Do you have two profiles on Facebook? If you do, your intention was probably to have a “professional†profile and a “personal†one.
Guess what? This is what you’ve done instead: you have given others reason to have the following reactions:
- In a search, they are unsure which one of you to connect with — are you friends or professional contacts? Whose decision is that?
- Hey! I thought we were friends! Why now are you shifting me over to your “business†self?
- What are you up to personally that you feel like you need a totally different profile to protect your “private†self?
- You really don’t understand Facebook, do you?
None of the reactions others have to you and your dual Facebook personalities are positive, are they? Furthermore, why on earth do you want to complicate your life by having to manage two different profiles?
You’re also making yourself vulnerable by violating Facebook’s terms of service — you know, that thing you clicked YES to and never actually read? Here’s a section:
See that part about not creating more than one account? If you end up having a hacking problem or other security breach, you’re going to have a really tough time getting anyone at Facebook to help you if you’ve violated any of these items. Just sayin’.
How to Stop Being Two People on Facebook
You’re going to have to deactivate one of your personalities. More than likely, its the newer one, the one you decided to create for a more “professional†appearance. Log in to that account.
Go to Account –> Account Settings –> Deactivate Account.
Now, I understand that you still have this conflict; that there are parts of your life you want to share with friends but not necessarily colleagues or business prospects. The way to manage that is with lists.
This will help: How to Create Lists, Save Some Privacy on Facebook in Five Easy Steps.
Really! Do it today!
Read this, too: My friend Michelle (Golden) Rivers has a great post on this topic as well — Managing Your “Private Life on Facebook While Developing Business.
Politics, Religion, and Lifestyles. Three totally reasonable and beneficial reasons to have two FB profiles. If you do it right, #1 is not an issue, #2 is easily and not very often necessary to be explained. #3 who cares, #4 Having 2 profiles shows I understand FB perfectly well.
I’m just sort of curious — what would you put on a FB profile about your politics, religion or lifestyle that you would consider private enough you wouldn’t want people to find it? And if that’s the case, why are you putting it online?
I just think it’s an interesting discussion to have — and I am not convinced that your reasons for maintaining two profiles are sound — are you using different names entirely? How are people supposed to find you, or is that not your intent? Also, why not a page for a business, if that’s the “public” face you desire?
And finally, why are you anonymous?
Mj
It’s a question of distinguishing different audiences for each profile and/or page. Many of us have a long standing dividing lines between work and play that prevent prejudices — or worse, violence or discrimination. Think of sexuality, for example, in a work or cultural atmosphere where certain sexualities are unacceptable — DADT comes to mind; an atheist among devout christians can have a really hard time and is the recipient of prejudicial biases; unconventional or underrepresented political positions are sometimes an obvious disadvantage.
To still be able to communicate about these things openly online among select friends is desirable. Again, it’s a question of select audiences. And yes, I do take advantage of the privacy settings on both profiles within those particular audiences.
I use similar but different names. One is not searchable, the other is. I don’t *intend* for people to find me. I don’t mind when they do through the friends from among each audience.
Yeah, I kind of thought that was the whole point of LinkedIn.
“LinkedIn: The Facebook where you DONT actually say whatever you are thinking.”
True — isn’t it funny how LinkedIn has adopted so many of Facebook’s features, like a jealous younger sister, just trying to fit in?