Paul Dixon’s PR blog

In my last post I argued that young PR professionals need to embrace social media as part of their personal branding.  Social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook are leading the revolution – it’s a no-brainer that professional communicators need to get a firm grip with what’s happening online, and be an active part of it.

But things aren’t that simple: what happens when a potential employer, impressed by your CV and LinkedIn profile, then clicks on Facebook only to discover that picture? He might not put the phone down, but he will want to delve into the pockets of your life (possibly the ones after a few too many shandies) that you didn’t want him to know about. Heck, you had already forgotten about them and moved on.

Paull Young, on his excellent PR blog – Young PR – recently wrote about the personal and professional disconnect in social networks: 

My Facebook network has been growing like crazy of late in two distinct areas: serious professional contacts and Aussies getting a handle on this *new* social networking thingamabob. In doing so, it is highlighting for me the disconnect many young PR pros will find between their professional and personal lives online. 

I’m no different and find myself often thinking about my online brand strategy, and how best to combine both my personal and professional lives online. There are various views on how to actually achieve this. Having two separate Facebook accounts, one for personal and one for professional, is one strategy mooted. If making two separate accounts isn’t your thing, then you could always use Livejournal which apparently has an effective filter system allowing you to manage who sees what. There are calls for Facebook to improve on their ‘limited profile’ option – handing you further control of your personal/professional online presence.  

But are these really solutions? In some situations, they certainly are. As Paull Young mentioned, having your friends’ profiles – complete with photos you wouldn’t want their boss to see – linked on your page could potentially influence the perception of people you are trying to impress professionally.  However, as a young PR professional, beginning his career in Beijing, it all seems a bit familiar. Creating your own Great Firewall – like we have in China (e.g. the need of proxy servers to access BBC News) – can only get you so far. With the Internet becoming more networked everyday any attempt of a dual online existence is bound to fail. It’s simple: you aren’t going to win against Google. The Chinese government knows this too, hence both Google and Yahoo ‘comply with local Chinese laws and regulations’ (i.e. censorship). And it’s still not enough. If someone really wants the information – they can usually get it.  

Having said all that, for the majority of us, there shouldn’t really be a problem in sharing your true-self (warts ‘n all) online – your life outside work with family and friends should be demonstrated as it shows your social qualities and wider interests. Future employees and co-workers should also (and I’m sure they are facing these issues too) realise that Facebook profiles often are not true reflections of that person anyway. Sure, a ‘friend’ posted that picture and it’s linked on my profile, but heck, it was six years ago and I haven’t even seen him since that fresher year.  

I guess the bottom line (paragraph in this case) is that it’s important we understand that personal and professional lives are increasingly being blurred online and we can’t manage one or the other.  When interacting on social networks with our mates, and our colleagues, we can however consistently stick by our brand. After all, further down the road, it might just be worth it – unless you’re me of course, who will be woken up by (the least of my worries) a bang on his door from a Chinese Public Security Officer. Come back to make sure I’m still here. Cheers.