I read an article which talks about the 30 things you should not share on social media. It was written almost 18 months ago so I think it it has slightly.
I agree with most things on the list but I found number 19 kind of interesting: “Don’t link personal sites to professional business sites like LinkedIn. Don’t mix business with pleasure.”
It is my experience that social media has forever blurred the line between your personal and your professional life.
While some people remain intensely private about who they link up with on Facebook, more and more people are finding themselves connected to their professional and personal circles. They are also talking about their jobs and in some cases this is encouraged to enhance brand presence. Why not let your staff tell the world they work for a cool company?
Social media has opened the world to personal branding. This was not a big issue prior to the new millennium, very few people worked to build themselves as brands. Today it is smart thinking and many of us are doing it. Part of personal brand building is showing your personality so we show bit (or a lot) of our personal interests, humour and preferences.
I believe therefore that it is no longer possible to build a personal brand without there being cross-pollination of our personal and professional social profiles.
In the last 18 months I have used Facebook as a key branding tool and have worked to increase my professional network through this platform and it has worked very well. There is a happy balance of being a professional and having a great personality!
Keep in mind though that number 3 on the list of things not to post is still very relevant: “Party photos showing you inebriated or a hand placed where it shouldn’t be.”
Any other thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments.
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