There is no spoon, err line
Last week I attended the MIMA event on Digital Reputation Management. The panelists made many interesting, thought provoking points.
One of the issues discussed has been central to my recent thoughts and conversations: When it comes to social media, where is the line between personal and professional?
Steve Bendt, Social Technology Activist for Best Buy, Inc. stated that before he uses a social media tool, he asks himself: “What type of relationship do I want to have?”
The more I think about what he shared, the more I realize that, for me, trying to answer that question at the beginning of any relationship doesn’t work, because the answer to that question changes as the relationship progresses.
Now, granted, social media tools are not people—but our relationships with them do evolve over time. As with any relationship, we don’t know each other very well at the outset. So, if you’re going to start a new social media relationship, you can choose to:
- Not fully embrace the relationship. Hold back. See what happens before really “showing up.”
- Jump in and be ready to make some mistakes and, occasionally, get burned.
Now, for those of us who are naturally inclined to pick the second approach, it can be scary. It’s one thing to have your feelings hurt. It’s another thing to lose your job (and your health insurance, etc.). Granted, that’s an extreme outcome. Personal and/or professional discomfort is usually the most common unwanted side effect. But it’s a very public forum to be making mistakes in—and there are plenty of folks out there who have appointed themselves the “social media police” and are full of posts, tweets, and opinions about the wrong thing to do, what makes you look stupid, or how irritated they are by everyone else out there.
In using various social media tools, there are decisions that I am happy with, and those that I regret. There are times I have experienced embarrassment, or inadvertently hurt people’s feelings. Like any other relationship, my interaction with social media tools has had its ups and downs, has included my friends, family, and professional contacts all at the same time, and has above all—been public.
So going back to the question I posed earlier, when it comes to social media, I don’t think there is a line between personal and professional. Or if there is, I think it’s shifting and evolving.
I think my children won’t give the same weight to the division between personal and professional. It’ll be hard to care much when all of their childhood accomplishments and gaffes have been captured on their mom’s blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed for Google to cache and others to search and view. And I think by the time they are old enough to think about it, their mom won’t care about that imaginary line very much either.
Posted in Internet, People, Social Media & Emerging Technolgies
