What that doesn’t mean is that we have to lose all perspective of professionalism. There are lots of ways to express yourself through your network without compromising the carefully cultivated image you’ve sunk years of blood sweat and tears into. More than anything else, this seems to require some understanding of why you publish on Facebook, your blog, twitter, whatever – and who your audience is. What’s the point of what you’re saying? Are you adding value to a business conversation that never ends with a new perspective? What does your social media network expect of you? What are they willing to accept from your opinion? Are they expecting you to give them a play by play of your day? Do they need to know about your relationship status?
Most of the people I’m connected to share valuable insights about what they’re working on or ideas on how to make our work a little better. Sometimes I’ll connect to somebody who has a fresh or witty perspective. This is basically what I expect of them, and in turn probably what they expect of me. The danger seems to come from overstepping those boundaries.
The best rule of thumb I’ve heard in respect to social media publishing guidelines is the company party rule. If you were at a business mixer, what would you bring to the conversation? What wouldn’t you bring?
Most importantly, what would be considered “oversharing” or uncomfortable? If you answered with, “not a damn thing”, then you might just be John Mayer.
