Separating Personal and Professional On Facebook Part I: What if Professionals See My Funky College Pictures?

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

I offer a lot of teleclasses on Social Networking and inevitably I get the question, "How do I separate the personal from the professional on social networks?" Usually this question comes from one of two concerns: One is concern over professional contacts seeing our personal information. the other is concern over personal contacts seeing too much of our marketing message.

In this post I will discuss maintaining a professional image on Facebook. The next post will be on how not to spam your Facebook friends.

Most professionals were taught at one time or another to keep their personal life separate from their professional. You may have been required to wear a certain attire or say certain things. (I never did well with this myself, which is why I'm an entrepreneur!) Then, venturing out on your own you may have sought the advice of a professional marketer who told you to say and do things that were for business purposes only, and weren't a true reflection of your personality.

But for authentic marketing, hiding this way keeps your perfect customers at bay. In Law of Attraction Marketing we recognize that 'like attracts like' and so our perfect customers like us the way we really are. Being authentic in our marketing ensures our perfect customers can recognize us when they find us. If we are faking it in any way, our perfect customers will be confused.

That said, I want my personal information going out to my professional contacts. I know that people only buy from me when they feel they know, like and trust me, and offering personal information helps in that process. Even my funky or embarrasing high school and college pics can contribute to a friendly Internet persona. (The picture above is from 1985!) I often receive positive comments on my archive of old pictures from clients and professional contacts.

You can read more posts about authentic marketing here.

In the next post I address how not to spam your friends on Facebook.

See My Personal Facebook Profile at http://www.facebook.com/julia.stege

Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM, Branding from the HeartTM, and smart Social Networking strategies. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com . WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire article including this bio at the end.