash
March 19th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Wow, that is so true Shama. In fact, don’t we connect with friends on the personal basis, and then as a relationship develops, business might (or might not) naturally result.
I think thats another of the things I learned from your book so far, and I guess different people will have different “boundary lines” as to how personal is “too personal” to share when your FB account is primarily for professional purposes.
But it seems to me often the “personal, seemingly irrelevant” comments/posts often get the most attention.
ie.. I would bet that Shama if you posted:
[Shama is] “relaxing at the end of a long day with a glass of red” you would get a good few comments back, all from people that are identifying and connecting with you LOL. But its nothing strictly to do with business.
Anyway, you really nail the truth in these little vids – Kudos…
March 19th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Good topic Shama. Everything is in the open. Use the settings in Facebook to separate your professional life and your personal life. Most people don’t use the setting to their full advantage.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Right on the money, Shama, and an increasingly huge issue for many people who try to use FB for both. What I am doing is advising people who want to use FB for primarily business purposes is to set up a separate Facebook “page”, as opposed to a “profile,” and keep it “strictly business.” An FB page is intended for business, and is designed that way by FB. Plus, FB are in the process of upgrading “pages” so they act more like “profiles,” ie more viral. I think it was incredibly dumb of FB to name these “intended for business” pages “Pages.” How confusing, since most people refer to their personal profile as a “page” also! If FB had wanted to differentiated these business “pages” they should have called them “business pages!” Still, that’s the name for now, and it’s a good way to keep things separate.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:48 am
So good points Shama. I agree a 100% with the professional and personl mixing. And we should see that as a great thing. Build your personal brand and companies will come looking for you. Be yourself, that’s all you can be.
March 20th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Hey Peter: Great points! It is often the personal that gets people more involved. Anytime Snoopy makes a guest appearance in the videos-we get more comments. : ) About Snoopy that is…
Hi Brenda: Yes, Facebook does provide lots of ways to keep your things private.
Hi Neil: Yes, Absolutely! Pages are for business. Profiles are for people.
Hi Chris: Well said! It is going to be almost impossible to separate your lives into segments in the future. The identities merge.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Ver interesting topic Shama. In fact we as a company have thought about this some time ago and we have developed and applied for a patent on an idea we have where users personal and professional life on Facebook and other social networks can be kept separate.
OIur technology will provide that buffer between personla and professional
March 26th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Dear Shama,
Thank you ever so much.
I understand you to be saying keep it “professional” in demeanor and actions, since a reputation is made public through the whole social networking realm.
It is not clear whether you are just saying behave well or if you are saying that it is okay to mix personal and professional within the same Facebook or social “place.”
Shama, your response to Neil that pages are for business seems to indicate that you do recommend that people SEPARATE business and personal, although that somehow seems contradictory to the video.
Allow business promotions, advice, links in the personal space?
Make the business space personal?
Please clarify.
Nonetheless, I understand that social networking has components of the personal, as that is a core component of networking.
March 27th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Hi Richard,
I am saying behave well and that it is okay to share personal – to the extent that you feel comfortable.
My response to Neil is that profiles are meant to be kept personal. I don’t recommend using a business name there, because that is against FB rules. If you want to focus SOLELY on business-then pages are a good way. Once you setup a personal profile-by all means, you can talk about your business.
I hope this clarifies it!