The digital profiles that represent our personal and professional lives are becoming increasingly intermingled. My Facebook account isn't just made up of my friends, but a motley mash-up of friends, family, colleagues, clients, others, and some dude who said he went to my high school but I swear I can't remember him. On Twitter, I follow co-workers, clever people, some people I sold concert tickets to, and the family members that signed up for Twitter accounts whose both posts (first and last) were "This is my first twitter post." On LinkedIn, I accept any request, unless it's from an aggressive recruiter.
The (inter)net effect of my mixed up profiles is that I must always consider this varied audience when posting an update. Do I want everyone knowing that I had a nice time at the zoo this weekend with my kids? (maybe) Do I want clients knowing that I was out late the night before a big meeting? (probably not) Do friends care that we just won awards for some website? (most definitely) Does anyone care that my Entourage crashed and the rebuild progress on its database? (no, but they don't ask me to stop tweeting about it)
So it shouldn't be surprising that I was thrown two curve balls during recent new business engagements. During the first, we had reached the end of an exciting, and very competitive RFP process. I learned it was down to 2 firms. I was invited out to coffee to make our case, one-on-one. I did my best, explained our passion for the project, shared our ideas, and spoke to our other relevant success. I thought the meeting went well. On my way home that evening I see a LinkedIn request from the gentleman I had coffee with just an hour earlier. "I'd like to invite you to Join my LinkedIn Network!"
What did this mean? Was he saying that we had won the business and this was a cute way to notify me? Was he saying that he needed to complete more due diligence on me, check out my network, see who I know, and try to glean more information about me and our firm? Or was he simply asking me to join his network, even though we weren't really networked yet?
I couldn't very well ignore the request; I had to accept it and see how things developed. Spoiler: we won the business, it's an incredible project, and our client is a fabulous company to work with.
More recently, we were involved in another very competitive RFP engagement. We traveled to our client for the big pitch, presented, said our goodbyes, and were on the way back to the office. Suddenly an email comes in: "PersonX would like to make you a friend on Facebook." PersonX? Who was that again? Does anyone remember who was PersonX? Why are they friending me? To see if I really *get* social media and will promptly accept the friend request? To see if I had properly maintained a filter between my personal and professional life in my digital profile? To maybe find some forgotten nugget on me that I had posted years ago?
I agonized a bit over this one, but again came to the only logical conclusion: I had to accept the friend request. Spoiler: again we won the business, and have partnered with this truly awe-inspiring institution.
In both cases, but perhaps more importantly with Facebook, I felt completely comfortable accepting the requests because I have taken great care to preserve my digital image. Sure, Google can find a few oddball posts from Usenet and some funny discussion forums, but all in all, I'm squeaky clean. Some friends and colleagues maintain two profiles: work and fun. That seems like way too much effort and is far too dangerous. Just imagine the "did I just say that out loud?" moment when you post your opinions on the latest scandal to befall your favorite Yankees player to your Twitter feed usually reserved for ecommerce and UX tips.
In the two cases above the outcome was positive. But that's not always going to be the case. I have a friend that consistently uses Twitter to complain about his frequent air travel, usually to one particularly annoying destination to see a client. He doesn't seem worried one bit that the client will start following him on Twitter and will be somewhat put off to read, "oh joy, traveling again to the armpit of the U.S. via XYZ airport." Another colleague complains about meetings and co-workers, right on Twitter, for the whole world to see. He masks names, but everyone who knows him knows exactly who he's talking about. And yes, we've welcomed an employee or two ambling late into work one morning after posting 3am FB updates from the bar the night before.
I only see the personal/professional divide becoming more blurred. So, Caveat Twitterer: once you hit send, it's out there for the entire world to read. And if someone--a friend, significant other, a prospective client--wants to dig up a little dirt, it's just a search away.
Labels: facebook, social networking, twitter
1 Comment
Great post, Alex. I can attest to the ever so delicate balance of personal and professional on social networks. I noticed a steadily increasing trend as a consultant with two of the Big 4 IT consulting firms- we turned to LinkedIn and Facebook to get the scoop on the key influencers and executives involved in the vendor selection process. Knowledge of past education, pastimes, and previous employment was used (better word- exploited) to find connections to cajole the individual(s) into making the "right choice."
In regards to preserving one's digital image, I know of two recent cases where a client requested a consultant to be rolled off due to suspect material on his/her facebook profile. Character is of paramount importance, and duplicity, false information, and most importantly, trash-talking of a client on a publicly exposed board, does not bode well for preserving one's own image, and the image of their company.
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