Facebook: Personal Life vs. Business Life
by Nathan Mooreon August 13th, 2008
Now that more and more people are jumping on Facebook these days, it is becoming increasingly difficult for professionals to separate their online business life from their online personal life. As the video clip above proves, the convergence of these segments in social media are starting to cause problems for professionals.
Which brings up a good question: Should your business life and personal life really be segregated?
Whatever you do in your free time is a reflection on you, right? You are you. Your actions on the weekend reflect on your 9-to-5 life and vis versa.
If you like to go out and party on the weekends, be ready to take responsibility for images that may be posted of you on Facebook. Be ready to have friends write things like “you were totally wasted last night” on your wall. These are reflections of you. You should not feel that you need to hide that, and if you do try to hide that, you are not being true to yourself.
Facebook has allowed anyone that you befriend to journey with you in your personal life. They are able to see where you go, follow what you do, and monitor who you hang out with. You are not able to separate these and exist effectively in the social media world.
The only way to keep embarrassing content from showing up on Facebook is to realize that your business life and your personal life is one. And people will respect you if you act accordingly. If you do not place yourself in potentially embarassing situtations, you have nothing to worry about. A little integrity can go a long way.
Itegrity in your personal life = interity in your business life.
Tags: Business, Facebook, Integrity, Party, Personal, Professional, Social Media, video
August 13th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
AMEN! If people were just good in general, then they would have so much less to worry about. Own your actions people, even if you don’t they will define you.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
and if you don’t, there’s always the ‘untag’ and ‘delete comment’ buttons.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I think segregating them is okay under certain circumstances. For instance, if you work for Nissan, having a “Bob at Nissan” identity helps customers quickly recognize that you are a point of contact at Nissan that they can easily access (as long as this is in your job description - don’t get yourselves in trouble, people). I know you’re aware of several companies using Twitter as an avenue for customer service. This can also work on Facebook or other social networks. For the sake of business to consumer communication, sometimes it is better the segregate personal from business.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
@John - Good point. I would agree that companies can utilize social media to reach people. It is beneficial for companies to even put a face to that social media contact - such as “Bob at Nissan.” However, if, for example, the CEO of Nissan had a Facebook page - or any other social profile - the content not only reflects on him, but also the company. If customers are familiar with you beyond “the point of contact,” then the two merge.