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.

 In my latest flirt with the on-line virtual world “there.com” I commented to a fellow avatar how great she looked in her bright pink boots – only for her to flee into the jungle. Did I offend her? Should I have pursued her? I think I was more confused in suddenly facing a decision that was for me, well, weird. But for 400,000 there.com members these kinds of experiences aren’t weird at all – in fact they’re perfectly normal.

Online social interaction is transforming the way people communicate, the emergence of blogs, vlogs, podcasts, RSS, and social interaction websites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Second Life have created an arena for people to communicate in a way the world has never seen before. If PR is really about communicating with your publics, then PR practitioners – especially those who are just starting out like me – need to embrace the emergence of new media as a powerful tool for PR practice in the future.

The last thirty years has witnessed the proliferation of mass media. Long before the advent of the now already out-dated internet-dial-up, audiences were able to choose media outlets dedicated to their special interest, rather than having to watch prime-time programs. Greater choice is part of modern day life, look at food for example. Once upon a time you had the choice of maybe a strawberry, vanilla or chocolate ice cream – now you can enjoy green tea flavor, with nuts. In today’s consumer-driven world, consumers – audiences if you like – are making choices based on their own preferences more than they have ever done in the past. This new found ‘empowerment’ has caused the audience to fragment, requiring a fresh PR approach.

This newly fragmented audience is also doing something that has serious consequences for PR strategies: they are placing their invaluable trust in fresh and new ‘credible’ sources. Yes, that’s right, the public no longer only trust doctors, public organizations – and even governments – more than ever, people trust their peers and the people around them. You may argue that word-of-mouth began when humans learnt to talk, but what is so clearly different today is that the public is empowered to find their peers – and talk to them directly – through the platforms the Internet provides. One Chinese woman created a blog dedicated to the discussion of family matters – such as creating online photo albums from old photos tucked away in the attic. The 60,000 netizens who regularly visit her blog learnt about the best scanner to use, the most efficient on-line photo sharing website – they placed their invaluable trust in the Chinese lady’s opinions.

If I was a CEO with the responsibility to up-hold the reputation of a brand that was built up over the course of decades, I would be pretty concerned by this paradigmatic shift in communications. In these new environments brands risk losing control of their message – as PR practitioners, it is our role to guarantee to our clients that this never happens. I am not saying we should all abandon the bread and butter aspects of being a young PR professional – communicating with mainstream media will always be one of the cornerstones of PR. For us all to build and preserve our own brand, as perceived by our clients, we do however need to look beyond these traditional push communication models and become familiar with the less formal platforms. As professional communicators, embracing the increasingly influential two-way group communications found online can only help us along in our career ahead.

* I originally posted this article on AC Capital Strategic Public Relations’“Off The Record” blog. For more information about the company I work for , please visit: www.accapitalpr.com . The Off The Record blog is also a great read if you want to learn more about the Public Relations industry in China. You can find it on the blogroll. Cheers.