Intersection of personal and professional spaces

When it comes to the intersection of personal and professional spaces online, I'm a bit of a radical. I believe that you cannot and should not try to live two separate lives online, that your two lives must intersect in a big way -- an eight-lane superhighway way.

Your work is a part of your personality, and your personality is a part of your work. It has been this way for centuries, and social media hasn't changed anything. More personable salespeople sell more cars. More connected authors publish more books. More attractive politicians get more votes.

You have always been asked to the table because of both your skills and who you are. Success has always been measured in connections (unless, of course, you are a brilliant scientist... but even then, you'd need someone to even listen to your outlandish theories, wouldn't you?). Your personal network has always been part of the equation. Your personality has always been a factor, too.

So why do I find myself advocating for the intersection of personal and professional lives when it comes to social media?

This is something that truly baffles me, particularly in my organization.

As a member-based organization, we have folks who routinely spend their evenings and weekends hanging out at community events, talking to new people, recruiting volunteers and members, and just being the face of Girl Scouts. These are stellar employees who form relationships with members and leverage those relationships for the good of the organization. They put themselves out there. They wear their Girl Scout insignia to the grocery store. They call their husbands and mothers to come volunteer at an event when they're in a pinch. They lead their daughters' troops.

Their personal and professional lives constantly intersect.

So why, when it comes to Facebook, are they uncomfortable interacting on the fan page from their own personal profiles?

Why is HR proposing that all employees should create a second, "work" profile in order to respond on our fan page?

Why is it that, when it comes to social media, people suddenly clam up?

Yes, I'm putting our organization on the spot, but it's just an easy example. I'm sure this is a common concern throughout many nonprofits, and maybe in the private sector, too.

People want to change the rules when it comes to social media, but none of the issues are new.

• "What if a customer wants to friend me?" = "What if a customer asks me to coffee?"
• "What if my profile picture includes my kid?" = "What if I'm seen with my kid at the mall?"
• "Customers might see pictures of me drinking." = "Customers might run into me at the bar."
• "I don't want to speak on behalf of the organization." = "I don't want to speak on behalf of the organization."

I know that for some of the issues, the scope is increased. But it's essentially the same thing you were dealing with before. Your online presence is just a public presence; the only difference is your likelihood of being found.

I guess, to some extent, I can appreciate the desire to have separate identities in your work and personal lives, but I don't recommend striving for segregation. You simply can't be happy that way, nor can you be successful.

And at the organizational level, should we really be making policies that enforce this segregation? That encourage employees to be not people but cogs? That discourage employees from integrating their personal and professional networks? That cow to employees who are unwilling to bring their true selves to work?

I don't think we should be. Yes, we may open ourselves up to risk if an employee publishes offensive content. But that risk is already there. And, honestly, that content will be there, with her name attached, whether we try to manage around it or not.

We ought to be encouraging employees to bring their authentic selves to work, and we should not be providing easy outs for those who are unwilling to do it.

You can only succeed, and your organization can only succeed, when you are willing to integrate your personal and professional lives. This has always been the case and will continue to be the case with social media.