The holidays have made me stop to think about relationships. Because Social Media has become my focus in my professional life, I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the imaginary line between my personal life and my professional life. In social media, the line is much thinner. 

This is a good thing. Why? Because people can see pieces of who you really are and you become a real person. You have a personality. You are unique and not like any other person in your profession. 

This is a bad thing. Why? More people know more about you. You can’t protect your personal life as well. And who wants to be two different people in real life and on the internet? No, you WANT to be the same person. So of course you are going to be more transparent. 

I wrote a ‘note’ on my Facebook account today that was very transparent. In the past Facebook was always a personal tool to get you connected with new and old friends… but over the past few months it has become another tool to promote your profession. So I felt like I had to draw a thin line in my note as to just how transparent I would really be. 

My social media network consists of family members, friends, clients, colleagues, potential clients and a mass audience of random social media users. I think the only answer to this puzzle is to be yourself. You can still brand yourself for a specific niche audience, but in order to communicate with your whole world you are going to be forced to be yourself. 

The question still remains: where do you draw the line between your professional and personal life in social media? How transparent should you get?