Professional vs. Personal on the Web
I will be the first to tell you I have always had a hard time keeping things under wraps. My biggest challenge was (and still is!) keeping secrets about gifts.
"Ooh, you're going to LOVE your birthday present. Why don't you just open it right now?" And literally, no matter when the recipient's birthday was, I'd hand over the gift and beg them to open it. I blame it on my birth order, naturally. Being the oldest of five, I was often privy to information that my siblings were too young to care about, but I wanted to tell them anyway.
I have been a blogger since 2001 when my college roommate, Lianne, introduced me to LiveJournal. I don't do illegal things, I am not a mean-spirited person, and I rarely use foul language, so keeping things public was easy for me.
I did something this week I've never done before - I made my personal blog private. Of course, it's still on the Internet, so it's not that private. I wish I had a big announcement to go along with the change like "We're getting another dog," or "We're moving to Montana," however I do not. Things around the VanderMaas house are the same.
I also went through my Facebook friends roster and narrowed it down to people I trust, care about, know in real life, and respect. With much of my professional life online - the Pearls Events blog, my Twitter feed, the Pearls Events Facebook page - it's easy to forget that there is still a part of me that needs to just walk away from work.
The lines get blurred when you run your own business, especially when much of your marketing efforts are online. Relationships with people and other companies is how I've built my business, however many of them are acquaintances and do not want to read about my new nephew, see photos of our dog or listen to me complain about folding laundry! If so, they follow along on Twitter for snippets of my everyday life.
How do you keep your personal and professional life separate?
6 inspiring comment(s):
You make a great point about keeping personal life separate from professional. Often times it's hard to balance the two, but it should be done.
It IS hard to balance the two, Aarika! I have to be reminded, oftentimes by my husband, that I also have a personal life :)
Aletha - I don't try to separate the personal and professional "me" - 'cause they both work together to make "me", well, "me". But, I look at it as keeping the personal ACTIVITIES and the professional ACTIVITIES separate if I can. Personal conversations will happen with my employees and my clients, and I'll always share "work stories" with my family and friends. But, I do try to be sure that there are definite times and activities set aside for each part of my life.
That is great advice, Tami. Thanks for sharing.
I just went through Facebook. Twitter, I don't care so much about. But Facebook is more personal (i.e. a TON of photos). So I restricted my access to "only friends" (no friends of friends) and removed people I don't want spying on me.
well... I don't twitter so i will miss seeing your posts! But it is very hard to define personal and professional, I blur the lines often. My job is part of my life and my identity. I agree with Tami, they do cross over into each other because they are pieces of "me".
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