Facebook – Mixing Personal With Business
Lately I've been making a lot of business connections, and the majority of them have a Facebook page and have been kindly adding me. I've been accepting them with the desire to connect more with them and see what they're up to. There is, however, one problem.... my Facebook was created during my "pre-professional" days. What does this mean?
This means that there are photos of me out and about in Manhattan and in my college dorms, maybe doing some funny questionable things, as well as pictures of my family and close friends. I know they always say, "Don't put anything on the web that will come back to haunt you," but these photos truly aren't that bad (but certainly may make you lose a bit of professional credibility), and with Facebook's privacy controls, you can prevent the outer world from logging on.
The question is, do I create a professional business profile for Facebook? I barely have time to update my social networks as of now, so the thought of having to maintain two Facebook profiles makes me cringe. The question: How do you handle it, exactly? Do you simply make your profile "business friendly," or would that take away the "you" factor that your friends (old and new) love so much about you.
That puts into mind the question of how to best handle your social networks as these days, more and more professionals are connecting on them. I would love to hear and add feedback on the subject. What have you experienced?
*Update - 7/15/10: I still see traffic coming in on here so I figured I'd let you know that I've been maintaining 2 for a while now. It's true that personal contacts never really comment on industry-related posts and I like to have the other account to read industry-news and keep in touch with business contacts but I go in waves where I'm pretty active on the business account and then other waves where I'm totally dead. It definitely is difficult to maintain two and I must admit, my personal one gets 10x more attention but it is good to have the business one - particularly since Facebook has made it nearly impossible to personalize your settings now for each respective group of people in your life.
Kate Dickman
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August 9th, 2008 - 14:07
Sorry, I can’t help you there. I am on facebook, which I use to keep in touch with friends but I will probably set up another account with them soon as I’m just about to get started in Internet Marketing. I’ve got a number of DVD packages on how to make money online etc which I have the resell licenses for. I also have the master licenses for some of the packages. The DVDs are in the majority bootcamps, seminars or business weekends held by some of the leading Internet marketing gurus.
Hopefully I will be able to use Facebook as a good networking tool for my business. If you go ahead and set up another business focussed Facebook account, I’d be interested to hear how it goes.
http://dsbinternetmarketing.wordpress.com
August 10th, 2008 - 07:36
I am not on Facebook but am considering it to boost my business and hits to my website…
How different is Facebook to Myspace? (which I also do not have)
Is there a professional benefit to a social network like these?
August 19th, 2008 - 00:53
@aquicknote
Facebook is vastly different than Myspace in terms of overall demographic and how it works. In order to be able to learn the differences, you may want to sign up for them and play around a bit. The professional benefit on either of them can vary depending on what type of business. There are probably other online efforts that may suit your business more. There is a website that will be launched soon that will cover these topics comprehensively and teach business owners how to utilize sites like this for their benefit at low cost. You should sign up to get notified of its launch:
http://www.socialmedialearning.com
September 8th, 2008 - 02:30
This is a serious issue for anyone applying for a job or pitching a business idea. Drawing on what I’ve read here and there and various conversations, there seem to be at least two trains of thought:
a) if you want to impress anyone over, say 25 or max 30, as a potential employer or business client, you should be very careful about what you put on the web, even in “walled gardens” such as Facebook;
b) if you are being interviewed or checked out for a business venture by anyone 25 or under, they are still close enough to the “idiot” stage and understand social networking natively, so that they can make the distinction between you then and you now.
Problem with (a) is it does not solve the question of what’s out there now. My advice to people is to do some *serious* SEO and social networking so that what is about you on p 1 of Google is what you want to be there – responsible citizen, great business associate, project this and project that, etc etc. First impressions and all that. Basically, what people are likely to find about me on Google is a combo of what I want them to find and what I’m ok about them finding. Fortunately the web wasn’t around when I was younger and more idiotic than now.
October 24th, 2008 - 17:28
Good discussion but I still don’t understand exactly how you manage two profiles on facebook. I like the idea but how do you keep them separate? Anyone searching for me by name will see both profiles. Do I only accept “friend” requests in my private profile from family and friends and only accept requests in my business profile from business associates? Many colleagues blur that line. Will coworkers who eventually become good friends find themselves with two separate connections to me when I invite them into my wild & crazy private profile?
October 24th, 2008 - 17:31
Oh, and I forgot to point out that I would probably need to do the same thing for twitter, linkedin, plaxo, beebo, brightkite, orkut, etc etc etc. I could easily spend all day every day updating all the various social media interfaces into me. Doesn’t seem very smart or efficient.
October 24th, 2008 - 20:33
@Frank Noooo.. that’s the thing. You can still maintain a professional image by being yourself. In fact, people don’t want to see you all serious all the time. You don’t have to make duplicate accounts for everything. The reason for MY second Facebook account is because Facebook came about WHILE i was in college. I have several photos and just info up there that I probably wouldn’t want professionals in my industry to see. If you decide to create a Facebook now…you can easily make it both personal and business but this is an already established profile that I truly believe I need to keep separate. As for Twitter and all that, most of my friends don’t see the value in it anyhow so I use it for networking purposes and for fun while not posting things that are out of line.
I will admit, I spend less time on my professional Facebook account but it’s always good to have. If people find two profiles, so be it. I don’t care… it’s for a good reason.
Also if someone adds me on the wrong one. I simply add them on the right one. No one will think it’s wrong to have a personal one and professional. 
September 18th, 2009 - 07:33
Hi Kate,
I sympathise with your position. My Facebook account has been set up for years and is personal and for close friends/family only.
You need to be aware that you cannot simply create multiple personal accounts on Facebook – it’s against it’s terms of service and is something the feel strongly about.
A blog post which covers this well is:
http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/multiple-facebook-accounts-and-their-alternatives/
The preferred option, as far as I can tell, is for you to create a “Fan Page” on Facebook – this gives you slightly less functionality – you do not “add friends” but they indidcate they are a “fan” of yours.
Interested how progress with this. So many people think that a “Facebook account” is a single, simple thing but, sadly, it is much more complex than that with personal accounts, business acounts, fan pages etc – no wonder I like Twitter!
Joel
January 29th, 2010 - 02:21
I started off using two Facebook accounts. One registered under my professional name and the other on my nickname. It became too difficult to manage them, especially since some friends fit under both accounts. I decided to just go to one and leave it at that.
I watch what I put up on my wall and I block all of those ghastly applications that friends insist upon allowing to post to my wall.
June 10th, 2010 - 19:36
According to Facebook policy it violates the terms of agreement for anyone to maintain more than one page and all of the offenders pages will be removed.