Social Media - Blurring the professional and personal?

When I teach a social media class, I always get this question, "How much personal do I put in my profile if I'm using it for business?" Sometimes I get this statement, "I don't want anyone I work with knowing anything about my personal life." (I don't wonder about those folks, really I don't . . . really.) (just kidding - you know who you are)

But really, some of us are open books, well at least partially open and others are more private. That's perfectly fine - great in fact. I currently have two blogs (well. . . ok, three). Two are business, one is personal. The folks who are interested in reading my personal blog may not care one whit about social media or search marketing. Those folks who want to know about business issues - may not want to know about my personal musings on life.

However, on Facebook, my profile is a big mix of both personal and professional. I like to know some of the personality of the folks I do business with, and I don't mind sharing my personality with most people I do business with. However . . . as more of my college and high school friends come on my friend list do I need to worry about photos being tagged of me that might project a less that professional image? (hey, come on, it was spring break and I was 19!)

So, to paraphrase an iPhone ad - the "new" Facebook has a privacy setting for that.

Here's how to use it:

Look at your Facebook Home page, on the left side you have a "News Feed" with lists. At the bottom of that list is a "+ Create" link. Click there to create a list and choose what contacts are part of that list. OK, let's create a list "business" and choose all your business contacts to be part of that list. Save it.

So, let's say I don't want my "business" list to be able to see photos other people tag of me.
I go to my Settings>Privacy Settings and click on "Profile"
Down the list I see "Photos tagged of me" with a drop down menu next to it.
I click on the drop down menu and choose "customize. . ."
At the bottom of the customize box is a place that says "Except these people" - there you can enter specific people OR a list of people that you have defined. So I choose my new list "business."

Now, my business contacts can see my profile, except for photos tagged of me.

Whew . . . safe. :-)