Social Media: Personal or Professional?

Every year I have the opportunity to review and update my resume thanks to the nature of contracting.  It's time once again to dust of the curriculum vitae and hit the webosphere for the next big gig.

This year, it's a little different though, because I've found that recruiters and sometimes even employers are not only interested in my experience, but also in my activity. As a blogger and tweeter, I've decided to embrace this change and share with you a bit about my social media philosophy for separating Professional from Personal.

1. Assume that people (colleagues, friends, employers) will Google you.
What do you want those people to find? In my case, they generally find an award-winning chemical engineer at Yale. But once they find the correct Julie Zimmerman, they are likely to find this blog, my Linked in profile (currently top Google pick), my twitter and Facebook profiles. These internet postings are as powerful as my resume.

2. Designate a profile/ account as professional or personal in your social media.
I use Linked-in for my professional contacts and I keep all conversations professional, as if I were at work.  The same with Twitter and this blog.  Because both of these can be read by anyone at any time, I treat these as my own professional websites. No cheesy photos, pictures of food, comments about my state of mind or daily commute. I do occasionally tweet on personal subjects, but these are generally targeted as one-offs.

Facebook is my personal "expression" website, and though I would never allow anything on my Facebook that would discredit my professionalism, I would prefer not to have to explain an "out of context" photo or status.  My Facebook loyals would understand, but not someone who randomly lobbed in. I use the settings on Facebook to present  my professional image to anyone who would find my page via search. I make it a habit not to "friend" people on Facebook until we stop working together.

 3. Don't say anything on Social Media that you wouldn't say to someone's face.
There are just too many people with too much time on their hands.  You may end up on someone's FAIL page, or worse, one of your friends may be friends with your next potential boss. Tweeting is not the way to 15 minutes of fame.


4. Join only as many social media sites that you can maintain.
I have a friend who is a social media expert. I get invitations to join every new social media site out there.  Before joining, I always consider whether it will suit me to be a member.  Will I have time to update it?  Will it likely catch on in Australia? Does it duplicate something I already use? The answer is Yes, I have a Google+ account that I don't use.


Hopefully this year I'll be able to parlay my use of social media into my next career move, while still maintain a personal identity online.


How do you keep yours separate? Or do you? What issues has it caused?