Fruitless: trying to separate personal from professional
I was speaking to the North Fulton Small Business Owners this morning, who, by the way, are a really fantastic group. Not a huge group, generally 15-20 people, but really dynamic and very networking-savvy. While talking to these folks, I got a question that I’ve been getting quite a lot lately about separating your personal from your professional profiles.
My answer – you can’t.
Sure, it’s technically possible on individual outlets to do it with privacy settings and company pages, but why would you? Some of my best business leads and referrals come from people who, had I decided to try and separate my personal and professional lives, I would have placed in the “personal” category.
Let me offer a couple examples. One of my old high school classmates has connected with me on Facebook. Not an uncommon occurrence, you’re thinking. He’s become a pretty regular reader of this blog, and a fan of Realize on Facebook as well. He has recently connected me with a friend of his who is on the adjunct faculty at Rollins College. She has invited me to speak to her new media class virtually, as a practitioner who isn’t there in Florida, and who has a broad base of geographically dispersed clients across industries. Had my “personal” friend not been as aware of my business, I’d have missed that opportunity.
One other opportunity came in today that started the same way. Another high school classmate, also connected to me on Facebook, has unbeknownst to me, been reading this blog and generally following the activities of Realize. I received an e-mail from him today through the contact form on the Realize Web site. He runs a large seafood business back in my hometown, and is looking to us to help him solve some pretty serious marketing issues. Again, a “personal” contact that resulted in business.
