Momentum of the Muse

With blogging, facebook, twitter and other social media sites, the professional and the personal start to merge.

They’re pretty much the water cooler of the internet. I notice bloggers writing post upon post about using social media to leverage your blog or site. They say social media can be a full-time job, and then tout how distracting they can be, but also how important. I’m shocked at how much traffic they get from these sites. Others use it for research, to communicate with like-minded individuals, who are in the same industry, to make business contacts. Some use it for fun; to be social – hence the social media title. I would like to think you could use it for whatever you wanted, simultaneously.

However, I’ve had others disagree with me, saying;

Twitter adds no value to anyone’s life. It’s just a big waste of time. I use it to promote myself professionally, and that’s it.

Now, I have a number of questions on this subject, and if anyone wants to indulge me by answering them, I would be delighted.

Questions ensue…

• Where do you draw the line? What is too personal? In my friends opinion, anything that is not work-related is rather pointless. He maintains this for blogging, and twitter. However, my argument lies in the fact that blogging is a personal medium. That personal, human aspect that can be delivered via impersonal internet is what captures attention. But, again, where is that line?
• Branding yourself as a freelancer, is it necessary to be professional=serious? My favorite bloggers are not at all serious. If all of the sudden, they wrote that “I absolutely must purchase this product!” I would click the link right away. They have that power, and yet I suspect if they wielded it, it would be to sell something utterly ridiculous. Can it be a part of a person’s profession to be un-serious?
• Can you create a clear line of division between the personal and the professional online? Or do you use life experiences to illustrate your points, to drive them home?

I guess it all comes down to personal preference.

But I am very curious to know. Do you feel you have a clean line of division between your professional persona, and your personal one? Or are they one and the same?