Having a social media presence is key to building a strong personal and professional brand.
Plus, it allows us to connect with likeminded people, hunt for jobs and find new opportunities and clients.
But what happens when you have multiple brands? How do you separate your personal life from your professional life? And how do you be authentic without oversharing?
In this episode, I share my thoughts on social media, including what it means to be transparent vs authentic, how to get clear on your intentions for each platform, as well as some things you should NEVER do on social media!
This episode was inspired by an email I received from podcast listener Lucy (@thesaltyhound), who wrote:
Thanks for your emails and podcasts. I hope you’d consider covering my slightly unusual conundrum in a future podcast. My dog has a moderately large following (69k followers at the moment), and a lot of the posts are about our regular life – snuggles on Sundays, drinking at bars, watching trash TV.
I try to keep my dog’s Instagram life separate from my personal life (I’m an Economist at an organisation with a lot of media exposure). But I know a lot of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances follow Salty. This means people in my professional life see me in my pyjamas on a regular basis. It’s hard to know where the line is too unprofessional.
But it also gives me great opportunities for speaking – we’ve been on morning TV and have some big internet videos. I suspect other people on Instagram with it as a bit of a side-gig also struggle with this tension.
Firstly, thank you to Lucy for sharing your story and question with me!
I too have experienced my own challenges when it comes to social media. For example, I use my Facebook profile to post about my personal life, and I don’t friend anyone who I don’t personally know or have met in person.
Some people have said I am limiting my business growth by ‘shutting out’ certain people – after all, they could be podcast listeners and potential clients. And it’s been something I’ve been umming and ahhing about for years – do I let everyone in? Or do I stick to my boundaries?
I am curious to hear: do you face a similar conundrum as Lucy? Have you created clear boundaries for yourself on social media? How do you differentiate between your personal and professional life? Leave a comment below, or send me a message on Instagram: @cjcanters 🙂
Leave a Reply