How do you manage contact convergence?

Feb 282009

When I ask people about how they manage the convergence of their personal, professional and academic contacts in social media, I usually get one of four answers:

  1. Keep two sets of books. In this scenario, there’s one Facebook profile for friends, another for professional contacts, and maybe a third for family.
  2. Manage social media networks for different purposes. In this case, Facebook is only for friends, Linked In for professional contacts, etc.
  3. Manage an account under a public persona and use an alias for fun.
  4. Or, give up and let everyone mingle.

These approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, but each is a way of coping with the hot mess that social media has made of our discrete worlds. Which are you using?

Posted by tammy at 10:00 am Social Media Therapy Session Comments Off Tagged with: , , , ,

Worlds Colliding through Social Media

Feb 242009

Seinfeld was ahead of his time. Back in 1995 he showed us what would happen when our Facebook people met our Twitter crowd and headed over to party with our Linked In connections:

GEORGE: Well that was a really stupid thing! You know what’s going to happen now?

JERRY: World’s collide. (points at George)

GEORGE: Whe … Well yeah!

JERRY: Because this world is your sanctuary and if that world comes into contact with –

GEORGE: YES! It Blows Up! So if you know that, what did you tell Elaine for?

JERRY: I didn’t know. Kramer told me about the worlds.

GEORGE: You couldn’t figure out the “World’s Theory” for yourself? It’s just common sense. Anybody knows, ya gotta keep your worlds apart.

But can we keep our worlds apart any more? I don’t know about you, but I find it gets harder and harder every day. My friends and colleagues struggle with it, too. Everyone has a different coping mechanism — some stay off the internet all together, some run two sets of books, some have uncomfortable conversations, and others let the chips fall where they may. In 2009, we are all George. We all struggle with the world’s theory and how to have our sanctuary and social networks at the same time. Is it possible? I don’t know.

The only solution I have is to blog about it. So if you have an issue, let me know — my social media therapy shingle is out and I’m open for business.

Posted by tammy at 10:00 am Social Media Therapy Session Comments Off Tagged with: , , , ,

Don't spam your network for a job

Dec 032008

I received this email today from someone in my LinkedIn network:

“looking for a job in the NYC area. Are you hiring?”

What’s so bad about it?  Glad you asked:

1) It doesn’t include proper capitalization
2) It doesn’t take into account I live in Chicago
3) I have no idea what sort of job this person wants
4) There’s no form of greeting or attempt to reestablish connection
5) It’s spam. I hate spam.

What would’ve worked better?

1) A personalized the message that included a greeting
2) A little info about the type of job or position being sought
3) Offer something in exchange, a link or a piece of info
4) Ask if I can facilitate a connection to a particular person or company
5) Say “thank you”. A little appreciation goes a long way

Excuse me now, I have to figure out how to delete someone from my LinkedIn network.

spam parking lot

Posted by tammy at 10:00 am Online Life Comments Off Tagged with: , ,
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