You vs. You: Determining how much to share in the social media space

Whoops didn’t mean to send that last tweet haha
2:47 AM May 10th Anonymous via Twitter

I have to be more careful and look at who I’m sending the message to. I didn’t mean to tweet that earlier. smh.
7:04 PM May 7th Anonymous via Twitter

My hosting provider is a complete prick. No, I don’t (want to) take that back and I won’t regret this tweet.
3:48 AM Apr 24th Anonymous via Twitter

Have have you ever regretted posting a vulgar tweet on Twitter or felt embarrassed that a colleague at work saw your innermost feelings through your Facebook status?

The internet has left the world drunken with constant connection through social media and social networking. Of course you know, because you’ve probably stopped by Facebook 4-5 times today.  This constant interaction started when blogging and personal web pages became mainstream on the internet. Personal written journals never allowed such an open dialogue and has initiated a flurry of interest into sharing personal ideas and thoughts in the public domain of the web. As publishing tools have become easier to use, the easier it has made it to connect with the world within a couple of clicks.

This new wave of social media and networking online allows you to create and share content with followers, friends, family, and professional colleagues.  Through social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, you basically allow instant access to your personal world in seconds. Participating in social media has huge benefits from a human connectivity standpoint, however with that type of openness comes responsibility. Just like me I am sure you have always been taught to put your best foot forward, right? Did you always listen to that advice?  Probably Not. So you ask who cares that you threw up at the bar and your friends have pictures of this debacle on Facebook? Actually, you should care.

With this type of information now flowing through the “internets” (as some call it), how do you go about separating your personal and informal interactions away from your professional image that is shared with the world via the internet? This is the million-dollar question, right? We have a couple ideas that we think will stick with you as you paint your personal brand in a light that’s beneficial to the WHOLE you. Which brings us to the first point:

1) Realize that THERE IS ONLY ONE YOU!
Most professionals feel that as long as they keep their personal life away from their professional life, then they’re safe. This is not a true picture of how personal interaction occurs. The lines between personal and professional  interactions are constantly blurring. The first thing that needs to be realized is that there is only one YOU, which is your personal brand. If you are the life of the party and are always full of fun in your personal life, those attributes can be true selling points in your professional life. The best course of action is to always be true who you are. If you have personal attributes that can be embarrassing to your personal brand, then you need to re-evaluate and focus in on what your personal brand represents. Hajj Flemings, writer/speaker on Personal Branding, summed it up the best at the Podcamp Michigan conference in 2008,  “Whatever you do (online) should reinforce who you are.  As long as you are willing to pay the price for whatever it is that you do, there is no problem.”

2) Take serious what you post on the Internet.
The misconception with posting things on personal pages through social sites such as Facebook, is that you have final control on who sees that content. This is partially true. There are still very murky waters in the evolution of social media. It is not exactly clear whether you own and control the content that is posted on these sites. I am  by no means convincing you not to be in this space.  What I am saying is that you should be apprehensive and know that the content you put on the internet may not always be under your control. The more options you have to control your content, the better. This also applies to the security of your content and who could possible gain access to your personal content via hacking or phishing techniques.

3) Continuous management of  your personal brand on the Internet.
Its up to you whether or not you want to achieve high rankings in Google. A good reason to focus on results is to suppress or eliminate any unfavorable search results that you may be receiving under your name. These bad search results might be caused by a personal indiscretion or by an entirely different person that simply has the same name. The best way to increase better results in google is to create more content that aligns with your brand. Use publishing tools like WordPress, Blogger.com, Facebook, and LinkedIn to increase your results. Because these sites have millions of people using them around the world, search results related to these sites are bumped up to the top of the list.

If this whole idea of only being one YOU sounds too Utopian, we would love to hear what you feel is the best approach.  You may find yourself that there are only two possible outcomes on to how you present yourself online: 1) You could be extremely conscious and precautions to what you say or do online, while hiding the real you; or 2) Be uninhibited and transparent in your online presence and share your real thoughts, ideas, and feelings – the true you. I strongly believe that as long as you are committed to your personal brand and being true to who you are, with maybe a few caveats, you will always set yourself up to win. What do you think? Respond in our comments section, we would love to hear from you.