Social Media, Professional or Personal?

This is the beginning of a weekly series of helpful tidbits that will help you rule the web and your brand. We want you to know the best way to use the tools that are at your disposal on the web in order to get the most out of the products that you purchase from us. So, here goes our first little lesson!

On a daily basis we end up hooking up personal social media accounts to professional websites. After playing around with social media in a professional sense for a couple years now, I find this more and more as a common mistake. While yes, it is great for your customers to learn what kind of person you are…it is always important to learn to separate personal from professional.

I, myself, learned this once I started preparing to graduate from the University of Central Florida. I wanted to be hired off of my knowledge base and personality, while my personal life would be kept personal.

The biggest places I see this done with is Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

FacebookFacebook gives you the ability to create professional pages for free here. You can brand the page to look like your website, containing your logo and then create yourself a fan base. This way, you can control what your customers/fan/supports can see your updates that are specific to your company rather than seeing everything you have to say each time Facebook asks your “What’s on your mind?”. Show personality, tho. Just because it’s a professional site, doesn’t mean that you have to be bland and up-tight. Have fun with it…this is an extension of you!


pinterestPinterest is something that people are still jumping on board with and it’s being added to more and more sites. Think about why you’re using it for your company, before you add it to your company’s social media index. My personal Pinterest account has everything from recipes, fitness tips I wish I had the time to use, costume ideas, cute pictures of puppies, and anything else in the world that tickles my fancy. Do you think those things make me look like I know a lot about web scripting and technology or sells me as an individual? Not really, but then again, it’s just for me and to share with my friends. With real estate agents, I’ve thought a lot about how you could use this more effectively in your web presence…and I think that including searches for how to decorate houses, a board of beautiful houses that you may have sold, or maybe even photos of areas in which you buy and sell your houses. Otherwise, I would keep all the arts and crafts that you would normally have on your personal account, just that, personal. Make an account just for your company or professional presence…with a plan on what you actually would use it for.


Instagram-logoInstagram is an uncommon social link added, but when it’s there, rarely does it have anything to do with the customer’s professional life. Most of my friends post pictures of their babies or pets, social gatherings, or other personal things. When using this as a realtor, I could see home and area photos would be the best way to use this. Pair it with your professional Facebook Page and you have extra content on a regular basis. Win-Win!


174290335Overall…one big resounding thing remains the same…There has to always be a balance. If you’re not going to use a piece of social media, don’t display it! Social media is a game of trust and entertainment. If a potential client goes to your Facebook Page and you never post on it, why in the world would they “like” it? Give people a reason to trust that you will communicate with them. You know, it’s social for a reason. 😉

I hope this helps those of you out there that are unsure about how to tackle social media with your company and haven’t taken the plunge into creating a social presence for just your professional life. More blog posts like this will be coming every week.

We want to help! Let us know what we can tackle for you next! 🙂

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