I am in the midst of a discussion with a couple of friends regarding the division of personal life and professional life and would like some feedback. My blog is primarily a business blog, but I do like to share personal information as well. When I read other blogs, I like to know about the person behind the blog, and I am happy to share information about my background as well. I think it’s only fair that my blog readers know who I am and what I am doing.
I also have a Twitter account, which as the url would suggest (@dinvesting), is an offshoot of my blog. However, I don’t really have any friends who are on Twitter aside from my domaining friends, so I use it as a personal account as well, especially because many of my domain industry friends use Twitter as well. I am not one for sharing intimate details of my personal life with many people, so it’s not exactly a big deal having the mixed account because even the personal stuff is watered down, knowing that anyone can see it.
Facebook, on the other hand, started off as a strictly personal account and has evolved into a joint business account as business acquaintances have “befriended” me. People have added me as friends, some of whom I hardly know or don’t know at all, and I generally accept requests if we have friends in common, despite the fact that I might not know the person, to avoid being rude. I’ve met and become friends with many people via the domain industry, so despite the fact that we didn’t grow up or go to college together, we are still friends.
I must admit that I am getting annoyed by seeing constant self-business promotion via Facebook, as I still consider it more of a personal account. It’s also annoying when Facebook “friends” seem to combine their Twitter and Facebook accounts and do retweets and other stuff on Facebook. I suppose that means that these people have decided to make it their business feed rather than a personal feed, but what must their non-business friends think about all this business they are bringing. It doesn’t seem like there’s a way to block specific people who are notorious for their business-related posts.
As an aside, a few of my friends have been known to take those annoying Facebook quizzes too, so I’d love to block their feed as well! I don’t really care if they would be Don Corleone in the Godfather, if their iPod color is blue, or that Brad Pitt would play the story of their life if made into a movie.
Anyhow, the big question is where do you draw the line, and when you draw the line, do you go back and adjust your accounts to reflect this?
