Are you a two-faced social networker?
As the use of social media in organizations grows, things are getting a bit messy for Millennials. We are having to navigate how to project the professional persona we want - with colleagues, bosses, and potential employers are checking our twitter and Facebook profiles - using the tools that, for us, cannot easily be limited to the professional.
We all have things we do and think but wouldn't advertise at work, yet if a colleague requests our Facebook friendship, we can't exactly deny them. We go through breakups, we take unflattering pictures, we sweat when we run 5Ks. We all have opinions on politics and religion. I wouldn't add to my resume or cover letter that I find Will Ferrell extremely funny, my favorite song to sing at karaoke night is Weezer's "Say It Ain't So," and, oh yeah, this is what I look like in a bathing suit. But since colleagues can access my facebook profile as easily as my resume, some of the stuff that, as a professional, I wouldn't mention to my intern, my CEO or my grantee is on the table.
It feels a little like some social media tools have been hijacked by the professional world. In 2004, Millennials were using Facebook purely to connect with friends, share pictures, personal interests, and now that the corporate and nonprofit worlds are beginning to recognize a value in Facebook for marketing, fundraising, advocacy, they are eager to capitalize on those benefits, our generation's expertise in using the tool, and our robust networks. And I agree that social media can be extremely valuable for organizations, and they help breathe new life into causes and missions. But does that mean pieces of our personal online personas need to die?
In some ways, I think letting the personal bleed into the professional has a positive impact. I'm not so interested in following people on Twitter that just read like an RSS feed direct from their organization's marketing department. It's like signing up to see commercials. But I follow @Zappos because he is clearly a person with thoughts that go beyond how he's going to sell me more fabulous shoes. I follow @tomjd and @AshokaTweets because I find them both interesting, but I maintain @tomjd has something that @AshokaTweets lacks. He reaches a new audience with his "personal" tweets but also exposes them to his work at Ashoka.
I appreciate that Craig Newmark has a soft spot for squirrels, and even though guides to professional success would tell me to hide any Susie Homemaker tendencies in the workplace, I do enjoy baking. Do we risk losing respect by revealing some of our quirks? Or do we risk more by keeping all of them offline? Will we get to the point where it doesn't matter?
So, what's a Millennial to do?
This is something I have struggled with, but I try to walk the line between professional and personal because I think it serves the best of both, but even doing that, there are tricky times. Friends from college might complain that I blew up their twitterfeed from a philanthropy conference, and colleagues probably don't care about seeing the Facebook pictures of the time I met Tyler Hansbrough's dad at the Final 4. That's my approach, but I know others who are adamant about using social media for only professional or only personal audiences or maintain two separate profiles. I don't see a perfect solution. What's yours?
Millennials are used to living in an interconnected world, where we share all kinds of information with peers via social networks, including the causes we care about, our spring break trips and our musical taste. It's against my nature to accept that I have to censor myself and try to live in silos that are wholly work and wholly personal. I don't think we can be authentic and still maintain that level of separation, and one day, I don't think it will feel necessary. I think Millennials and their use of social networks can usher in a new standard for transparency where we will all have to start admitting to being human. No, I don't need to know all the skeletons in everyone's closets, but I don't think we can continue to maintain the division between professional and personal lives that our parents had. Won't we all - as individuals and members of the public, private and nonprofit sectors - be better for it?
Comments
The "blurring" being caused by social media is really interesting, something I have been thinking (writing about) lately:
http://btazzi.blogspot.com/2009/04/next-cisco-fatty.html
For the millenials it has started as personal and turned professional as they got older, where the flip side is gen-x/boomers are just starting to open up privately, which for them is unnatural, in what had been a professional life.
i gust want to say some thing "great job"
Update your Twitter randomly according to your intrest Or, from Rss Feed Or, from your own tweet message list Or, Any combination of the above three http://feedmytwitter.com
I couldn't agree more. At a conference the other day I was asked did I use social media for my personal life or professional life... I replied - "I have a whole life, and yes I use social media." It got an affirming chuckle throughout the room but I'm not convinced that most of those who appreciated the comment really "get it" yet.
Using social media tools lets us censor those who will judge us, not ourselves. I have rules on Facebook and Twitter, my own "policy" sort of. If my relationship with someone isn't truly personal (I call it the f bomb test) then I add them to one of my predefined lists. Each list has different privacy levels and provides visibility into my profile of differing degrees.
I do this so that I don't have to censor myself and I really hope that as the web continues to evolve and we get outside the individual islands of "MyFaceTube" (my phrase but you can use it) I can connect with people who shared my values, goals, interests, humor, and just continue to be me.
Awesome blog KIvie.
Thanks for the comments, btazzi, srdha, @KSL and Maya!
@btazzi: I agree that many of the differences in how we see social media have to do with the generation we belong to. I wonder where we will meet in the middle.
@KSL: I too am looking forward to the time when the evolution of the web will allow us all to be more ourselves. And I have played with privacy settings a bit as well, but I've heard so many stories of accidental postings and privacy setting mishaps that it makes me feel like we should all be prepared to have everything we post (or others post about us, to btazzi's point about his friend's son on youtube) to be seen by everyone.
You raise an important point, one that many of us who are engaged and plugged-in often face. I agree with your point, that its the right balance between blending the personal with the professional, and that balance can make best use of social media in both worlds.
Great post, and thanks for raising the issue.
Personal branding is what I see as the biggest value of using social media for in a professional capacity, but that means it has to be that-- personal. I try to use it as an online platform of my actual self, which allows people to value both sides of me and recognize the full benefit of all I bring to the table.
You don't censor your professional life from your personal friends, and that makes you have a more meaningful and complex relationship. I talk to my friends about my job because it's a big part of who I am and what I care about, and it makes it easier to find commonalities and have conversation with my friends. I find identifying shared personal interests and passion with professional colleagues tends to work the same way as it helps us identify each others strengths and appreciate everything we bring to the table. Regardless of the context in which you know someone, you want to know that they are well-rounded and genuine, and I don't think you can fully achieve that if you only allow people to see one side of you-- that's not genuine or transparent and ultimately, doesn't do anyone any favors.
This is easier said than done when working across generations, especially when you're a young person and you want to do anything you can to prove your worth and be taken seriously-- there's definitely a threshold of oversharing that's all too easy to cross. But I think you're right Kristin, the day will come, and with the fast adoption of these tools, it's likely not too far away.
Great post-- my continuous question and struggle... thanks for opening the discussion.
Good post, funny to read myself being used as an example.
I completely agree that "He reaches a new audience with his "personal" tweets but also exposes them to his work at Ashoka." This is something I preach internally. If all any of us tweet about is Ashoka stuff then we're all competing for the same followers - people already interested in Ashoka. If we reveal more of ourselves and our interests we both reach a wider network of people but also develop more real relationships. Noone wants to be friends with someone who's just there to market at you.
@AshokaTweets meanwhile is organizational infrastructure, our core news feed that I hope anyone interested in Ashoka's work will follow!
That said, I do maintain two Facebook accounts, one for work and one for play. To me it's a very different medium and, given how photo-heavy it is, much more personal than Twitter. I only become FB friends with my personal account with people I've met, whereas I'll connect with anyone who's interested in what I do with my work FB account, and I use it to run or groups etc.
Cheers,
Tom
www.twitter.com/tomjd
Hi Kristin,
Great blog post!
I don't think that the people who create a separate personal and professional account on Twitter/Facebook/etc are two-faced. It's not a question of are we "not being ourselves"; but a question of how much of "our true self" we need to share with the people we do not know in the way that we know friends/family.
I am at the beginning of my professional life, and would like to present the best version of myself so that the people who don't know me, don't get the wrong impression. I may crack a silly joke or share a non-work related link via Twitter, but for the most part I want to present myself the same way I would at a work party/function.
There are boundaries present in social media in the same way that there are if you work at a desk in an office -- you wouldn't give your co-workers a play-by-play of your day as it passes -- so why would you do those things on Twitter when you are following and being followed by colleagues/prospective employers?
On the other hand, I agree that organizations using Twitter are more attractive when the individual behind the curtain reveals more about their interests. If I feel a personal connection to a group, I am more likely to continue following their Tweets and click thru to their Web site.
Regina M.
http://twitter.com/JennyBits
Thanks for the feedback!
Regina, you bring up a good point about what people really need to know about us. It’s not just whether we want coworkers to know some of our personal activities or views, it’s also a question of whether putting everything out there for them to see makes them feel uncomfortable, annoyed, etc.
Tom, thanks for a gracious example and for adding your thoughts. Again, I think you’re doing a great job with this, and I hope others will follow suit!
Kristen, I like your point about not censoring your professional life from your personal friends, and how all the characteristics that make us well-rounded also help identify traits that can be valuable to our organizations. Do you think there are limits, though?
Kristin, I definitely think there are limits, and it's very easy to over-share. That's what makes the blurry line such a challenge. I think it's about finding a balance that you feel comfortable with, and that depends on each individual's personality, how they build and maintain relationships, and the personal brand they want to create for themselves.
I appreciate the call for integration. Have been trying to make sense of Twitter vs. Facebook vs. LinkedIn and have been trying to draw a line between the personal and the professional (with some linking to my personal www.dadtoday.com and others to more professional www.pulseofchange.blogspot.com). but it does get to feeling schizophrenic. maybe time to tear down more walls...
Great post! I feel, as a Millenial, I want people to know there's not much difference between personal and professional. WYSIWYG in my opinion. I believe Gen X-er's and Boomers would say something along the lines of "honesty is the best policy" in word or deed whereas Millenials would add personality to word and deed. Be honest about who you are. Isn't that who your professional colleagues want you to be?
I was thinking about this last October, as I began to get more involved in social media: http://socmedswim.blogspot.com/2008/10/am-i-two-faced-are-you.html
Since then I have remained "two-faced" to a certain extent, because I happen to be the one manning our official organization presence on most social media sites.
On the one hand, as I continue to see the power of networking and developing my so-called "personal brand", I think I have started to self-censor to a certain extent, because it just doesn't look that professional to have my name connected with too much profanity and frivolity ... but who's to say how much is too much? The thing that makes me good at teaching social media to others is the fact that I use it a lot and I use it well. I have made friendships on Friendfeed that I truly cherish - connections to people that, although they are "only" online, mean a great deal to me. And the reason I connect with these people is we are able to be ourselves fully. We get each others' sense of humor. So, I do appreciate the push for transparency coming from the Millenial mindset. But it's treacherous territory and ultimately each of us has to navigate it on our own, avoiding the jagged rocks and storms as best we can.
I think it is wonderful that our personal and professional lives are melding into one. Why do we feel we can be ourselves in our personal lives but have to project (or not project and share) a certain image of ourselves. I wonder about the egos and intentions of those who cannot be themselves in both the personal and professional environments. What are you hiding?
Question: Since when is this just and such a Millennial problem? Hello! There are many of us old folks ( over 40) who
have gone to jail, lost jobs, stood up, been tear gassed etc. we Acted Up! Stopped Apartheid, Fought to keep Labor Unions and Labor Rights alive without Ipod or the internet! We even got beaten up-- We sucked it up and made do.
And who thinks a degree is a ticket to a hot job! hello!
This is about living right livelihood isn't this all not a NON Profit CORPORATE Career.
Hello Millennials -- we are here too! How about intergenerational networking!
We need you and you need us.
Hint: Go seek the Eyes in The Prize PBS Video archives ( in your local library- a great place for solitude and reading from amazing learned authors!) and watch the Montgomery bus boycott and Lunch Counter Student Boycotts. They have video machines in the library!
It is not about being an individual or generation hero or a blogger-- it is building a inclusive intergenerational community and that takes works, time guts and patience. And it means taking the risk to be with people who don't look or act like you and have a lot to share with you.
Blessed be
Thanks for your comment, Anonymous. I agree with your point about needing intergenerational networking and collaboration. I wrote a little about that a few months ago: http://socialcitizens.org/blog/millenial-boomer-mashup.
Millennials can learn a lot from Boomers, and I would love to see more opportunities for that exchange to occur, especially if it can benefit some great causes in the process!
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