Social networks are now healing the split personalities led by professionals that maintain separate professional and personal personas. Whether conscious or not, by connecting through Facebook we transcend toward more transparency about who we really are. We share a fairly light, but significant level of information about our lives and interests to including topics often considered taboo such as religion, politics, lifestyle, and what we do after we leave the office. In doing so, we break that divide between the personal and professional in many ways. Exposing ourselves in this way, does present some risks but I think its positive in sum. I believe this, because I think schizophrenia is unhealthy.

For those living the mullet life (business in the front, party in the back), it must be exhausting. Naturally, few of us actually do this entirely. We do chat with coworkers and even clients about things that are personal to us, however its rare that we pull out a scrap book and show everyone photos of your last birthday or your family. Facebook takes that second leap, and reveals to those we choose another level of our personalities and lives.

Still, for those that who want or need to maintain a level of separation, there are methods. I remember my early days on Facebook when I planned to only invite personal friends on Facebook and keep all of my professional contacts on LinkedIn. That quickly fell apart once my first client requested to connect on Facebook. What do you say? No? Although I didn’t, in fact you can. You can politely respond and let it be known that you only accept professional connections via LinkedIn for example, or not at all. People understand that. If however, you feel compelled to accept, on Facebook at least, there are measures one can take to maintain the divide. You can create categories of “friends” and control the access of each. For example, you can create categories, call it something like “professional limited”, and adjust the access to your profile, photos, apps, and your list of friends as you find comfortable.

As a business owner with many professional connections, I think Facebook is a great tool for making my professional relationships stronger. Going into a meeting, I can quickly learn where they are from, where they went to school, and what they love to do. Instantly, I have a wealth of information to get my face to face conversation started.

As a personal anecdotal, I have an awesome staff. One guy in particular had been busting hump and was about to leave on a well-deserved vacation. Suddenly it occurred to me that I should get him something for his trip, so I went onto his Facebook page and checked his reading list. There I found a list of books he wanted to read. Thirty minutes later, I was back from Borders with two books, and when I gave them to him he was bewildered by how I could have known.

Be yourself.