How Does the Boss Tweet?

I really can't help it. I am a business owner with many internal employees as well as thousands of contractors and I blog, Tweet and, yes, Foursquare. While I try to avoid religion, politics and friends' most embarassing moments; I get personal and real and try to do onto others…

I struggle over this terrain. Using my weekend as an example, I enjoyed self-respect this morning in that I had governed myself by not publicizing attendance at Forty Deuce's Burlesque Cafe Was in West Hollywood last night. However, sometimes I slip up and Tweet without considering the implications. Not thinking that anyone would care what DJDiPod listens to Friday at Midnight, I Blipped a certain Cyndi Lauper song and this morning pondered the meaning of the lyrics and wondered whether or not I should have kept that one on private play.

How do we meld all of this together? Do we give up our posting personalities in order to remain neutral, resulting in vanilla content (not that I don't love a fruity, anisic Tahitian bean) and are Mommy Bloggers so abundant because they are really the only demographic who can say stuff without fiscal concerns, having only their children and husbands to f@^*k up along the way?

Or is the solution simply to try not to say anything stupid and if this is the case then I am totally doomed.

Comment by Dan Nuroo on January 25, 2010 at 8:13am: Hi Diane,

Was talking abt this with my wife today. However, I learned that the politics of the Mothers Group also dictates a certain level of discretion when posting stuff :)

Cheers

Dan

Comment by Martin H.Snyder on January 26, 2010 at 12:04pm: Seperate your business and social lives- its really not that hard. Set a ground rule about who you will friend on FB and what you will tweet about (this boss don't tweet by the way).

It was long considered unprofessional to reveal very much about your personal tastes, politics, or lifestyle outside of the working environment; for very good reason.

Human beings function on one basic simple, immutable, universal law: in-group amity and out-group emnity.

Simply put; we like, help, and support those people who we perceive to be among our tribe, and we hate, damage, and seek to destroy those people who we perceive to be outside of our tribe.

Providing too much information about yourself to people who do not know you well provides ample opportunity for them to determine that you are not of their tribe, with predictable results.

That's my philosophy anyway.....

Comment by Chris Hood on January 26, 2010 at 2:33pm: My goal is to focus on using context and common sense when posting, blogging, writing, etc anything that ends up in cyberspace. I work very hard to keep any material that I put out consistent with the audience who would be actively receiving my information. I like that my family in remote locations can see pictures of my family and hear of our adventures. The power to reach a targeted, niche audience in places like LinkedIn/Twitter is both effective and an enjoyable way to approach my daily job.

But what you will see is a consistent focus on keeping content relevant to the audience. On my work-related blog, you won't see any pictures of me feeding my 18 month old any chili, and conversely, my facebook page never mentions the fact that I am searching for an International Tax Manager who is Scuba certified and able to speak fluent Aleut. Simply - if you are using a single medium to be media-social, the best practice is to ask yourself the following: "What would my mother think if she read this?"

Content and common sense should be adhered to in this age of socialwebtwodot0. Posting content that is unequivocally controversial is the modern equivalent of realizing that you took liberties with the Xerox machine at the company holiday party back in the 80's. The difference is that paper can be shredded and destroyed - whereas the internet can go on forever.

Comment by Trevor Smith on January 26, 2010 at 5:05pm: Though I'm very new to social media and it's tools, I have to agree with some of the strategies mentioned above. My Twitter, blog, and LinkedIn accounts stay pretty professional - trying to target an audience that views me as a recruiter, consultant, and resource for "relevant" information. My facebook is for good ol' Trevor - for people that may not even know what I do for a living - and probably don't care. That said, I've also heard of people with multiple twitter or FB accounts.
Thanks for the thought provoking entry Diane!