Social Media: Personal or Professional?
By Kyle McCabe | August 20, 2009
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Most of us who are active in social web spaces (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) do it privately – that is to say, we’re engaging online with friends and family. But what if you’re doing it for a business? How should you present yourself?
It can be difficult to know where to draw the line between the personal and professional when dealing with brands, vendors, clients, customers, etc. After all, you are YOU, and though you may represent your organization, you’re still a person. And people engage with other people.
Look, I “tweet” personal stuff all the time. Granted, I’m not the principle of the organization, or even a high-level operative (so to speak). So although I do represent my company to a degree, I’m safe from being seen as “the company voice.” Not so, for others. Being seen as the representative of the organization can put you in a tight spot where the line between personal and professional gets a little blurry.
But this is why I’m always talking about strategy (for those of you I have actually spoken to). Dipping into social media just to experiment is fine – in fact, a good idea. When you start to get serious, though, you need to step back and take the strategic perspective. It’s within this view you’ll be able to answer the question “Where’s the line between personal and professional?”
Because it really comes down to how you plan to engage the social web. If your plan is to present a corporate voice maintained by multiple team members, the line is drawn well within the “professional” space. If you plan to just be You, who happens to work for Company A, the personal element should and will naturally spring to the surface.
On to The Good Stuff
Keeping in mind this all depends on your objective and strategic approach, here are some basic tips for keeping that balance between the personal and professional in any social web space.
1. Don’t over-disclose. Pretend you are talking to a customer. In other words, keep it on a professional level, even if the content is more about you, personally, than the business.
2. Careful what you say. Political/religious content can offend your customers. Unless the issue directly affects your business, pass on it (as opposed to “pass it on”). Again, pretend you’re talking to a customer in the store or on the phone.
3. Don’t get carried away. “Personal” is good in moderation, and if it’s still useful somehow. “I’m eating a turkey wrap” isn’t useful or even interesting. “This is the best turkey wrap I’ve ever had – got it from [some restaurant] in [some place] – try it out!” might be both.
4. Be prepared to engage. If you post or tweet personal content (or anything else, really), you may get replies. If you ignore or walk away from it, you’ve missed an opportunity. Once again, pretend you’re talking to customers. Expect questions, and answer them. Have conversations!
5. Don’t have conversations. Wait, what? “Kyle is contradicting himself again,” you say? Yeah, sorta. What I mean to say is don’t hold long public discussions about personal things. If you do want to have such a conversation with someone, take it to private messages, email or instant messaging. The rest of your audience will thank you.
So there are some loose guidelines for keeping that personal/professional balance. Hope this is helpful to those of you just starting out, and if I left anything out please post it below in the comments. Thanks!
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