I recently wrote a post on the Five Social Media Marketing Mistakes Companies Make. One point in particular generated quite a few comments and that is that it can be a mistake to mix personal and business on your social media profiles.
While I didn't explicitly say to avoid this, and I personally do mix it up a bit, the point was interpreted by many that I was saying to not do it at all. Clearly I wasn't very clear.
Social media is, well, social. And social is about being personal and conversational and communicating with your authentic voice. But where do you draw the line?
Certainly personal stories almost always attract the most attention. And your audience wants to know who you are, what makes you tick, what you believe, how you think. But does that mean you have to reveal all the details of your personal life in order to build trust and rapport?
I don't think so. I'm a very private person so sharing personal stuff doesn't come naturally to me. I don't even tell my mother everything that's going on! I've made a choice to stick to mostly business content on my social networks (much to the dismay of my family and friends on Facebook some of whom now block me because they aren't interested).
The one part of my private life I do share are my runs. I'm a pokey amateur runner and get together with a group of friends nearly every Sunday morning for a long run. I always have my phone and usually take a couple of pictures of our running locale. We meet all over Los Angeles County and often run in beautiful places like Santa Monica along the beach or on trails in Griffith Park.
I post these photos on twitter and Facebook and always get comments, often from people I don't know well. These photos and sharing this personal part of my life is like an ice-breaker. I've met other runners and connected with people who live in L.A. and others who used to live in L.A. and enjoying seeing pictures of places they loved.
What's the point of all this? What you choose to share is up to you. My friend and colleague Mari Smith often says (paraphrasing), "Only post what you would not be embarrassed about seeing in the New York Times or your grandchildren finding online in fifty years!"
My colleague Dr. Rachna Jain says (article to be published soon):
In order to benefit from persuasive social media, you need to have opinions, and be open about sharing them. You need to be a real person, first- one with likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests, and the more varied the better. People are naturally drawn to interesting and active people.
In the end it's up to you how much to share. Some people, like my colleague Kathleen Gage seem to be able to effortlessly weave personal stories in a way to make broader business points. Others, like me, prefer to keep things a little closer to the vest.
Where do you stand on mixing personal vs. professional on your social networking sites?
Related post:
Five Social Media Marketing Mistakes Companies Make
