It can be a strange thing for a business owner or manager to present themselves on behalf of their company - where should the lines between a professional profile and a personal profile be drawn? It comes down to the level of comfort you have with "being your brand". If you own a store on Main Street, then you probably should "be your brand" - your friends will also be your customers (or should be), and your customers should become your friends. In person-to-person transactions, the best way to build repeat business is to build "sociability" into each professional transaction.
However, if you are selling "professional services", then you may not want personal details associated with your work life. Do you really want to know about your Doctor's weekend habits? Do you want your clients to know about yours? It's a tough call.
I personally couldn't care less what people know about me, but I still try to keep some distance between my personal and professional lives. At the end of the day, my clients are extremely important to me, and I count many as great friends, but other things are equally (or more) important than business stuff, and I choose to try to keep things partitioned - if only to remind myself when it is time to stop working. That's a big one - and it is a tough line to draw in the sand.
I spend a lot of my time talking with people about strategy, but it is important to have a life-strategy too - and that strategy should start with knowing where to draw the line between work and the reasons why you work.
Your post couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. My wife and I have just opened a chiropractic clinic in downtown Guelph. As such we have a blog, a facebook page, and just recently twitter accounts. With each of those social avenues, however, we were very conscious of how we wanted to present ourselves – as a resource for health information.
ReplyDelete“Do you really want to know about your Doctor's weekend habits?” Not really, no. But people do want to know that whoever it is behind the organization is a real person. In the case of health care providers, patients are increasingly looking for an opportunity to have a dialogue about their health as opposed to a monologue. And that’s where opening up one’s personality in social media can help to build rapport and relationships whether you’re a doctor, a baker, or candlestick maker.
I while ago I read the book Speak Human by Eric Karjaluoto. In it he speaks of the need for businesses to put aside their “corporate speak” and engage their audience in a less stuffy, more natural manner. It’s not about using more street slang, rather it’s about recognizing that relationships are person to person and being able to find a balance that’s right for you and your audience.
Thanks for posting this. It’s good to think about as more businesses engage social media.