Social media is becoming a vital form of connecting in personal and professional circles of our lives in recent years. As the number of members to these social networking increases by each minute, It is almost inevitable not to be part of this new exciting trend.
Professional social network websites such as LinkedIn offers its members the greatest gift of exposure to new connections and businesses at no cost. It provides great opportunities to companies and professionals to market their services, increase awareness of their offering, and building professional relationships.
The first place the colleague, acquaintances or prospective clients, will look for is your personal profile where they learn about your background, interest and professional expertise.
Here comes the question that how much of personal information you are willing to share about yourself on professional networking websites.
Some strongly believe that there should not be a cross passing between personal and professional social networking and in business context it simply not appropriate to divulge your personal daily life events with the world at large.
They further argue that keeping a positive professional online reputation on social media’s has a strong impact on the way you are being viewed in the social online medias by your prospective clients.
However, there are others who don’t mind to cross the line and share more about themselves on their professional social websites.
They also strongly believe that opening up parts of their personal life to their professional social networking circle will generate trust. As prospective clients gain an insight to their personal life on daily basis, the relationship become stronger and the probability of making the sales will increase.
Bottom line, the best practice is to use common sense and stay away from just sharing too much personal information that will effect negatively on your professional online reputation.