One of the more interesting things about “living” online is the sheer number of places that we need to maintain our identity. From the social networking perspective, I have three: facebook, linkedin and twitter. All have their own followers/friends and all have different purposes in my mind. I try to keep facebook personal, linkedin professional, and twitter conversational. To me that’s the idiom that fits in each the most.
There are also a few promotional tools that are out there. We have a twitter account and a fan page on facebook for downtoearth. While I’m not the only one maintaining them, I do spend time thinking about how they are received and what is the best strategy
However, one could easily argue that a blog is another identity to be maintained. I don’t know the people who read this as well as those from my other identities, but they are very valuable to me. The public nature of my thoughts here doesn’t make it any different. Again I maintain two regularly. This one on personal matters and www.skal8.com for professional marketing observations and commentary. I also try to update a blog on wine tasting and notes, but usually don’t find the time to do much there.
Then there’s comments that I choose to place on others blogs. I’ll admit that I don’t do this very frequently, but when I do I always wonder to which identity I should link. I usually end up linking back here. It’s sort of a way to make a signature. With facebook connect, it’s even a bit different, since it brings in my profile.
To me it’s fascinating. I’ll admit there are elements of my life that I don’t want crossing. My family is a large part of my life, and i’d be willing to bet that dating industry analysts don’t have much interest. (for that matter I’m not sure I’m that interesting at all) I try to keep each area focused on a particular niche of my persona. I don’t add links to my facebook account on on skal8 to keep them separate. I’m also pretty sure that all of my personal friends don’t want to hear me trumpet every achievement I have professionally. I don’t want people to know everything about me. It’s not a matter of being devious. It’s just about being private.
It feels like I use all of these, at once (Photo: Stabilo Boss)
However, I’m not sure that’s the best strategy. It all seems to bleed over the more I get possessed and involved. All of this stuff takes time, and I have less and less of that than I ever have. I’ve seen tools that integrate some of these identites, like tweetdeck and various blog widgets. Any advice on the best way to do all of this?
Tags: facebook, identity management, linkedin, social networking perspective, twitter