Social Media for Business: The perils of staking professionalism against popular opinion

Posted by Sarah Mitchell on 29 December 2010 | 15 Comments

Tags: Social Media, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook

You've heard the comparisons, right? Twitter is like a cocktail party. Facebook is a shopping mall. Twitter is the street. Myspace is high school. LinkedIn is a business conference. YouTube is home movies for business. Each day another label is added trying to explain the many social media phenomena. Conventional wisdom tells us if we can just understand it all better, we can get rich quicker and become more popular at the same time. But here's the problem; social media doesn't do anything we weren't already doing. Behaving differently than I always have seems like a bad idea.

The New Rules
I've struggled this year to figure out how I should be utilising social media in my business. Admittedly, that sounds odd coming from me. I'm a huge fan and dedicated practitioner of social media. I've blogged, spoken in public, and been published. It's a daily part of my life. My struggle is not about what tools to use or how to use them. Nope. I'm having a philosophical conflict about how much to use them and, more pointedly, how much of myself to reveal.

I won't start speaking about authenticity, transparency and engagement. I don't want your eyes to glaze over and your brain to go on auto-pilot. I know mine do when I read articles preaching these aspects. Social media is nothing more than building relationships "“ that's why it's called "social" media "“ and even the most socially inept of us have navigated how to do that in our professional lives. But here's the problem. The beast has a huge appetite and demands to be fed.

Blurred Lines
When I started in business I was wisely counselled not to mix business with pleasure. As a young woman working in the male dominated technology sector, it made sense not to divulge too much of what I was doing outside work hours. Of course people knew basic information. But they didn't know a lot of detail especially about personal relationships, social activities and family dramas. Bringing that information into the workplace muddied the waters of professionalism. It was considered a universally bad idea to have an office romance. Though they inevitably happened and were even wide-spread amongst the young singles, both parties worked hard to maintain discretion in the workplace.

I won't belabour the topic of privacy on the internet. Reams have been written about the dangers and that's not what this is about. Where I'm struggling is with the assumption or even expectation that I must divulge everything or be seen as clandestine and, therefore, untrustworthy. I've experienced, firsthand, the weight of Twitter when you voice an unpopular opinion. Since politics, religion, sex and many other hotbeds of social media discourse have nothing to do with my ability to deliver an excellent product to my clients, I remain mute. But just lately, that's getting to be more and more difficult.

'Tis the Season
Last week I ranted about holiday eCards. While it was easy to identify who was doing it wrong, I couldn't quite figure out how to do it right. I haven't posted anything since because I battled with what to say about the holiday and how to address my readers, fans, followers, connections, etc. I'm a content marketing specialist and a writer. I inherently understand the power of communication and yet I was unable to craft a post I found adequate. Why?

Because I don't want to come across as smarmy. Because I don't assume to know the people reading my blog or following me on Twitter. Because the relationship, regardless of what the `experts' will tell you, is largely one-sided. I am blessed with loyal readers and a fantastically supportive community of people who promote me through word of mouth. Some of these people are clients, some are competitors, and some are total strangers. How could I possibly craft a message that sounded authentic to all of them - or to any of them for that matter?

Shifting Expectations
Here's the other problem. We're living in an era of too much information (TMI). People are now using personality and personal experience to compete for influence in the business arena. It's become common practice to share everything from the mundane to the scandalous. Foursquare makes me feel like a stalker although I have no control over who is divulging their whereabouts. Everything from food consumption to marriage breakups are disclosed imprudently and in alarming detail. Sharing TMI is almost a requisite. A personal attack is no longer unusual or even remarkable. It's become a tactic in the swelling need to consume. Enticing the voyeur is becoming common business practice.

Integrity, Dignity, Professionalism
Popular opinion isn't enough for me to abandon tried and tested advice. While I'm comfortable handling Social Media hecklers, I can't see myself entering the TMI arena and exposing all aspects of my life. I'm a huge fan of using social media for business but, like my early days contract programming, I draw the line at broadcasting more than I would at the office water cooler or standing in line for the copy machine. I plan on staying in that thin slice of overlap between work and personal life. Why? Because true authenticity doesn't happen behind a keyboard.Because letting it all hang out doesn't equate to transparency. Because my personal life is on a "need to know" basis and sharing it with the masses is not the same as providing engaging content. Maybe that makes me aloof. It certainly annoys the provocateurs from time to time. Maintaining a standard of professionalism is paramount in my career. I'm not ready to compromise for the sake of popular opinion.

What concerns you about social media?

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Image credit: Social Media Overlap by Intersection Consulting, on Flickr