Social Media, and Separating our Business and Personal Lives.

With so much being written on Facebook, Twitter and other social media’s real estate applications, many people are choosing different camps. You have those who embrace social media, many of whom are deriving business from it, and then there are those who are either skeptical or prefer in their words, to separate business and personal. I see the point on both sides, but I do believe that the skeptics can have their cake and eat it too. 

Facebook is not for shamelessly spamming and promoting yourself to your friends. Those people are annoying and probably generate zero business. Moreover, it is against Facebook TOS for your Facebook profile to be an advertising vehicle. My personal Facebook page is not spammy, but it does get a feed from my blog. If I were so motivated I’d figure out how to turn that off but it isn’t an issue. Note the difference in my personal and business pages.  

Personal page: 

Facebook has a business only tool anyone can create. It is separate from your personal page, and is a better forum for more business oriented content. Once you have 25 fans, you can create a vanity URL. Mine is Facebook.com/JPhilipRealEstate. 

Now my business page:

Facebook is not for making business contact with people you have no prior connection to. You know who I am talking about- some guy in Colorado who wants to sell me 500 coffee mugs with my company logo or a real estate  motivational speaker I never heard of will not get access to my family photos.  

Facebook is a sphere of influence tool. People who already connected with you are the “farm,” not  people you have never met. 

When you tell people your business and personal are so separate that you don’t want to mix them you can unwittingly create the impression that you have a weird double life. Or, at least it is fun to think so.