Went to PodCampBoston4 this weekend. Everyone is working on the “next big thing” -what is “social media”? What does it mean? How is it affecting all of us? How far should it go? This weekend helped me answer a question – when social media enters the arena, should we keep our personal and professional lives separate?
My conclusion: it is too late, do not even bother.
First off, it is no easy task. Some people stick to the idea that Facebook is for friends and family and LinkedIn is for co-workers and professionals. This is a nice idea, but since when are we not allowed to be friends with our co-workers? If we are friends with people we work with, what category do they belong? Do we (gasp) deny their friend request? That would surely cause tension in the work place. “I’m sorry but I cannot friend you on Facebook because we work together.” I do not think so. There is also the notion of keeping two accounts – two blogs, two Twitter accounts – what is next? Two identities? All it takes is a couple of retweets and everyone finds out that Batman is Bruce Wayne.
You have no control.
What I mean here is it is fine to keep the membership separate, putting your friends and family on Facebook and clients and co-workers on LinkedIn, but do not think you are fooling anyone. Also, do not think you can keep each group from seeing things about you from the other group.
The tough part about this welding of work and home is the boundary issue, closely followed by the judgment issue. For example, on an online parenting community someone posted this question, “I found a great nanny, but after I googled her name some racy pictures came up of her on Facebook, should I still hire her?” The community responded mostly on the neutral side, but quite a few responded that young people do not take things too seriously, and what is inappropriate to you may not be inappropriate to them, so forgo judgment. Another, “What she does in her private life is her private life. If she does her job well, who cares?” Frankly, I was a bit taken aback by this. I had anticipated parents to have an uproar and urge the original poster to pass on the naughty nanny.
This all brings me back to PodCampBoston. At one of the first sessions, one person made a very insightful comment (did not catch her name but if this is you, let me know for credit). Paraphrasing her, “Americans are so behind on this. Just because someone does something in her life that is not mainstream, does not mean she is not capable of functioning in mainstream society. Europeans are much more ready to understand this.”
I agree. Thinking back on Web 1.0 (remember that?) I hired a great web master for a financial company who is a pagan priestess (sorry E. if I get the title wrong). She does her job exceedingly well. Why not?
Most of us (or maybe just me) are not in the Batman/Bruce Wayne dilemma of personal and private life. My final thoughts are to follow the rule that, “anything you put on the internet will be seen by everyone” balanced with “be who you are and be proud of it!”
5 responses so far ↓
1 Steve Robins // Aug 12, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Great post. I totally agree. Search engines don’t discriminate between personal and professional. If it’s out there, it’s going to be found by someone.
Best advice: if you’re concerned about business folks seeing your personal side, it’s time to remove the “personal” content because it will be found.
2 Kimberly from SomeBunnysLove // Aug 13, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Curious thoughts here: I have been keeping my hobby and technical professional lives separate due to misunderstandings and biases that co-workers in the professional life have had. I also have seen the negative reactions of upper management in a large corporation which did not appreciate the enthusiasm for my hobby, and I was thus penalized for it by being singled out and displayed as a non-team player. Maybe in time, I can allow both LinkedIn and Facebook to share content, but until then, I have decided to slowly blend the two into a median identity that would not “offend” in either persona.
3 pk // Aug 13, 2009 at 2:34 pm
@sombunnyslove – Knitting, Bunnies are offensive? Wonder what they do for hobbies !?
My point is that it is ok to segment the communities in terms of membership and content, just don’t expect to hide one side from the other. There is no reason to hide anything. Vote with your feet if necessary, life’s too short !
4 Ben // Aug 13, 2009 at 9:40 pm
“This is a nice idea, but since when are we not allowed to be friends with our co-workers?”
That’s why I’ve got you on both LinkedIn and Facebook =)
I treat social media just like e-mail – assume anything can end up on the front page of a newspaper. So I’ve got the professional me (LinkedIn), the “private” me (Facebook, etc.) and the real me. It doesn’t go on a social network if I’m not OK with those worlds colliding.
5 pk // Aug 13, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Perfect timing Ben — as I just discovered “Better Off Ted” (yes, I don’t watch TV much) and watched the “You are the Boss of Me” episode, on Hulu.
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