LinkedIn and Facebook. 7 Tips for Work-Life Balance.

Whenever my niece posts an update of her latest profile picture on Facebook, she is guaranteed to get at least 150 “Likes”.

When I post a concerned comment about something more substantive,  I get no more than 30 “Likes”.

As her albeit very loving Uncle, she thinks I just don’t cut it in the social media world.    Whereas I have a different perspective.

I’m bound to get less “Likes” – not only because I’m generationally different, but because I chose to partition my life – another way of looking at Work-Life Balance.

About 18 months ago I made a concerted effort to start all over again and set policies for my main social media accounts.

Just like you, I have different roles, different personas – depending upon whether I am in “Greg Weiss professional mode” or “Greg Weiss personal mode.”

I use different social media for different parts of my life: Facebook is for “Friends” – real friends: people I know and want to share personal updates and thoughts with.

Whereas LinkedIn is my purely business persona. My LinkedIn Contacts are for people I connect with primarily when I am in “Greg Weiss professional mode.”

The truth of the matter is I like to share a comment or two about my personal views on Facebook – maybe about my family, about the untimely passing of Rik Mayall, and maybe even something rather inappropriate or politically incorrect. That’s just me and it should be you too.

But I can’t seem to anticipate a scenario when I’d likely do the same on LinkedIn.

You can’t be you – really you – if there is a blurring of lines.

I also don’t connect with everyone who asks to connect with me on LinkedIn. Call me conservative, but I reserve the connections I have most of the time – at least up to now – with people I have met and want to continue to connect with.

And it’s the same with Facebook. I only accept as “Friends” people I have a desire to befriend – who I’d like to get to know me better and vice versa.

It’s likely that the teenagers in my family won’t agree with me on this.

But I can honestly say that I feel far more liberated knowing that I have partitioned my life in to my two main personas. I can freely post what I care to in Facebook and do the same in LinkedIn.

Here are 7 tips how you can obtain Social Media Work-Life Balance. You do this…

For Facebook:

1. Write to your “Friends” on Facebook and say something like:

“I’ve made a decision to create some Work-Life Balance with my social media accounts. I am going to keep my Facebook account for only very close friends and family. I’d like to stay in touch with you via LinkedIn though and would really like to make sure we connect that way.”

When I wrote something like this 18 months ago, some people got a tad upset, but most people understood – with many following suit themselves.

2. Don’t do anything – but merely without announcing it – defriend those Friends you really don’t want to have in that part of your personal life. Most won’t really notice.
3. Post only things that you’d be happy to disclose to your grandmother. If you are uncomfortable posting things that certain Friends will see, or are concerned about their reaction, then migrate them to a more “professional” connection, namely LinkedIn.
4. And while I am on it, check your Settings and only allow Friends to see your posts. Check this monthly in case Facebook has updated its own Privacy Settings.

For LinkedIn:

5. Don’t accept everyone who requests to “connect” with you. I have dozens and dozens of requests from people I’ve never met. I have not accepted their requests to connect. I like to keep it that way.
6. Have a policy to only accept connections from  people you want to connect with and have met.
7. As with Facebook, check your LinkedIn Settings and keep your own connections set so that no other connections but you can see them. Check this monthly in case LinkedIn has updated its own Settings.

CareerSupport365 has 2 modules that deal with this: Display Module: part of our Personal Branding Bundle; and Networking and LinkedIn – part of our Career Relaunch Bundle.

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About the author:

Greg Weiss is the Founder of CareerSupport365. He has almost 30 years success in HR and in career coaching people.