Social Media Etiquette | Business & Personal

Social media etiquette is a major topic of conversation today. Everywhere. As I reflect on the things that my colleagues, clients, and friends discuss about how to manage their personal and business social media, a big question is whether or not you want or need to keep business and personal separate on social media.

Making Connections

There are myths and realities around this. We have all seen embarrassing things in social media about people, companies, and industries? Don’t we know by now that people are searching social channels to help determine if your company is one they want to do business with? Aren’t ratings and reviews a major priority for every brand in today’s buying decision?

I’m sure there are many opinions on this. From my perspective, I want every engagement to reflect who I am as a person, and who I am as a company. I believe there is value to having a personal page and a company page that complement each other. Often, building a personal brand that shows your passions, your contributions and what you care about goes a long way in building trust in you and your company or business brand.

Brand Connections
My good friend Elaine Ralls, whom many of you know, has a personal brand of One Big Life that I feature in my book, Think and Grow Rich for Women. As you can surmise, One Big Life encompasses every aspect of her being. This includes how she intertwines her values and personal life philosophy into her professional life. So, to build such meaningful connections, she incorporates #commitagency, her business, into personal posts, and #onebiglife into professional posts.

People Connections

People do business with people. In my mind, building a personal presence that reflects who you are in a positive and meaningful way can only build trust in those you work with. The truth is that people will find you anyway. Transparency is one way social media has given us an opportunity to show our authenticity and our values. If you don’t want the world to see what you are posting, no matter if it’s a personal or professional post, I would refrain from writing it. Once it’s out there, assume it’s public.

Side note: Many people don’t want their personal lives visible on the internet in an effort to protect themselves and their family from any kind of fraud or exploitation. That may be a relevant issue for some. In these cases, it certainly makes sense to focus on a robust professional presence rather than utilizing strategies around both personal and professional pages or profiles.

Your Connections
When it comes down to it, the decision to use social media is a personal one. The bottom line for me in this area of social media etiquette is that if you are active on social media channels, I would use every opportunity to show up in engaging and positive ways that build your personal as well as professional brand. Used wisely, social media can be an extremely effective promotional tool.