Separating Life and Work When Building Social Networks

Social networks are catching on and becoming big business in many circles. It is important to remember though that not everyone is using social networks for business. With this in mind it is a good idea to separate your business and personal networking so that the two never meet. This means that if you are trying to build a brand based on your name, the name your friends and family know you by, it is probably worth creating an alias so that friends and family can find you online and in other social networks easily or create an alias and re brand your business.

If you have been in a business for quite a while it is probably not a good idea to toss your brand into the wind and start over. However, if you are new to the world of Internet marketing it could save a few clients from seeing those old college photos your sorority sisters are tagging you in elsewhere.

You also do not necessarily wanting your friends and family learning the intimate details or how much time you spend playing on the social networking sites when you are telling them that you are working. Remember, if they are going there to play, they really will have a difficult time understanding that you are doing anything other than playing.

Other benefits of keeping your personal and professional social networking efforts separate is so that friends and family do not say things or post things on your pages or walls that accidentally insult existing or potential clients and/or customers. I'm sure you know all too well that people say stupid things every day. It seems that the more we love someone the greater the odds that we will forgive them for being less than politically correct. That doesn't mean that our clients will forgive us for associating with them.

One final reason that it is a good plan to keep your personal social networking accounts separate from your business social networking accounts is so that you have a clear line in your own life between work and play. It is too simple to sneak back to work when your goal is to enjoy a little bit of downtime and reconnect with friends and family. It is even easier when you are logged into the same account you use for business. We all need a little bit of R & R on occasion. A separate personal social networking account allows you that little bit of respite from the demands of work.

Whether you keep things separate to shield your business associates from family and friends, shield family and friends from business, or so that you can set aside a little bit of room on the Internet for your personal sanity it is a good idea to have one account (and screen name) for social networking for business and a separate account to be used when social networking for pleasure. How many accounts do you have?