7. Professional Networking...
I use LinkedIn and Stage 32 for a lot of my work in the publishing, and entertainment industry. I don't necessarily post any info about my cute daughters on my LinkedIn nor on my Stage 32. I also don't connect with friends (on either), that have nothing to do with my career goals or day-to-day work life. This is something you should be clear on before you start "friending" your buds, in this case "Connecting" that don't work in the same industry as you. You can look at this as being elitist, but it has nothing to do with elitism. Those sites are there with a purpose. Use them that way. As an example, I keep a Facebook and Twitter account specific to my wild antics in the media industry and convention world, tied together, while I post information about our books and wild event happenings on these profiles. I maintain a separate professional set of communications on a company based facebook page (not profile), twitter, and LinkedIn profiles that are connected to each other. I only have my LinkedIn profile connected to my @HavenPublishing Twitter for specific posts about book releases, signed contracts, film projects, industry & film festival appearances...etc., etc., you get the point right? I do the same with Stage 32. While it's a newer tool specifically designed around the Entertainment industry, we can consider it in the same vein as LinkedIn. It only feeds from my company twitter accounts, and when available I'll connect it to LinkedIn. I imagine there are other networks I might not be mentioning here for your own specific industries, that you can swap out with my example of Stage 32. This helps you maintain your professional persona clear of personal life material... Another example, I have a picture of me on my main Facebook profile wishing someone happy birthday while wearing a giant bra on my head (to make it look like Mickey Mouse ears) and a large Bazinga poster behind me surrounded by a wall of comic books...Not really the material for the Leaders Carpe Diem, the American Film Institute, or Project Management Institute groups on Linked In. Keep your personal life and business life separate (this I know is relative) and link your material to the right social media accounts. Only connect the two where it's pertinent, and only you can judge that for yourself. Tools like Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Vimeo, etc.. can all be used nicely for both situations by making sure you have set concepts and goals for those tools. If they are just going to be redundant repeats of the same material you are posting on Facebook, which is posting on MySpace, which is posting on LinkedIn - then the reasoning (logic in my mind) to use another service like Tumblr would be because you have a different set of friends (connections) on that service. Consider if you are going to use all of the services above, or variations of them together, what variances in your information shared that can be spread to make a better impact. Here's a question? Do you use Blogger, to well...Blog? If you do, do you need a Tumblr? Or do you need Livejournal for that matter? What about just using the Notes on your facebook? They all have varied options that connect into different media, but the question here is specific to ask yourself what are you using, and if you are using all, why are you using all, and how can you use them to better impact your goals. Options, options, options... Of course, there are an innumerable amount of reasons for using any of the above together. It's really up to you. Many of you may be perfectly content with sticking solely to the giants of these industries and be done with the rest...like Facebook/Google+, Youtube and Twitter...