A few weeks ago, I got a friend request on Facebook.
I recognized the name and clicked on the person’s profile to check out his information. He was pretty well-connected in his career and we had a few friends in common. I had a problem though: I had spoken with him only once on the phone — for a project I was putting together at a place I haven’t worked at for three years. I’ve never met him in real life and really know nothing about him.
I declined the request. But that’s just me. Someone else might have accepted it. Our interpretations of what’s personal, what’s professional, what we share, and who we let into our worlds have gotten fuzzy because of social media. Millennial Branding found that Generation Y is happy to blur those lines — they use Facebook as an extension of their professional life. For some people, that can cause problems when you’re sharing information about your personal life and forget that the colleague in the next cubicle is watching every social move you make.
I present Constant Contact’s social media webinars and frequently get questions from attendees on how to separate the personal from the professional in this public space. One solution is to create a personal social media policy for each of your profiles. Look at your social networks and decide: What do you use this space for? Who do you want to let in? Think about the things you talk about on each social network — do you really want your potential new friends or followers to know those details? Do you want to know theirs? Here’s my personal social media policy: [Read more...]
Whenever I get asked how to make the most of Twitter, I start by saying, “The first thing you need to do is cut down on the noise so you can focus on making connections that will move you toward your goals.”
A varied list of stories this week offered stats on big increases in the use of email marketing this past holiday season, new “users” added to Google+, and the long-term boost to the metrics of social campaigns.
There’s a lot of debate these days about what it means to be a “good” 
At the end of the year, it’s natural to want to look back and take stock. We here at Constant Commentary decided to do just that, and to put an extra spotlight on some of your favorite and our favorite blog posts from 2011.
It’s been two weeks since 
If you’re a Twitter user, you may have heard of or participated in a tweet chat.
