One of the most frequent questions I get from clients who are new to social networking is this: Do I post as myself or as a professional employee?
The question is interesting because it assumes that if you're posting as a professional employee, it's not you who is doing the posting. It's someone who looks like you, sounds like you, drives your car and lives in your house, but it's most definitely not you.
Such is the state of the personal/professional divide in our lives. We play roles, and we see little in common between our personal roles (as spouse, parents, friends, etc.) and our professional roles. We keep them separate, on one hand, to shield our personal life from the intrusion of work, and on the other, to present an image at work that doesn't have time for the silliness of being human.
According to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, that's all about to change, and, in fact, it's changing right this very minute. Entitled "The Future of the Internet III," the report says that the divide between our personal time and our professional time, our personal identifies and our professional identities, will continue to blur as more people integrate Internet technology into their lives and the traditional 9-5 workday begins to crumble.
In a related finding, the report says that social computing will result in a greater degree of transparency for both organizations and individuals, meaning we'll all be more open about what we do, how we do it, what information we have and what information we share.
I'll take the liberty of combining those two points to answer the opening question: It's neither the personal "you" nor the professional "you" who posts on social media. It's the smooth integration of the two, weighted toward your professional side. Share information and observations that relate to your profession, but don't be afraid to post a photo of your kitchen remodeling project. It's OK to be human.
Other report highlights:
- Mobile devices will be the way most people connect to the Internet by 2020.
- Although people and organizations will become more transparent, society won't necessarily improve because of it.
- Voice recognition and touch screens will become more popular interfaces.
- Intellectual property law and copyright protection will still be an "arms race" between people who seek to protect intellectual property and those who believe it should be free.
Download the full 138-page report in PDF.
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